Electronic / Experimental

Dave Huismans (ex_libris, A Made Up Sound) presents In Transit, a self-titled LP of arresting downtempo vignettes, with origins dating back to over a decade ago.

Renowned for some of this century’s most notorious rhythmic advances, the work of Dave Huismans (fka A Made Up Sound and 2562) continues to provide a blueprint for new generations of innovation-obsessives. After a long hiatus from releasing original material, he returned in 2025 with two beloved EP’s as ex_libris. Now he returns to FELT as In Transit, following up on his remix of Civilistjävel! from 2023.

Borrowing its name from the closing dialogue of a novel by Dutch author Hella S. Haasse, In Transit was written in just two weeks in the summer of 2013 on a Korg ESX sampler. Since then, he has patiently refined its constituent parts.

Over the course of 38 minutes across six tracks, In Transit maps out an absorbing vista. The music shimmers with a celestial quality, underpinned by rhythmic stamina and creeping intensity. Tangential to Huismans’ previous work, the beats here are decentred and further scattered, acting as buoys to the constantly evolving and intricate narratives of layered textures.

In Transit marks a fascinating new addition to Huismans’ sprawling catalogue, a truly remarkable racket to be crafted with such humble means, finding a suitable context within FELT’s continued venture into parallel sounds.

Following Music From Memory’s landmark compilation Virtual Dreams—which reframed ambient techno and IDM through a new age lens—comes another groundbreaking survey. Telepathic Fish: Trawling The Early 90s Ambient Underground revisits the legendary early ’90s London ambient party Telepathic Fish. Conceived by Mario Aguera, David Vallade, and Kevin Foakes (DJ Food), the series intersected with experimental spaces like Ambient Soho and Megatripolis, and this release captures that moment in vivid detail. Featuring unreleased and rare material from the likes of Global Communication, Spacetime Continuum, and Nightmares On Wax, the set reflects the multifaceted character of the ambient underground in its formative years. Complete with a 20-page booklet of photographs and archival materials, this is an essential document that reconnects sound with its era and hands the spirit of ’90s ambient and chillout into the present.

Following two lauded EPs on cult label South of North, Amsterdam-based Devon Rexi prepare to release their much-anticipated debut album, recorded by and in collaboration with elusive 5 Gate Temple devotee, musician and producer John T. Gast, whose acclaimed catalogue continues to flourish. Devon Rexi is a trio made up of Nicola Reverda (Nicolini), Nushin Naini and Goya van der Heyden (La Rat). They’ve quickly carved out their own sonic world, traversing krautfunk, post-punk and psyched-up no wave, all laced with a dub-heavy experimental mentality. Breathstep captures the band’s bass-heavy incantations, ripe with melodic chaos and rhythmic improvisation, while devilish cackles and processed vocals flirt over a jukebox of dubbed snippets and sliced textures. The introduction of John T. Gast as producer and collaborator pulls the Devon Rexi sound deeper into bubbling dub territory, while his own palette is stretched and pushed into new terrain. Though Gast has firmly cemented his singular sound over the last decade, this interconnected process marks new ground for all involved. The result is a supreme convergence of esteemed musicians and a wickedly fine debut collaborative record. Breathstep finds its home on Bristol imprint Accidental Meetings, whose ever-evolving sound and wide-ranging discography continue to grow. The album was recorded over the last year across Amsterdam, Lisbon and London.

A leading light of neo-ambient takes their maiden bow on Glasgow’s stealthily expansive co:clear label after cherished turns with the sferic and Stroom labels. The International Billionaire’s Love Child, or tiblsc for brevity, is the avatar of a Leipzig-based artist in possession of a distinctive, world-building ambient purview that has clearly stroked a nerve for listeners chasing the modern ambient zeitgeist, especially their couplet of ‘Delusive Tongue Shifts - Situation Based Compositions’ (2021) + ‘Hypertranslucent’ (2022). Those albums’ careful bends of pulpy sentiment and intricate, immersively dreamlike architecture is now echoed in ‘City of Something’, where her tender feel for compression and blends of HD and lo-fi tones fosters a gauzy sense of depth perception and sonorous emotional resonance. More so than her previous work, the eight tracks here are laced with a flickering pop spirit that riddles the album’s finely meshed dimensions, calling to mind aspects of Perila that are whisked to its most elegant frisson in ‘Resting Bitch Face’, or catching breathy contrails of an airspun pop song in ‘The Sun Really Is Something Round’, whilst tickling private parts of the imagination with the compressed artefacts of ‘You Just Want’, edging on Shinetiac’s take on smudged sheogaze trip hop in ‘Scare Me’, and teasing the most elusive urges on a secretive, quietly restive closer ‘Until the End of Time’.

