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Following two 12-inch singles released via the self-run label Plastic & Sounds, which launched unexpectedly this past July, the culmination of their work to date—the album Silent Way, comprising ten tracks—will be released on 27th March as a coloured vinyl 2LP (gatefold sleeve/33RPM/limited press) and digitally.Mastering and record cutting by Rashad Becker in Berlin. The artwork centres on photographer Yusuke Yamatani's work, with Satoshi Suzuki—who handles all P&S releases—constructing the overall aesthetic.Last October, they appeared on Resident Advisor's popular series “RA Podcast”, with audio from their world premiere live performance in April 2023 released. They held the “Plastic & Sounds” label launch party at Shibuya WWW. In January 2026, they performed a live set of their acclaimed album “Haet” at the venue's New Year's party.This release comes amidst growing international acclaim, with their previous album ‘Discipline’ featured in Pitchfork's ‘The 30 Best Electronic Albums of 2025’, and one of their signature tracks, ‘Butterfly Effect’, selected for RA (Resident Advisor)'s ‘The Best Electronic Tracks of 2000-25’.
Spearheaded by songwriter Dylan Young, ‘Massive Shoe’ is Way Dynamic’s third foray into alt-folk pop coloured by his own creative fingerprint. In the past year, Way Dynamic have released their sophomore LP ‘Duck’ to excellent reviews, toured with Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman & The Wind, and are now already returning with another full length release ‘Massive Shoe’, resuming Young’s exploration into minimalist folk-pop, baroque pop and art rock. Yellow Green Red in their album review for ‘Duck’ aptly describe Way Dynamic as; “Brian Wilson’s lust for pop perfection brought back to earth by Randy Newman’s silliness and Christopher Cross’s knack for an original melody that already feels familiar”. Adding a touch of Neil Young balladry, Massive Shoe continues this formula, as they lyrically dive into topics such as navigating relationships, struggling to communicate, mistakes and humanity, while maintaining a sense of ambiguity that washes over you rather than slaps you in the face. Although Way Dynamic can draw parallels to many of the artists above, the album never falls into songwriting tropes of that era, instead Young manages to bob and weave in the face of any typical motif, keeping the album engaging and lighthearted, and maintaining a sense of adventure in his music. ‘People Settle Down’ sets us off with a groove and backing vocal hooks, before we shift into more tender songs such as ‘Miffed It’ which floats above a guitar melody that may be the earworm of the year. Before you can settle into the tender songs, the album shifts again with absurd pop song ‘My Visit (To Hell)’, lyrically chronicling Dylan’s journey through hell over a bouncy beat and progression. The album title ‘Massive Shoe’, alludes to one always having bigger shoes to fill. Despite Way Dynamic’s brilliant past releases, and the “massive shoe” left to fill after each album, Young consistently manages to outdo himself as he patiently builds a distinctive and impressive discography.
Originally released in the wake of ML Buch's art-pop modern classic 'Suntub', "Suntub Extras" paints in similar shades, fixing up its precision-engineered sketches in a personal space between Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love', OPN's 'Replica' and Cocteau Twins' 'Victorialand'. Without the pop accouterments that made 'Suntub' so tantalizing to the almost-mainstream, Buch's tangled productions lay bare the various ingredients that have shaped her taste over the years. Fleetwood Mac was maybe the most obvious reference back in 2023 and undoubtedly her vocal harmonies and precision songwriting looped right back into the radio rock of the '70s and '80s, but strip the vocal away and something very different emerges. Her repeating guitar phrases - heard so vividly on the gorgeous 'Sway walking' - sound far more meditative and moving when they're isolated, decoupling the music from AOR and jacking it directly into the new age continuum. Here, Buch has more in common with Daniel Lopatin (or even Mark McGuire), playing out familiar riffs but treating them as if they're Reichian iterations. She introduces a larger (laptop-powered) ensemble on 'Suncrumb trail, Staging', providing a virtual tune-up with willowy guitars, boxy drums and that warm fretless bass that was all over 'Hounds of Love'. But as soon as any of these tracks seem to move towards their goal, Buch inevitably cuts away to a different scene. Here, she diverts our ears to alt-rock pastiche 'Growing eyes, Blade of cloud, Rolling chill', caking her Rembrants guitars in tape echo before picking up the thread again on the generous 'Moving Light, Change', a slo-mo reverie that provides the album with its thematic apex. But it's the brief finale that has our hearts; on the impeccably-titled 'Halfdark, Slow blinking', Buch accurately duplicates Robin Guthrie's groggy processes, strumming decelerated chords into cavernous echoes.
"4 more additions (under various guises around 1984) to the beautiful world of Jan Van den Broeke in response to the almost 10 year anniversary of `11000 Dreams` "
Midori Takada and Jakob Bro follow "Until I Met You with" From "Such a Blue Sky", recorded at Tokyo’s AVACO Studios. "The Japanese percussionist and Danish guitarist build an intimate form of acoustic ambient from piano, percussion and acoustic guitar, with delicate melodies unfolding through spacious, meditative arrangements. Both musicians share an exploratory approach to sound, and their close interplay gives the record the feel of an unhurried conversation, moving between subtle rhythmic detail, melodic guitar and open stretches of sound."
