MUSIC

Pharoah Sanders recorded the songs that comprise Thembi in the winter of ’70/’71, in between sessions with Alice Coltrane that would eventually become her masterpiece Journey In Satchidananda LP. The same compelling spirituality that embued Coltrane’s masterpiece with a mood of stately calm and grace pervades Thembi. ‘On Thembi, that was the first time that I ever touched a Fender Rhodes electric piano. We got to the studio in California — Cecil McBee had to unpack his bass, the drummer had to set up his drums, Pharoah had to unpack all of his horns. Everybody had something to do, but the piano was just sitting there waiting. I saw this instrument sitting in the corner and I asked the engineer, 'What is that?' He said, 'That's a Fender Rhodes electric piano.' I didn't have anything to do, so I started messing with it, checking some of the buttons to see what I could do with different sounds. All of a sudden I started writing a song and everybody ran over and said, 'What is that?' And I said, 'I don't know, I'm just messing around.' Pharoah said, 'Man, we gotta record that. Whatcha gonna call it?' I'd been studying astral projections and it sounded like we were floating through space so I said let's call it 'Astral Traveling.' That's how I got introduced to the electric piano.’

Science Fiction is an album by the American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, released in February 1972. It is considered as Coleman's creative rebirth. A stunningly inventive and appropriately alien-sounding blast of manic energy, where Coleman combines his past and future, working with bassist Charlie Haden and drummers Billy Higgins and Ed Blackwell. The album is made up of spacy, long-toned melodies and rhythm, including two songs with Indian vocalist Asha Puthli, which sound like pop hits from an alternate universe, and "Rock the Clock" where an Arabic double-reed instrument called “musette” is used.

Ornette! is the seventh album by Ornette Coleman as a bandleader and the second credited to his quartet (following This Is Our Music). Though considered one of his early works, by the time it was recorded on 31st January 1961, Coleman was already an established jazz legend. His reputation had been cemented by the release of ground-breaking albums such as The Shape of Jazz to Come and Free Jazz.

These two albums embody the central, seemingly contrasting, elements of Coleman's early career: a meticulously crafted approach to melodic innovation and free improvisation, often with only minimal pre-determined structure. Ornette! bridges these two aspects, leaning more towards the former with its focus on melodic exploration, while still incorporating elements of Coleman's characteristic spontaneity.

The album’s opening track, W.R.U., exemplifies Coleman’s refusal to conform to audience expectations or traditional jazz conventions. The theme is sardonic and intricate—too demanding to fit into established jazz frameworks yet too deliberate to be dismissed as pure improvisation. The track encapsulates Coleman’s vision of "free jazz" as music freed not only from rigid structures but also from the constraints of genre classification, a limitation Coleman resisted throughout his career.

Critics have speculated that Coleman’s angular, unconventional sound may reflect his interest in psychoanalysis, suggesting that his music operates on both personal and artistic levels. This interpretation is bolstered by the track titles, which are acronyms of Sigmund Freud’s notable works and essays, hinting at deeper layers of meaning within the compositions.

The album’s brilliance also lies in the exceptional chemistry among its musicians. Don Cherry’s pocket trumpet—a defining feature of Coleman’s early recordings—remains a vital counterpart to Coleman’s alto saxophone. Ed Blackwell, who had appeared on the previous quartet album, demonstrates his rhythmic creativity and technical brilliance, particularly on T. & T., while Scott LaFaro, the newest member of the ensemble, contributes adventurous and daring bass work, most notably in his dynamic solo toward the end of W.R.U. Despite joining after the departure of long-time collaborator Charlie Haden, LaFaro integrates seamlessly, and his bold playing adds a fresh dimension to the group.

While Ornette! is less celebrated than some of Coleman’s other albums, it is a pivotal work in his artistic evolution. Upon its release, it was well-received by DownBeat magazine and later gained increased recognition from critics and publications such as The Village Voice, The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, and Pitchfork. Over time, it has achieved cult status within Coleman’s discography, recognized as a critical document in the development of his innovative musical approach.