Yaka slips into the APPX: catalogue with a hi-def 8 part narrative. Coated in silky sonic camouflage the Philadelphian sound designer, producer, and apparent amphibophile, conjures an aquatic instrument-rack straight out the estuary, and re-engineers it into a kind of amphibient-bass eco-system: part poolside bio-luminescence, part Severn-side subsidence. Welling with emotion ‘Dream Big’ is a joyride with your favourite frog-sage homies. It's devotional, yes, but with a wink. Orchestrated by a bayou-mystic who’s just as likely to kiss the ring-modulator as they is to throw a shaka from their boogie board as they carve a line down stream. The opening track “chrysalis of peace” builds like a choral summoning, beckoning you outward. “blubstep” shakes itself off and stretches into scattered breaks, sprinkles of underworld energy flickering beneath the surface. On “la pari,” the daemons find their stride in a huge leap into bass, punctuated by vocal satire, kitschy melodic fun, and an Amazonian sweat capable of humidifying any dancefloor. “miss that beach” slows the A-side into a thoughtful drift on a lilo, the distant sounds of cousins playing while wind lifts leaves overhead. Flipping the disc, “buggged” arrives as a beat you can imagine bounding out of a Timbaland studio, tiptoeing in and out of 4/4 club jack. “back at the pad” breaks stride with a halftime depth that keeps you poised, like the surface tension of a water droplet in zero gravity. “weavin’ web” threads ascending melodic patterns over raised nodules of rhythm. Closing the album, “secret dream” dissolves into a private horizon — something half-remembered, half-invented — left for the listener to discover on their own.

Friend, james K’s critically-acclaimed third album, opens as a portal and continues to garner a life of its own, a constant earworm that continually resonates as the map of its emotional cartography shifts into new ground. The map continues to unfold with Friend Remixes. Speaking on the remixes, K says: “Friends remix Friend. It is such a sweet honour to have my friends and collaborators, whose work has inspired mine, interpret and translate this work into new narratives.”

Straight from the weedy fields of swampville Bruxelles we bring you 8 ‘tranches de vie’ of deep zone-hall by weirdtronic bass veteran Michael Crabbé’s best fitting sound costume to date: the mighty Rudi J! You might know him from earlier outfits but that’s not the main issue here. Rudi J is!When this swamp thing touches the pads, it’s off-road after three seconds, even if you’re in the middle of Europe’s capital. Mixing analog dirt and digital sound bits in a very loose and personal take on dancehall, we’re pretty far away from the dance floor but definitely swinging. It’s a trippy affair wandering around concrete flowers with a deep ambient flavor, but it’s edgy.A hot summer fever dream following his own lusty path, full of life and wonder but with something sinister hiding around every corner. Often reaching for the stars, a deeper shade of bass keeps things nicely grounded. These sounds are built with a sound system in mind and bass culture at heart. Even if you can definitely surf on it from your couch, picking out all of its ear-pricking details, it will very much come alive on a big sound.A layered affair with almost jazzy and orchestral elements peeping through the stereo-field, spectral and dissonant but also playful. Like early dubstep, some of these tunes can destroy a clubsound, keeping you skunking out in pedestrian mode and snorting up the atmospherics, finally forgetting about that damn phone.

The follow up to 2022’s ‘Return to the Island’ LP is a new 6 track EP influenced heavily by the evocative powers of incense and a deep sense of escapism. The EP has a more organic sound palette than its predecessor, from both the use of samples and appearance of various guest musicians. Lead track ‘Morning Star’ features long standing collaborator Mike Burn (Udaberri Blues & Mama Capes) who adds his trademark liquid gold lead and rhythm guitar lines with live bass from Fernando Pulichino. The guest on ‘Savanna’ is frequent Jack J collaborator Linda Fox, who provides emotive and melancholy sax over a Dub House backing track with a particularly dreamy chord progression. The EP features Instrumental Dubs of both tracks, alongside two other new productions, the 80s leaning ‘Hands Across the Sea’ and ‘Wah Fix’, which rounds off the more Dub influenced B side with a 125 BPM bouncy Dub House excursion. In 2026 the Jura Soundsystem project enters its 10th year and is the creative musical outlet of Isle of Jura founder Kevin Griffiths. All tracks produced at IOJ HQ in Moana, Adelaide between 2022 and 2025 with support from the incense gods of Cedarwood, Jasmine and Sandalwood. The 12” is housed in a 3mm spine full sleeve designed by Bradley Pinkerton.