In Arc, Yorkshire-born artist Kirk Barley explores alternative tunings and off-grid sequencing to shape fluid rhythmic and melodic systems that unfold into rich harmonic forms. Kirk’s fourth album under his own name and debut for Marionette continues his exploration of just intonation through a sparse but finely detailed palette of organic atmospheres, metallic shimmer and off-kilter rhythms. Across the record, glassy pads, gamelan metallophones, clarinet and guitar dissolve into fluid, dreamlike forms, suggesting vast coastal landscapes, charged air and the stillness that follows turbulence. Drawing on the feel of sample-based hip-hop, the minimalism of Terry Riley and Jon Hassell, as well as dub techno and post-rock, Kirk brings together a range of influences in a sound that feels both intimate and expansive. After first hearing Terry Riley’s Shri Camel as a teenager, he became captivated by just intonation and microtuning, inspirations that have shaped his work ever since, from his earliest Bambooman releases to the present solo works and as Church Andrews & Matt Davies. Arc is his first record to be fully rooted in alternative tunings from start to finish. Longtime friend and collaborator Matt Davies appears on Ion, Sundry, Ecstatic and Fret (Haar), where his finely detailed, ASMR-like muted percussion deepens the dialogue between tactile acoustic sound and Kirk’s luminous electronic palette.
An album etched not only in the history of Japanese rock but also in the history of rock worldwide!A miraculous sound that never ages!Due to popular demand, re-released on clear vinyl!
●Why did the world's avant-garde musicians want to create "sound" with Conny Plank back then? The album "Phew" (released in 1981) was produced at the legendary Conny's Studio, which spawned masterpieces by Kraftwerk, Neu!, DAF, Eno, and others, with former Aunt Sally member Phew joining them.
●Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit, former members of the German rock band Can, who had a great influence on techno and post-rock, participated.
●Conny Plank's outstanding engineering and Holger Czukay's ingenious editing created a groundbreaking sound world that still resonates uniquely and never fades even today.
Effortless dub house swangers and steppers by Gradient, backed with spellbinding remix diffusion by Echospace’s cv313 Igor Arsenjev aka Gradient finely balances elemental warmth and nippiness in his three originals, rolling out from the bleakly sunlit haze of chords and padded bass to ‘Layer One’, thru the denser M-series dub chord togging of ‘Layer Two’ to the clipped strut of ‘Layer Three’. Stephen Hitchell’s cv313 remix prove a master at work in the atmospheric details that swim and refract thru his more saturated ‘Starfall Dub’.
Sa Pa launches Dub Techno For Life: a dedicated outlet for the artist’s more dancefloor-focused material - work that has largely sat outside the conceptual frame of his previous releases. The label’s first release, Girls on Tour EP, opens with “Mokira Ultra Dub”, a 10-minute club rework of Mokira classic “Manipulation Musik”. Originally produced alongside an ambient version commissioned for Kontra Musik’s 2016 Kontra X compilation, the dancefloor mix was ultimately shelved until now. With Andreas ‘Mokira’ Tilliander’s blessing, it finally surfaces as a standalone Sa Pa production. A track too banging to go unreleased. “Waiting For You” traces back to Sa Pa’s orbit around the giegling ecosystem via FORUM. Once lined up for an official release on the parent label before plans stalled, the track slipped into the archives. Buoyant and disarmingly pop by Sa Pa standards, it finds its place here as the A2 - tuned to the collective memory of mid-2010s German house music. Harnessing the spirit of Chain Reaction from the abandoned patches and borrowed machines of a rainy night’s recording in Taipei, the B-side’s “Modular System” captures a late-night, one-take modular jam. A broken yet hopeful “World Saving Banger” closes the EP with some raw and IDM-leaning force, showcasing Sa Pa’s new label - and the Girls On Tour EP - as a space for neo dub techno ideals to take shape.
Sun Electric - the legendary Berlin duo of Tom Thiel and Max Loderbauer - returns with Episodes, an enticing new album. While the pair has been active and creating over the years (remember their track 'Every Now And Then' on the 10 Years De:tuned compilation in 2019), Episodes marks their first album of original material in nearly 20 years. Now, with a renewed way of working together, they present fresh and captivating music on the Belgian De:tuned label, built from recordings made with the vintage 1960s Subharchord Synthesizer. Across 6 tracks, Sun Electric takes listeners on a strange yet wonderful journey through shifting moods and sonic textures, capturing their unmistakable sense of exploration and atmosphere. With kind support of the Studio for Electroacoustic Music of the Akademie der Kunste. Stay tuned!