A masterpiece from 1959, the highest point of modern jazz in music history. Bill Evans compared the improvisational nature of the music to Japanese caligraphy. The bottomless silence and infinite possibilities of this extreme tension are hard to find in any other music or musician.

Jazz snare & ride cymbal meet classical Indian tabla & pakhawaj! What happens when one of the best jazz drummers of all time combines efforts with one of India’s most renowned tabla players? Voilà! Rich À La Rakha. Calypso-flavored compositions, spontaneous jams, and a genuine instrumental dialogue between the two greats truly makes this a one-of-a-kind listen.

Artist, producer, composer, and keyboardist John Carroll Kirby presents Blowout, his new album out June 30th with his latest song “Oropendola.” The record is inspired by a period in Costa Rica spent playing with local musicians while Kirby imagined “failed utopias.”

In 2021, Kirby visited Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica to film an episode of his Kirby’s Gold travelogue series with the Kawe Calypso Band. Here, Kirby wrote the majority of Blowout between the early-morning wake-up calls from the local oropendola birds and psychedelic sunsets. Kirby says, “The oropendola is a very cool bird that lives in a sac-like hanging nest. There was a tree full of them outside where I stayed that woke me up every morning at 5 am, so I had to write a song about them.” The album was finished upon Kirby’s return to Los Angeles with a stripped-down band at 64 Sound Studios.

Blowout sways between the title’s two definitions – a moment of destruction and one big party. While writing the album, Kirby thought of episodes of collective madness or delusion, like Fyre Festival and the Heaven’s Gate cult. The album imagines “a festival where everyone gets beamed up to utopia or heaven instead of starving or dying unfulfilled.” Kirby says, “I’m trying to use imagination in music to create my own myths, and keep things playful and funny and not too sanctimonious.”

FIRST-EVER VINYL REISSUE OF HADLEY CALIMAN'S 1971 MODAL/ SPIRITUAL JAZZ CULT CLASSIC, IAPETUS. COMPOSED AND ARRANGED BY BAYETÉ TODD COCHRAN, FEATURING REMASTERED AUDIO, ORIGINAL GATEFOLD ARTWORK WITH UNISSUED SESSION PHOTOS AND NEW LINER NOTES WRITTEN BY TODD COCHRAN

Wewantsounds continues its reissue program of Bob Shad's cult jazz label, Mainstream Records, with Hadley Caliman's superb 1972 album, Iapetus. Recorded in LA and featuring a heavyweight lineup of West Coast players including Todd Cochran, Woody “Sonship” Theus, Luis Gasca, and Victor Pantoja, the majority of the album was composed by Todd Cochran (aka Bayeté) soon after he had composed Bobby Hutcherson's Blue Note classic, Head On. A true hidden treasure, it is reissued here on vinyl for the first time since 1971, featuring its original gatefold artwork with rare first-generation photos. This edition comes with newly remastered audio and a two-page insert with exclusive liner notes by Todd Cochran, reflecting on Hadley Caliman and the making of the album.

Tenor saxophonist and flutist Hadley Caliman was a key figure in the West Coast late 60s underground scene, whose versatile style made him a first-call collaborator across genres. A fixture of the San Francisco music scene, Caliman’s rich tone and musical creativity saw him crossing over into the city's lively jazz and psychedelic rock circles, contributing to recordings by Gerald Wilson, Mongo Santamaria, Santana, and the Grateful Dead. By 1971, he had established himself as a prominent member of this creative community, which led to his signing with Bob Shad’s Mainstream Records.