Somewhere between revelation and delusion, Euphoria Bound maps a familiar trajectory: the irresistible pull towards dissolution, the gradual erasure of memory, the self rendered irretrievable. It moves between states of consciousness where such distinctions of enlightenment or self-deception are erased.

Across ten tracks, the album constructs a spectrum of sound that is both ambitious and uncompromising.

The approach here is more direct than recent releases, with textures that accumulate and disintegrate with renewed urgency.

Based in California, Marjorie W.C. Sinclair’s multi-disciplinary project, Evanora Unlimited, weaves together goth, industrial, bedroom pop, and post-punk through a uniquely dark lens. Their latest release, Portraits from Memory, is a deeply personal and conceptual self-released album.

Certain paths necessitate and call for one singular long sequence in order to arrive at a fully formed conversation or reasoning. Nothing seems to broadcast it more clearly than the trajectory Brussels based Italo-Vietnamese artist Nguyễn Zen Mỹ embarked on during the last decade as Radio Hito. After a string of highly cherished and sought out tape releases, Radio Hito’s new album ‘L’uso e gli attributi del cuore’, co-released by Maple Death & Meakusma, unfolds with devastating clarity, a profound balance of depth, minimalism and emotional grounding. A ten-sequence song cycle for voice and MIDI soundfonts adapted from the 2021 book by French poet Claude Royet-Journoud. Written and recorded between January 2023 and August 2025, the cycle evolved through nearly 80 live performances from Galicia to Kazakhstan before arriving at its recorded form. Set to an Italian libretto adapted from Royet-Journoud’s text ‘L'usage et les attributs du cœur’ (POL, 2021), the work revisits the tradition of the 19th-century Lied — art song built on existing poetry — transposed into a radically economical contemporary setting: voice and Casio CTK workstations. "I was interested by this incompleteness CRJ mentions - by the ‘suspension’ of meaning questioning readability and intelligibility. I ‘resisted’ to CRJ’s texts since I met him and got to know his work. […] It seems to me that when playing the songs, I submit an object to be completed by the audience." Radio Hito’s distinctive approach to setting poetry to music — spare arrangements, strophic repetition, and a voice suspended between recital, fm transmission and canzone — creates a language of its own, reaching new heights on ‘L’uso e gli attributi del cuore’, songs that are formally rigorous, emotionally restrained, and shaped by the discipline of sustained live performance, interlocking into a coherent cycle. Rather than illustrating the poem, Radio Hito approaches it as a space of suspension. Royet-Journoud described poetry as a “profession of ignorance,” where meaning remains incomplete; these songs extend that trembling state, allowing repetition, digital timbre, and restraint to hold the text open. Often misread as minimal synth or romantic chanson, Radio Hito’s practice is rooted instead in the lineage of the art song and song cycle: open structures, close attention to language, and a live performance economy that pushes the voice at the heart of the stage. The choice of accessible keyboard workstations — light, portable, and embedded in contemporary popular culture — replaces the historical piano. Radio Hito creates fantastical, mirage-like songs, intimate yet elusive. Her music is forlorn chanson for the digital age; bringing her haunting and beautiful vocalisations into conversation with MIDI soundfonts and humble-yet-deep casio compositions. Music that strides for simplicity, yet lands miraculously within an entire new universe, a uniqueness achieved from like-minded spirits such as Ghedalia Tazartès, Savina Yannatou & Lena Platonos, Dorothy Carter, cycles that trickle down into estuaries.

