Tag Archives: Sam Gendel

Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes drop surprise new album UNRELATED

25 April 2026

Out of the blue, multi-instrumentalist and producer Sam Gendel and bassist, producer and composer Sam Wilkes released yesterday their fourth collaborative album, following 2024’s The Doober. Entitled Unrelated, it’s an unexpected and wonderful surprise from two of the most daring and distinctive voices orbiting the Los Angeles’ contemporary jazz scene. The two first met while studying at University of Southern California and quickly developed a creative rapport that has carried through multiple projects over the years. Both have become key figures in a generation of musicians reshaping the boundaries of jazz and adjacent styles, with a steady flow of solo and collaborative work that never really slows down.

Very much in line with everything they have been building together, Unrelated is not to be missed. The album is now available to stream on Bandcamp and also comes as a limited vinyl edition of 500 copies. To get a first feel, listen to a couple of tracks below, ‘Horse Master’ and ‘Fiefdom’.


Fumitake Tamura shares new single, ‘Ostinato’, from upcoming new album Mijin

16 March 2026

Japanese beatmaker, producer and composer Fumitake Tamura is gearing up to release his new album Mijin. Arriving on April 10th through Leaving Records, Mijin is a collection of mesmerizing environmental music and beats, that takes inspiration from the natural world and humanism. Tamura shared some insight into the record:

“The title Mijin comes from a Japanese word meaning very fine particles. The album gathers particle-like sounds and lets them resonate in space. As I watch the movements that arise between them a balance gradually takes shape. Within those relationships and the quiet tension between them I explored how silence can resonate with sound.

The album begins with the most minimal piano chords then develops by reconstructing fragments of voice and percussion, Rhodes and synths along with traces of jazz and soul. Each sound exists like a particle drifting in air gently resonating with the others to form the structure.

I hope that the spaces and silences created by this placement will appear with a presence equal to the sounds themselves.”

Ahead of the album’s release, Tamura has shared the beautiful and alluring ‘Ostinato’, featuring multi-instrumentalist and producer Sam Gendel. Take a listen below.

Mixtape #172

02 June 2025


It’s no secret we were completely drawn in by Sheldon Agwu’s work after stumbling upon his music earlier this year. A longtime presence in London’s music scene, Agwu has collaborated with artists like Jordan Rakei, Yussef Dayes and Bonobo, and held musical director roles at iconic venues like Jazz Cafe and XOYO. The London-based guitarist, producer and multi-instrumentalist released Kintsugi in April, a stunning and sublime debut inspired by and named after the Japanese art of embracing imperfection. With this album, Agwu channels years of exploration into a deeply personal and affecting work, blending virtuosic electric guitar with influences from jazz, hip-hop, trip hop, and ambient textures. So we’re over the moon to have him at the helm of this month’s mixtape. Featuring tracks from Jon Hassell, Thelonious Monk, Bitchin Bajas, Madlib, Sam Gendel and more, it opens a window into the creative world that helps shape his own music. Press play and drift away.

  1. Andrew Pekler – Forever (Is No Time At All) [Faitiche]
  2. Thelonious Monk – Ugly Beauty [Columbia]
  3. Jon Hassell – Empire V [Editions EG]
  4. Daniel Villarreal – Things Can Be Calm [International Anthem]
  5. Gregory Uhlmann, Josh Johnson, Sam Wilkes – Marvis [International Anthem]
  6. Dorothy Ashby – Wax & Wane [Cadet]
  7. Kenny Burrell – Theme IV, Recapitulation [Cadet]
  8. Yesterdays New Quintet (Madlib) – Julani [Stones Throw Records]
  9. Ken Brown – Continental Drift [Temporary Residence]
  10. Jeff Parker – Jrifted [International Anthem]
  11. Can – Spray [United Artists Records]
  12. Tony Williams – Circa 45 [Polydor]
  13. Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas – Clock No Clock [Drag City]
  14. Bilal – Evr Chngin Nrml
  15. Triosk Meets Jan Jelinek – The Lake [~scape]
  16. Bitchin Bajas – Amorpha [Drag City]
  17. Sam Gendel – Two Tone [Leaving Records]