​Following his 1971 self-titled debut, Caliman returned to the studio later that year to record Iapetus. The session featured a heavyweight lineup of fellow West Coast fixtures, including trumpeter Luis Gasca, bassist James Leary, and a powerhouse percussion section of Woody “Sonship” Theus, Victor Pantoja, and Hungria Garcia. The album’s sophisticated modal structures were captured by pianist and composer Todd Cochran (aka Bayeté). A visionary in his own right, Cochran was concurrently establishing his own legacy on Prestige Records with two acclaimed albums, including Worlds Around the Sun (1972), (featuring both Caliman and Leary), later sampled by De La Soul and Kendrick Lamar. Cochran went on to collaborate with Julian Priester on his landmark Love Love album on ECM, as well as working with Mtume, Peter Gabriel, Herbie Hancock, and Aretha Franklin.

​The Iapetus sessions are Fender Rhodes-heavy, with Cochran’s electric keys providing a shimmering, cosmic foundation for Caliman's inspired explorations. From the driving modal intensity of the title track to the spiritual "Quadrivium," featuring Caliman’s superb flute work, via the funky "Watercress," the album's profile has steadily grown over the decades, attracting an ever-increasing following among '70s jazz lovers and deep-catalog diggers. Reflecting on the group's creative telepathy in the new liner notes, Cochran writes: "We were a circle of friends, and the music was our shared language—a way to translate the high-velocity energy of San Francisco into something timeless."

This first-ever vinyl reissue of Iapetus in over fifty years has been newly remastered for the occasion. Having become increasingly rare and pricey on the collector's market over the years, this long-overlooked spiritual jazz gem is set to ravish fans of deep '70s jazz around the world.

Ancient Infinity Orchestra return with their third album, It’s Always About Liberation, a new record that deepens the vision of their acclaimed recent work while moving into darker, more searching emotional territory. Conceived as a partner to It’s Always About Love, this new body of work shares its predecessor’s generosity and spiritual openness, but carries a different charge. Where the previous album focused on healing and warmth, It’s Always About Liberation is largely animated by struggle, perseverance and the desire for transformation while still offering a path to betterment. It is music made in full awareness of a fractured world, yet unwilling to surrender to it. Like It’s Always About Love the album title draws inspiration from words spoken by Moor Mother during their 2024 We Out Here festival performance that deeply affected bandleader Ozzy Moysey: “It’s always about love / It’s always about liberation.” Those twin ideas became a framework for the two albums Ancient Infinity Orchestra were creating. If one album explored love as repair, this one explores liberation as movement, continually striving toward freedom, clarity and deeper connection.

“Life is nothing without love. Love is the force that drives our journey in life. Life is love and love is life.” UK jazz master Chip Wickham follows last year’s brilliant soulful long-player Cloud 10 with a deftly crafted, reflective EP of beautiful spiritual jazz influenced by the soulful sounds of Yusef Lateef. Chip’s music has always drawn on a broad world of influences: from hip-hop to Roland Kirk, and from classic funk to the ‘60s Brit-Jazz of Tubby Hayes. But Love & Life finds him foregrounding his wonderful flute playing, producing a perfect four-tracker of reflective, peaceful jazz that elevates and inspires as well as a trademark slice of boppish soul jazz – the jaunty Space Walk. Elsewhere lead single Love & Life is a joyous jazz waltz with an uplifting, bouncing groove and Slow Down Look Around is introspective and intimate, featuring Chip’s signature flute with a beautiful solo from UK trumpeter Malcolm Strachan. Chip explains that the track presents “a big lesson for us to learn as the world changes around us with such speed. The technology changes but our human needs remain the same: peace, tranquillity and time to think.”