Feedback Waves — the new imprint from independent label Rings of Neptune — is proud to present Trill, the first and only album by Palomatic. Almost thirty years after its original release on CD in 1995, this beautiful nine-track work is now available on vinyl for the first time. Palomatic is an alias of Koji Takahashi, an active member of the bubbling Japanese electronic music scene of the early-to-mid 90s. Besides his solo work, he was a core member of Takahashi Tektronix (with Nic Yoshizawa) and Mutron (with Kiyoshi Hazemoto, aka Interferon), as well as working as a synth programmer for supergroup Denki Groove. Following the release of his debut track ‘Halo’ on Syzygy Records in 1993, Takahashi made a series of contributions to compilations on the scene-defining Transonic label. His first and only full-length album, Trill, combined these tracks with original material to form an absorbing and versatile standalone statement of the Palomatic sound. From the oscillating lilt of ‘Flutter’, which opens proceedings at a measured 104bpm, through to the symphonic epilogue of ‘Soar’, Trill is rooted in the fertile territory between organic and synthetic sounds — ground that was nourishing the work of many likeminded producers worldwide at the time. West Coast psychedelia and East Coast funk, the moody bass weight of Bristol trip-hop and Sheffield bleep, and the chemical rush of German techno and Belgian trance: with a distinctly Japanese sensibility, Trill drew these strands together into an elegant musical tapestry. The result is timeless — indeed, album centrepiece ‘Foaming Waves’ would sound right at home on the faster-paced dancefloors of today.

Sink your mind into this trip of free floating compositions and loopy fragments, all the way from Copenhagen. Physical copy comes with silk-screen printed cover via Adagio for Things, recycled vinyl via Ramona Records and individual labels via Beatbude Vertrieb.

Indie Stock places itself in a context it adores and defies. Every wall is movable and no accident is an accident. Just as a song is made out to be one thing it reveals itself to have been the other all along. Make no mistake, there is something at the heart of it all, even though its pulse resonates from all directions at once. The listener becomes the toad, gladly boiled in a shimmering liquid until it is too late: The bass kicks in and cant be unheard. From 2, Amsterdams self-proclaimed troupe of folk mutants, take stock of it all on this record: hushed affect in tumultuous settings, a mole insurrection of epic proportions, the secret workings of pornography platforms and memory. One song might invite to dance, stumble or float, while another is what a ghost should sing. Above all, it is real. Palpably real in a way only the fabrications of true devotees might ever be. What is a consoculator, again?

“Lustful Expanse,” an early work from US underground visionary Evanora Unlimited, captures the rawest and most unrestrained form of their destructive pop aesthetic.

Graduate of Mahogani Music and Databass, Detroit’s Sheefy McFly hits critical jit x juke x ghetto-tech x footwork momentum on six vocal bangers for Amsterdam’s Cape St. Francis. Big one FFO Hi-Tech, Omar-S, Urban Tribe, DJ Assault Known to 313 locals for his colourful murals all over the city, and on this sleeve, Sheefy McFly also trades in a mean vein of uptempo booty music, as heard at his Ghettotechtopia parties and recently on a self-released LP and an ode to local ghetto-tech hotspot, ‘Belle Isle 2099’. His ‘Baddies Only’ EP elevates a signature sound of scudding 808 bass, claps, and keys with a spotlight on six original vocalists from his ends, each characteristic of classic-contemporary Motor City club music and its bridges to Chicago ghettotech. From the front, he loops bars by duo Etherpussy on undulating subs and electrosoul chords in a style shared by Lola Damone’s bars on ‘Pretty World’, and also calling to mind Andrés’ class GT Flips - a reference point for the choppier soul of ‘You’re Mine’, which tilts more into footwork angularity. Tiptonaires also brings a fierce but warm energy with her faux naïf bars on the chromatic synths of ‘Cute2Nite’, while your trunk’s Cerwin Vegas get a proper test in the Miami Bass-type tremors of ‘Young N Turnt’, voiced by DJ Mobetta.

Ndox Electrique results from the collaboration between François R. Cambuzat, Gianna Greco (also known for their work with Ifriqiyya Electrique), and the n'doëp community in Senegal. The project originated from the duo's quest to trace the origins of North African rituals, which led them to the Lebu community in Cap-Vert, an isolated region at Africa's westernmost point. The album seamlessly blends the duo's electronically-infused avant-rock with the intense, ritualistic vocal chants and rhythmic percussion of the n'doëp ceremony. It serves as a captivating bridge between these two musical worlds, capturing the essence of this cross-cultural collaboration. The text also highlights the challenges of merging Western rock and experimental influences with the sensibilities of their Senegalese collaborators, ultimately resulting in a unique and powerful musical experience. "Ndox Electrique" transcends cultural boundaries, immersing listeners in the enchanting sounds and mystical narratives of Western Africa.