Fabiano do Nascimento & Sam Gendel team up for collaborative album, The Room

15 November 2023

Incredibly ambitious and creative, and a mainstay in the Los Angeles’ contemporary jazz scene, Sam Gendel is both prolific and fluid in a variety of genres, constantly rolling out new solo and collaborative works. The multi-instrumentalist and producer’s latest venture saw him team up with LA-based Brazilian 7-string guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento and a 10-track instrumental album entitled The Room is the fruit of this union.

“In 2011 I was in a Latin jazz group called Triorganico,” do Nascimento explained. “We had a gig at a restaurant owned by Sam’s cousin, who invited him along. Sam brought his sax and sat in.” He continues, “We were making music that we had a real mutual appreciation for,I was always joking that Sam should play flute, and he tried multiple things before he got this unique [flute] sound out of his soprano. Most people don’t actually realise that it’s a saxophone.”

Each track on the upcoming The Room taps “into the rhythms and regions of a South America without borders”, as the press release describes, and some draw from indigenous melodies, and popular old Brazilian tunes.

We’ll have to wait until January 26th for The Room to be out through Real World Records but we can already hear the gorgeous and celestial first single, ‘Foi Boto’ . Here it is.

Sam Gendel and Marcella Cytrynowicz to release collaborative instrumental visual album, AUDIOBOOK, this friday

04 October 2023

Sam Gendel stands as one of the most ambitious and creative musicians out there, maintaining a constant prolific recording output, both solo and with collaborators. The multi-instrumentalist and producer is ready to release a new collaborative album this friday, which sees him team up with filmmaker and visual artist Marcella Cytrynowicz. Entitled AUDIOBOOK, the album features 13 alphabetically-named tracks, each with a corresponding illustration, “that feel like dispatches from outer space, or unearthed ancient runes”, as the press release describes. Cytrynowicz drew the illustrations freehand on 8.5×11 pieces of paper, and at the same time Gendel composed the music next to her, using mostly a Suzuki Waraku III. “It makes it easy to explore,” Gendel explained. “In the same way Marcella describes how she draws, I sort of unlock these weird puzzles in my own mind, and sometimes just having one interface to deal with takes that mental pressure off. It has a strange quality sonically, too… I just gravitate toward that.”

Speakig about the visual album, Gendel adds:

“It’s the sound of us just individually trusting ourselves, and then aligning the two together and letting them meet, and also trusting in that. I don’t think about it that directly, though – this isn’t art inspired by art. I would say this is just a piece showing two people trusting in their subconscious and then trusting in that meeting point, wherever that is. And shepherding it along.”

Gendel and Cytrynowicz shared today the third and final single from AUDIOBOOK ahead of its release on October 6th through Psychic Hotline. It follows previous singles ‘CD’ and ‘IJ’. Listen to them all below.



Sam Gendel announces new album, SUPERSTORE, and shares three new tracks

05 May 2022

A mainstay in the Los Angeles’ contemporary jazz scene, it’d be easy to forget about all the releases and collaborations multi-instrumentalist and producer Sam Gendel is involved in. Just last year, Gendel added to his bountiful catalog AE-30, a film and audio album, a collaborative album with Sam Wilkes and another with Ethan Braun, a two-track digital single released through Nonesuch records, and a plethora of other musical offerings. Last year Gendel has also released a 52-track solo album, Fresh Bread, and he’s ready to follow it up with SUPERSTORE, a 34-song all genre record featuring unreleased music from personal archives of solo recordings and collaborations with players like Blake Mills, Gabe Noel, Kevin Yokota, and Philippe Melanson.

SUPERSTORE is set for release on June 10th through Leaving Records amd Gendel has let loose three cuts from it, ‘Blueblackred’, ‘La Guerra di Pierro’, and ‘Gu Shi’ ft. Blake Mills. Take a listen below.