As the world sinks deeper into screens and algorithms blur the line between creation and imitation, Nubiyan Twist returns with Chasing Shadows, a record that reclaims the pulse, warmth and spontaneity of human connection. The band’s fifth studio album is a rich and restless blend of jazz, afrobeat, hip hop and electronic textures, exploring the space between the organic and the digital. It’s music that moves, sweats, and breathes, made by real people in real rooms with heavyweight features bringing together varied voices from the music community which they inhabit. Bandleader and producer Tom Excell explains: “We wanted to make something that felt joyous and defiantly human — something that couldn’t exist without that connection between people. You can get an AI to write a fugue in seconds, but it can’t capture the chemistry and chaos that happens when musicians lock in together. Chasing Shadows is our way of holding onto that.” Following 2024’s acclaimed Find Your Flame, praised by Rolling Stone, Jazzwise, NPR and more, Chasing Shadows pushes the band’s sound further into new soulful territory under Excell’s expert guidance, featuring new lead vocalist Eniola - a recent graduate of Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London - and a glowing cast of icons and innovators. Malian star Fatoumata Diawara lights up the title track on a powerful slice of Afrobeat, Joe Armon-Jones leads the dub workout ‘Rhythm Of You’, Patrice Rushen steps in on piano in ‘Threads’, and the band take it back to their hip hop roots on great collabs with The Pharcyde’s Bootie Brown, Ghanaian MC M.anifest and London dancehall favourite, Mr Williamz. On Chasing Shadows, Nubiyan Twist continue to look outwards with their music but keep the focus firmly on humanity and positivity. It is an album which crosses continents and which shamelessly celebrates our collective strength.

アルバムについて Strut Records proudly presents the first definitive expanded reissue of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Sun Ra’s 1977 session recorded at the Bluebird in Bloomington, Indiana, presented across three Vinyl LPs or as a two CD set. The Arkestra were at the peak of their powers in 1977, releasing revered albums like The Soul Vibration Of Man and My Favorite Things with Arkestra regulars Marshall Allen, Danny Ray Thompson, Michael Ray and Luqman Ali among the core musicians. Ra also continued his touring in Europe with historic gigs in Italy. During this period, Arkestra live performances were often loosely structured into thematic blocks that moved from reflections on jazz history to cosmic “space narrative” sections featuring collective chants, extended Africa/Egypt-inspired grooves and selections from the Great American Songbook. This recording brings in all of these features with re imagined versions of standards like ‘Take The “A” Train’, ‘St. Louis Blues’ and title track ‘Over The Rainbow’ alongside rarely recorded Ra compositions like ‘Make Another Mistake’ and ‘Amen Meni Many Amens’. Ra conducted improvisations to guide the listener seamlessly from one musical scene to the next. As Sun Ra himself described it: “It’s like a party—we enjoy ourselves and everybody’s invited to enjoy it with us.” The original version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow assembled a handful of clearly delineated tracks drawn from the flow of two complete concert recordings, re-arranged out of sequence. Strut’s new edition restores previously excised material and preserves more of the natural transitions between pieces, offering a fuller glimpse into the distinctive aesthetic of Sun Ra and his Arkestra. This definitive reissue is pressed across two CDs, or three vinyl LPs housed in a triple gatefold sleeve, newly remastered by Technology Works from the original source tapes and features extensive new liner notes by Chris Cutler alongside video stills from the original concert.

Originally released in 1979, Sun Ra’s On Jupiter is a landmark fusion of deep funk, cosmic jazz and avant-garde experimentation. Recorded during a prolific run of sessions at Variety Arts Studios in New York, the album finds the Arkestra in full creative flight, blending infectious rhythms with spaced-out textures and Afro-futurist vision.

Featuring key Arkestra members including John Gilmore, Marshall Allen and Michael Ray, On Jupiter includes the irresistibly funky ‘UFO’, the hypnotic title track, and the expansive ‘Seductive Fantasy’. By the late ‘70s, Sun Ra’s embrace of funk, soul and electronic fusion added new dimension to the Arkestra’s sound, resonating with a new generation of listeners.