The second album by Norwegian folk synth dance music makers Naaljos Ljom. This new collection of tunes represents the next step in the direction paved out on their first album. With more severe singular tonalities mined from the archives the duo have been looking further into the nuances and details, exposing tissue samples of the modes, forms and progressions of Norwegian folk music, and thus gaining greater control over the format. Naaljos Ljom 2 opens with a statement from Norwegian composer and music-theorist Eivind Groven, taken from a radio program from 1966 entitled "In-tune or out-of-tune in our folk music - lecture by Eivind Groven with musical examples.” The statement aptly explains the album's point of departure: "Today, we shall listen to music that cannot be expressed on a regular organ or piano. This is folk music which contain pitches and intervals that are outside the regular tuning system." As elaborated upon in a text on the inner sleeve of the LP we get to hear adaptations of traditional tunes from various Norwegian villages. Naaljos' versions are inspired by a mix of archive recordings of performers such as Andres K. Rysstad, Torleiv H. Bjørgum, Ivar Fuglestad and Gunnar Austegard and the practice of active players such as Sigurd Brokke, Daniel Sandén-Warg, Anders E. Røine, Thov Wetterhus and Kenneth Lien. We also hear a “Halling” (dance style) inspired by master fiddler Trygve K. Vågen. The duo honors the aforementioned Eivind Groven on two tracks of the record and both "Tolvtalvisa" and "To visetoner etter Eivind Groven og Ola Brenno" are based on the melodic material from unique 1930s recordings by Groven and Brenno. Adding to their signature sound of synthesizers and folk instruments the album features more fiddle playing than before, with guest fiddler Rasmus Kjorstad contributing on one track and Naaljos’s Anders Hana playing the fiddle himself on 2 tunes. Next to their usual electric bounciness, some of the tracks go in the direction of sound collage, inspired by the archive recordings the duo uses to learn the original tunes and tunings, and in this way they bring us closer to the source material. The music is put in a context - the real world, past and present. Naaljos Ljom have played at an impressive list of festivals for "cutting edge" music: Rewire Festival in The Hague, Unsound Festival in Krakow, Fri Resonans in Trondheim, Elevate Festival in Graz, Sonic Protest in Paris, UH party in Budapest, Motvindfestivalen in Oslo, Tuvas Blodklubb at Riksscena, Wonderful World in Stavanger, Fanø Free Folk Festival, and Folkemusikkveka in Ål. And this release will surely bring them to many more places. Fiona Talkington wrote the following about the first record: "I was transported to secluded valleys where age-old traditions are the passionate expressions of a community, here re-energized by the chillingly sensitive electronic wizardry of Anders Hana and Morten Joh." And in Norway even the tabloid newspapers picked it up. VG reported on one track of the album: "Gorrlaus has the same intense and monotonously suggestive sound hunt as early Kraftwerk, at the time they played ‘Ruckzuck’".

Henriette Eilertsen's solo debut from 2021, "Poems for flute", is regarded by many as one of the classics in the Motvind Records catalogue. Since then, many concertgoers have also been thrilled by the flautists fresh trio, with Joel Ring (cello & electronics) and Øystein Aarnes Vik (drums). Finally, we are all approaching the opportunity to dive deep into this warm, mysterious and alluring sonic bath. Henriette Eilertsen Trio's debut album "Mother" is characterized by captivating compositions, and balanced interaction that at the same time manages to be intimate and almost limitlessly expansive. The leader's unmistakable tone and improvisational excess are naturally a focal point, but there is no doubt that we are dealing with a proper band. Joel Ring and Øystein Aarnes Vik are masterfully light-footed and tight; calmly driving the music forward, filling it with color and texture. The music is acoustically anchored, refined with abstract electronic gestures and processing. Throughout the albums ten pieces, we are offered catchy tunes, chamber musical landscapes and open passages characterized by collective exploratory curiosity. Pianist and innovator Jon Balke contributes on the three tracks “Medieval + Moren”, “Raka Blakk” and “Kulturistisk ingang”, further expanding the music with his non-compromising and timeless tone. Eilertsen is simultaneously moving in several dimensions. The title “Moder” embraces the core of her musical agenda; a caring force that digs into both something mother-earthly, and something more abstract and over-arching. The flute functions as a narrator throughout the album; sometimes in the center of the plot, sometimes observing from a distance. One can easily imagine that "Moder" would have been a hit a thousand years ago, and that adventurous music lovers will experience it as a musical pot of gold a thousand years from now. It is often emphasized that Eilertsen was the first in Norway to be trained as a jazz flautist. However, it also feels relevant to point out that her education is of a far more wide-ranging and holistic nature than what specific genre designations can insinuate. The flute is almost omnipresent in the history of music. Both across cultures and continents, but also across classes; for both shepherds in the mountains, and nobility in castles and concert halls. For many, this historical ballast takes the form of a challenge. Where many seem to be engaged in a wrestling match with cannon, it seems as if Eilertsen meets it with a warm and understanding embrace. A gust of wind between the pasture and the wide-open cosmos, that elegantly and insistently carries the instrument's history into the future.