Strut presents a brand new reissue of Juju’s powerful Afrocentric album ‘Chapter Two: Nia’ from 1974, originally released on Strata East. Juju formed in San Francisco and moved to New York in July 1972. "We were avant-garde artists and revolutionary agents for change," explains bandleader James “Plunky” Branch. "We played venues like Slugs, the East, and Ornette Coleman’s loft on Prince Street; we also met and hung out with the greats, from Pharoah Sanders to John Gilmore. "By 1974, Plunky and the band had relocated to Richmond, Virginia. "New York’s cost of living was high, and I thought Richmond could be a fresh creative environment. We stayed in the home of my oldest and best friend, which we dubbed the Juju Raga Artist House. We lived upstairs and converted the downstairs into the first black arts gallery and performance space in the state." In June 1974, Juju recorded their second album for Strata-East, Chapter Two: Nia, at Eastern Recording Studios in Richmond. "The music was Afrocentric," continues Plunky, "and we included black nationalistic poetry written and spoken by Ngoma Ya Uhuru, a high school friend who had spent time with Amiri Baraka’s Spirit House." The album also featured a remarkable freeform cover of Pharoah Sanders’ classic ‘Black Unity.’ Juju became the local Virginia exponents of progressive ideas that were being expressed nationally and internationally, attracting a small, active group of artists and supporters. However, being in the South, Richmond's black music audience leaned towards blues, gospel, and soul. After much consideration, Juju decided to incorporate trap drums and a backbeat, blending these rhythms with electric sounds, and rebranded as Oneness Of Juju. With a new lineup and renewed energy, the band began a new chapter, releasing their classic African Rhythms album a year later. This new reissue of Juju’s ‘Chapter Two: Nia’ includes the full original artwork, featuring cover art adapted from a concert video still by Collis Davis. Remastered from the original tapes by The Carvery, this Strut release also includes brand new liner notes by bandleader James “Plunky” Branch.

The definitive edition of Patrice Rushen’s landmark album from 1982, ‘Straight From The Heart’. 

Recorded during Elektra’s drive for ‘sophisticated dance music’ as many jazz artists created their own arrangements of disco and boogie, the sessions marked a progression for Patrice as she began exploring sonics as much as songwriting. “I was looking at different ways to experiment with the sounds on my records. Synths widened the palette available to us.” 

Singles from the album included ‘Breakout!’, ‘Number One’ and the global hit ‘Forget Me Nots’. “Bassist Freddie Washington played the bassline during a jam at my family’s house. I caught it, we kept messing around with the groove, then I developed the lyrics and chorus. It was just about recognising that moment when it came up.” 

“When I delivered the album to the label, the A&R said, ‘we don’t like anything on here.’ I realised quickly that they would give us no support so producer Charles Mims, myself and Freddie decided to engage a promotion company ourselves to start working the single. Although it took a while to pick up support, it paid off.” The single hit no. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1982 and the album became Patrice’s best seller globally from her time with Elektra / Asylum, securing a Grammy nomination. In more recent years, the album has become a regular source for samples in the world of hip hop and R&B. Most famously, Will Smith’s theme for the film ‘Men In Black’ and George Michael’s ‘Fastlove’ were both based, to varying degrees, on ‘Forget Me Nots’. 

Strut present a new definitive collection of singles released by jazz maverick Sun Ra during his Earth years, spanning 1952 to 1991. Released prolifically during the 1950s and more sporadically thereafter, primarily on the Saturn label, the 45s offer one-off meteorites from Ra’s prolific cosmic journey, tracing the development of his forward-thinking “Space-Bop” and his unique take on jazz and blues traditions which sounded unlike anything else from the period. As with his LPs, most 45s were only pressed in small runs and were sold at gigs and have since become extremely rare and sought after. Some have only been discovered in physical form in recent years; some were planned and pencilled but allegedly never made it to vinyl and some appeared as one-off magazine singles and posthumous releases.

‘Singles’ will be released in various formats across two release dates. All formats feature fully remastered tracks, rare photos, poster artwork, extensive sleeve notes by Francis Gooding, an interview with Saturn Records founder Alton Abraham by John Corbett and detailed track by track and session notes by Paul Griffiths. 

“One of my favourite bands, wonderful work” Gilles Peterson BBC 6 Music “Another great album from Matthew Halsall” Jamie Cullum - BBC Radio 2 "Trumpeter Halsall is one of the success stories of new British jazz..." The Independent "Beautiful, spacious and spiritual music." All About Jazz

Jeff Parker, who is familiar with activities such as Tortoise and Chicago Underground Quartet, announces the latest work from the sanctuary of US contemporary jazz . It is an album composed of solo guitar works including interpretations of "Ugly Beauty" and "My Ideal" by Celonias Monk and 6 original songs, and it is a home in Altadena, California in June 2021. A gem of improvisational minimal ambient work recorded by Graeme Gibson in the studio over a two-day period!

A sequel to last year's sublime 'Spectral Evolution', 'Traveling Light' is a suite of weightless, uncannily beautiful jazz standards, transformed into orchestral drones and electronic chirps by Toral and his virtual band. It's flawless material that draws a clear line from Billie Holiday through Clara Rockmore, Fripp & Eno and Alvin Lucier to MBV and Gastr del Sol and beyond. Unmissable gear, from one of the scene's unassailable legends. Culture never emerges from a vacuum. It accumulates and evolves, building on what occurred before and gleaning influence from what happened nearby; the more cultural threads converge, the more complex, nuanced and developed the resulting braids become. Toral acknowledged this fact quite brazenly on last year's 'Spectral Evolution', bringing over a decade of impenetrable off-world experimentation to a halt and shoving his bare hands into the creative soil that inspired iconic tomes like 1995's 'Loveless'-inspired masterpiece 'Wave Field' and the meditative Éliane Radigue-cum-Rhys Chatham 'Violence of Discovery And Calm of Acceptance'. Taking a dip in the pool of concepts that eddy underneath rock music's labyrinth of caverns, he referenced Duke Ellington and George Gershwin, turning vintage progressions into idiosyncratic contemporary gestures. And on 'Traveling Light' that basic theme is expanded again; here, Toral takes six recognizable early 20th century standards and applies a very similar treatment, augmenting them with additional "canonical jazz sounds" from clarinetist José Bruno Parrinha, tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, flügelhorn player Yaw Tembe and flautist Clara Saleiro. Playing guitar and bass with his self-built ensemble of electronic devices (that includes a modified theremin), Toral lets his influences float even closer to the surface here, picking out familiar jazz and exotica flourishes, early electronic echoes and organ-esque polyphonic sustained tones that stretch across hundreds of years of musical history. On opener 'Easy Living', a Ralph Rainger composition from 1937 that's been recorded by Billie Holiday, Bill Evans and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, among others, the original chord sequence is slackened by Toral's sustained guitar tones and sine waves, but not blurred completely into impressions. This time around we're treated to more tangible shapes: Toral's cheeky, expertly rendered riffs, horizontal exotica-inspired rhythmelodic chimes, intimate woodwind breaths that pull us back to the '30s and squealing pitches that can't help but remind us of Clara Rockmore's Robert Moog-produced milestone 'The Art of the Theremin'. It feels like being chucked in the American cultural petri dish while new organisms mutate around you - everything's recognisable somehow but novel, peculiar. Lovingly valve saturated strums, bent by Toral's whammy, introduce 'Body and Soul' (a 1930 standard that's best known for being recorded by Frank Sinatra) before they're met by alien chirps from his arsenal of generators. But it's the willowy harmonies that buoy this one, echoing the haunted choral drones that prop up centuries of European sacred music. Toral's very specific with his references; when Amado's tenor moans whisper around the dense polyphonic hums, there's a tacit acknowledgement of the enduring influence of African American spirituals and gospel on folk, blues, jazz, country, rock 'n roll and R&B. The album's most affecting segment comes at the conclusion though, with 'My Funny Valentine' and 'God Bless the Child', easily two of the most conspicuous compositions of the era. On both, Toral hovers between clarity and abstraction, overlaying bone-dry fingerpicked improvisations on the former that scrape over Chicago's musical timeline, from "hot jazz" to post-rock, and finishing the album with Fennesz-like distortions that crack and dissolve into Saleiro's levitational flute tones. It's astonishing stuff, honestly - maybe not as immediately startling as 'Spectral Evolution', but refined, polished and concentrated in every way. You're unlikely to find a more moving set this year, that's for sure.