“A beautiful conceptual approach that is understandable and appreciated.” - Eric Therer, Jazzmania “But somehow, all pieces are strangely interconnected and cast a sensual, hypnotic rhythmic spell.” Jan Granlie, Salt Peanuts " a soundscape that is quite extraordinary, unconventional and vibrant." - Ivan Rod With Unit of Time, Hans Hulbækmo and Egil Kalman aim to show that we can experience the essence of time through rhythm. How can the perception of time—both for the listener and the performers—be turned completely on its head by rhythm? By zooming in on rhythms from traditional music from around the world, the hyper-focused interplay of free jazz, and the rhythmic structures of just-intoned drone music (which is essentially about resonant intervals built on polyrhythms), these gentlemen create a wholly unique rhythmic universe—a universe where both listeners and performers can lose themselves in a thicket of twisted branches. As you know, Motvind Records is much about filling out our own record collections, and it’s high time for a drum’n’bass record that you can enjoy on the couch at home. Piercing the Veil by William Parker and Hamid Drake is fantastic, but it’s 25 years old... Now, we finally have another album where the groove button is stuck in the "on" position, and creativity overflows. "The rhythm section" has long had a supporting role in rhythmic music like jazz, pop, and rock, often overshadowed by a brash saxophonist, lead guitarist, or singer dominating most of the frequency range. In jazz, much happened early on with drummers like Max Roach, Kenny Clarke, and Warren "Baby" Dodds, as well as bassists like Jimmy Blanton, Charles Mingus, and Scott LaFaro. In folk music traditions with strong rhythmic elements, such as those in Africa and Southeast Asia, these instruments have played a more prominent role in shaping the music. But all too often, especially in Norwegian folk music, these instruments have had a rather static function. In my own record collection, I even have an album where the accompanying musicians aren’t credited—it just says, "Ola Opheim, fiddle w/Rhythm." However, Hans Hulbækmo and Egil Kalman have long been a playful and creative rhythm section, with one foot in free jazz and the other in folk music. They’ve played together in the Marthe Lea Band and other projects, and since last year, they’ve delved into the folk music of Norway and Sweden—all set in an experimental duo format: drums and mouth harp (Hans) meet modular synth and double bass and mouth harp (Egil). They’ve now gone deeper into this, aiming to create an album they can take on tour. Both individually and together, they have explored folk music, jazz, and experimental electronic music. Their projects, such as Hulbækmo & Jacobsen Familieorkester, Skrekk & Guro, Camilla Hole Trio, and Reolô, showcase their diverse musical backgrounds. In this duo project, they draw from rhythmic details in folk music—small elements that form the basis for minimalist compositions full of improvisation. They have composed and improvised most of the material, including a traditional tune from Setesdal, Filleværen. The album is a good old-fashioned musical journey where all the tracks have distinct characteristics yet are strangely interconnected. The music is also highly visual. Once the record has spun through once, it’s tempting to flip it over again—once you get a taste for good music, it’s hard to stop. And they don’t let the groove dictate everything. Some melodies are interpreted more straightforwardly, but the unconventional instruments they use give the music a different kind of depth. Unusual timbres and sonic phenomena emerge, giving the music a hypnotic quality. Both the listener and the musicians themselves can get lost in the groove, immersed in a rhythmic cosmos.