Ambarchi, Berthling and Werliin share a fascination with rhythm and the myriad of ways it can subdivide within the beat. Using aspects of jazz, world and experimental musics, each tune settles into a deep groove, digging itself via continuous minimal adjustments into an ever-deeper, eternal groove.

Quickly following on from last year's 'Ghosted II', the third Reichian kraut-jazz session from Oren Ambarchi and his long-time collaborators loosens the screws a little, inviting in Americana, dream pop and blues influences and zeroing in on the tiny details.

Ambarchi, bassist Johan Berthling and percussionist Andreas Werliin are familiar with each other at this stage to fully let rip. 'Ghosted III' is their third recorded set in four years, and although they're still led by the jazz-taught instincts that guided their subtle, minimalist-inspired folk-jazz-rock debut, they've unclenched their muscles and let rip this time around. There's a new-found, liberating slackness to opener (and lead single) 'Yek', where Ambarchi daubs his chiming guitar notes over Werliin's jerky rhythms and Berthling's unraveled bassline. Catching the desert dust at first, it hardens into a Tangerine Dream-cum-Philip Glass nu-new age shimmer before it comes to a close. And 'Do' pulls back the bluster even further, reducing Weliin's drums to a faint patter, and filling the gaps with Ambarchi's cosmic pad-like guitars. After the 'TNT'-era Tortoise in dub Leslie-powered euphoria of 'Seh', the trio get back into the groove with 'Chahar', pulling Ambarchi's fictile notes into an orbit of ratcheting drums and repeating bass plucks that concludes with a splatter of xenharmonic guitar tones.

They venture into Americana territory on the long, plodding 'Panj', padding the low end with Ambarchi's swirling organ-esque tones that transform into concertina-ing zaps, and the best is saved for last - 'Shesh' is a dream-pop/post-rock melter that's among the best tracks Ambarchi, Berthling and Werliin have recorded, falling somewhere between Labradford and Talk Talk. Gorgeous.

O'Rourke does Ishibashi! This Imitiation is her western bow, plus also a progressive sci-fi pop album featuring the best playing on any albums released in Japan in 2012. New music, no matter in what year you hear it!

The studio at 122 West Loveland Avenue was not an unfamiliar space for Steve Okonski, the leader of his eponymous trio Okonski. Ever since the Colemine label set up shop in Loveland, Ohio it has been a host to a number of groups passing through town, including Durand Jones and the Indications who all of this trio’s members have connections to. After setting aside some time in winter of 2020, Okonski, trained initially as a classical pianist, invited Michael Isvara “Ish” Montgomery and Aaron Frazer to work on an album that was initially planned to be beat driven and fully composed trio instrumentals. After finishing this first session with some improvisations, a second week was booked in the summer of 2021 to try and capture some more of that spontaneous energy. During this session, the tracks were all improvised and recorded live to a Tascam 388 during several late nights at the Colemine HQ. They were structured to allow the group’s collective intuition to fully shape the melodies and arcs of the music. The album opens with Runner Up, where a triumphant yet melancholic melody in the piano leads to a more reserved B-section driven by the drums and bass of Frazer and Montgomery. As you journey through the remainder of the album you are met with a plethora of evoked and explored emotions. The calmness one has walking down a moonlit street after midnight, the connection one has for a person who comes into their world for just a moment or a lifetime, and the nerves and catharsis one feels when starting upon a new, unknown journey. Magnolia closes with Sunday, a track that was recorded late into the night at the close of their first recording session. Without the spontaneity of Sunday, the remainder of Magnolia would likely have never come to fruition. Magnolia was composed from the heart and from the spirit of those in the studio those late nights in Loveland. It is the culmination of an emotional and artistic release that was not afforded or recognized before the band sat at their instruments, and because of that it is introspective, meditative, spiritual, and new.

Future Development is Del the Funky Homosapien’s third album and, following his departure from major label Elektra, it was his first album on his independent label, Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings. Originally released on cassette in 1997, and later reissued on CD and vinyl in 2002, the album largely relied on in-house production from Del along with contributions from Hiero crew members A-Plus, Opio, and Toure. The only guest feature on the album is from crew member Casual, who joins Del on the energetic “Checking Out The Rivalry.”Sonically, Future Development bridges the funk-heavy stylings of Del’s debut with the darker, more futuristic textures he explored on No Need for Alarm. Lyrically, Del refines his rapid-fire wordplay with sharper thematic focus, tackling life in Oakland, societal observations and hip-hop culture, all with a blend of humor, streetwise insight, and multi-syllabic dexterity. Ultimately, the album captures a snapshot of his progression from raw talent to a more conceptually matured songwriter. It remains a significant and under-appreciated chapter in Del’s evolution, showcasing early seeds of the creativity and independence that would come to define much of his career thereafter.

During the last half-decade Joe Westerlund became engrossed in studying the clave, the metric pattern that first defined so much Afro-Cuban and Latin music and then drifted into almost every corner of jazz and rock. What did it mean for an idea to be so flexible, for it to fit so many forms while retaining its own essence? The result is aleap into the unknown for Westerlund: Curiosities from the Shift, a 12-track playground of endlessly interwoven beats and melodies, where Westerlund’s clave enthusiasm collides with his textural experimentalism, where his rhythmic symphony of one shakes hands with friends decorating this space alongside him.The three-piece suite that holds Curiosities’ first half begins with the junkyard percussion and delightful bass splashes that frame “Tem” and ends with the surrealistic boom-bap of thumb pianos and shakers on “Can Tangle.” There is a hard-won joy to these numbers, as if Westerlund is delighting in real time in spotting a potential dead end but finding his own way forward, anyway. Those songs became a kind of working roadmap for the terrain that Westerlund explores across Curiosities, from the call-and-response glory of opener “Nu Male Uno” to the uncanny amorphousness of closer “Felt Like Floating.” All of these songs are defined by an identifiable rhythm, like the loping strut at the center of “Midpoint” and the head-nodding pulse that winds through “Persurverance,” winkingly misspelled to suit his North Carolina-via-Wisconsin pronunciation. But those are springboards for other textures, moods, and notions, like the New Age references—shimmering metallophones, chattering birds, retiring flutes—that circle through “Midpoint” or the dub-indebted delays and gamelan hymns that bubble up through “Persurverance.” This is deeply multivalent music, each number’s propulsive core counterbalanced by a series of surprising choices. Bittersweetness and joy, grief and liberation, sighs and smiles: It all exists here, tangling toward infinity.In the months after the initial sessions were done, Westerlund reached out to friends—Califone’s Tim Rutilli, saxophonist Sam Gendel, trumpeter Trever Hagen, and violinists Libby Rodenbough and Chris Jusell among them. These were his most thoroughly composed and precisely built works ever, but he wanted to hear what happened when his pals responded in real time. They delivered grace, depth, and feeling, with their parts pulling back curtains on hidden recesses of rhythmic worlds.Westerlund readily admits he is surprised by the album’s insistence on groove and meter rather than drifting abstraction. Having lived and worked so long with bands, he assumed he was done functioning within basic meter. These 12 songs fuse so many of Westerlund’s loves into pieces that are endlessly fascinating, using familiar elements to render his adventures into the unknown. Playful but tender, wistful but wondrous, driven by beats but not bound by them, this is Westerlund’s definitive statement so far, the solo drummer record that opens wide to reveal a musical and emotional landscape richer than perhaps even he imagined he might find.