Ignatz, the long-running project of Belgian musician Bram Devens, has spent two decades refining a distinctive approach to songcraft—built on repetition, subtle shifts, and an ear for the uncanny. Across a steady stream of releases on labels including (K-RAA-K)³, Ultra Eczema and Fonal, his work remains instantly recognisable while continually evolving. I Don’t Know marks a striking departure. Following earlier recordings centred on guitar, Devens turns to piano, uncovering a new, more skeletal language. The instrument first entered his orbit in the mid-2010s, when he inherited a family piano and began exploring its possibilities as a self-taught player. Recorded at home in Landen, these pieces feel sparse and unsettled, carrying a raw intimacy that sets them apart from his previous work. The result is a haunted, deeply personal album that reframes Ignatz’s sound without losing its core identity.

A historic meeting point between Ethio-jazz and ambient jazz. Born out of Bristol’s Bloom collective, the eight-piece Afro-jazz band Tezeta sees their 2016 debut album Seventh Place finally issued on vinyl via KLANG TONE RECORDS. Exotic Fender Rhodes lines recalling Hailu Mergia, the psychedelic shimmer of vibraphone and marimba, fiercely jazzy saxophone, and the driving force of contemporary Afrobeat converge into a sound that is both refined and full of fire. The 6/8 rhythms radiate the spirit of Ethio-jazz, while the group’s modern sense of crossover resonates with European ensembles such as Debre Damo Dining Orchestra and Langendorf United. A meditative Afro-jazz gem, and one to recommend also to fans of ambient jazz.

Shape of the Moon is the California based duo of Benjamin Burke and Bear Glass that explores existential headspaces beyond mundane frames of thought. Following streams of consciousness that contemplate the stardust that forms us to the very first human sound that reverberated through a cave, Shape of the Moon intertwines language and music into ambient dream-weaving narratives. When the land is laid bare forms a collection of recordings composed of Burke reciting his introspective poems and Glass improvising gripping modular synth and string patterns. Burke brings a wealth of experience working between an impressively vast range of written and visual mediums to Glass’s live electronics and acoustic instrumentation mirroring the spoken word. The pieces on the album consist of excerpts from live outdoor performances under the night sky in the Mojave desert as well as sessions in Glass’s off-grid solar powered studio. Burke drapes vivid vocal narration over deeply immersive textures and melodies conjured up by Glass on Buchla, bass and sitar, painting peaks and valleys that live score the storytelling. The duo tread their own path fusing poetry with undulating electroacoustic instrumentals, arriving at meditative and ASMR territories that draw inspiration from ambient and electronica. Often joined on stage by guest musicians playing anything from Rhodes, percussion, jaw harp and saxophone, the recordings edge towards blues and spiritual jazz. Benjamin Burke is a poet, writer, performer, and visual artist who spends his time lending a hand to unusual artistic expeditions around the world. Most recently, he helped to launch Dhun and Dhun School, a humanist eco-township and progressive education center on a 500 acre biopreserve in Rajasthan, India. He has written and performed countless unusual shows, experimenting widely and, through that, witnessing firsthand what makes ideas resonate for his audiences. This work evolved over time into an approach he refers to as Applied Poetics which he employs to help communities set intentions, scientists present their findings, and humanitarian organizations find their footing. Bear Glass is a sound artist, multi-instrumentalist, music teacher, live sound engineer, and founding member of Mobius Acoustics who build innovative sound systems and host events on the West Coast (utilizing a quadraphonic setup for live performances and immersive drone bath sessions). Glass is involved in various collaborative projects with a couple of releases under different pseudonyms as well as a solo tape featuring a track with prolific producer Carlos Niño. For most of the year, Glass lives sustainably off-grid with his family on a plot of land outside Joshua Tree, a mini utopia infamous for his well curated private campouts and artist residencies. Wide skies, magnificent climates, and being surrounded by the love of family and friends inform Bear’s musical output and artistic practice. Shape of the Moon present their debut album for Marionette’s 30th title, channeling an inquisitive yet playful state of mind that marvels at the mysteries of the universe.

new avatar is where everything Kelela has been building toward comes into focus. She started writing her first songs in the D.C. indie scene before the club music and electronic production that defined her early career took over. With new avatar, she closes the loop: R&B run through distorted guitar living alongside new intersections in dance music, culminating in a sound that pulls from everywhere she has ever lived musically.