Blood Blood Song continues East of the Valley Blues’ streak of sublime, future-forward acoustic fantasias. For years, the Toronto-based duo, comprised of brothers Kevin and Patrick Cahill, has excelled at an earthy and pensive brand of instrumental music inspired by notions of folk music as a global, rather than regional, idiom. While the duo’s elegant and unassuming virtuosity easily distinguishes East of the Valley Blues from its contemporaries of would-be Bashos and fledgling Faheys, it is the group’s telepathic improv that provides the certain x-factor that ultimately sets it apart from its peers. Throughout Blood Blood Song, Kevin Cahill’s percussive, prepared nylon string guitar---occasionally evoking the sound of a begena—remains in constant conversation with his brother Patrick’s nimble steel string abstractions. Though the stereo separation places the brothers on opposite corners of the stereo field—Kevin mostly on the right and Patrick mostly on the left—the two guitars often create the illusion of appearing to meet in the middle, where they blend into a single, dynamic sound. Blood Blood Song is an album of uncommon intimacy and grace. Of music that doesn’t so much develop as unspool. Music that blooms. - James Toth / Wooden Wand
"K&L for KL" and "BLK+LND" bring together two of Phill Niblock's final compositions, conceived by Niblock as companion works and intended to travel together. Released by Sub Rosa, the record preserves a pairing that Niblock himself wanted heard as a whole. In 2022, Niblock asked bass clarinetists Katie Porter, based in New York, and Lucio Capece, based in Berlin, to record "K&L for KL," a work for two bass clarinets and electronic playback dedicated to his partner Katherine Liberovskaya. Porter and Capece perform together as Phase to Phase, a duo whose own music often explores the fragile, complex world of soft multiphonics. Niblock's music occupies another scale entirely: massive, sustained walls of sound in which individual tones accumulate into dense, physical fields. The recording took place on December 1, 2022, at Johan Vandermaelen's studio in Aaigem, Brussels. Porter and Capece had arrived to work with Niblock, but he had contracted COVID and joined the session via Zoom. Under Vandermaelen's direction, they spent the day recording the extensive material Niblock required, documenting the two bass clarinets in different iterations and across every octave specified for the work. Niblock later worked with Davide Capobianco in Pro Tools to construct the composition from these recordings. "K&L for KL" was premiered by Porter and Capece in Berlin in April 2023, with Niblock present and performing his films live alongside the music. They performed the work again in September 2023 at Niblock's 90th-birthday celebration at Silent Green in Berlin, again with Niblock performing his films live. The companion work, "BLK+LND," for acoustic bass, bass clarinet, and electronic playback, grew from recordings made in 2021 by bassist Robert Black and bass clarinetist Neil Leonard under Niblock's direction. Commissioned by Black, the work was constructed in Pro Tools by Niblock with assistance from Davide Capobianco and completed in late November 2023. Black, whom Niblock greatly admired, had died in the summer of 2023, making "BLK+LND" a posthumous collaboration with one of the musicians for whom it was conceived. The final chapter of these works unfolded in the last days of Niblock's life. On January 6, 2024, two days before his death, Niblock called Neil Leonard and Katie Porter from the hospital. He spoke with Leonard about plans for the premiere and tour of "BLK+LND," entrusting him with carrying the project forward. Niblock had wanted "K&L for KL" and "BLK+LND" to mirror one another and to be presented together on tour. Their pairing here fulfills that intention: two immense works for low-pitched instruments, built from the particular physicality of bass, bass clarinet, and electronic sound, and shaped through Niblock's singular process of accumulation and transformation. For Sub Rosa, this release is not simply an archival document. It realizes Niblock's final wish for these works to be heard together, bringing together two of his final compositions and preserving the musical relationships and collaborations at the heart of their creation.
2025 repress; clear vinyl with white Hi-melt. "1998: Tortoise's third studio album TNT is released. In and out of print over the past decade we are happy to finally give everyone what they have been asking for - TNT on vinyl again! Pressed on high quality virgin vinyl, the two LPs are packaged in a deluxe old-style tip-on gatefold jacket fully replicating the original artwork and includes a download coupon for the first time!"
This is just sublime: Stroom & Hessel Veldman illuminate 13 unreleased gems by a sacred figure of ‘80s DIY Dutch tape music, nestling deeply precious, noctilucent synth works for lovers of BoC, Eno & Harmonia, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream & Klaus Schulze, Dominique Lawalrée...
Trust the Lowlands standard bearers at Stroom to pluck this quietly breathtaking bouquet from behind the ear of DIY synth and ambient music history. Adding to prized reissues of Enno Velthuys’ work over the past decade - from albums to songs secreted on comps for LSD and Light in the Attic - ‘Music From the Other Side of the Fence’ helps fill gaps in the patchy knowledge of his cultish catalogue 1975-1990. While the label are being typically, poetically playful with background info, a crudely educated guess can assign pieces to recordings that made up his four cassettes issued 1982-1987, but it’s better taken as a lovingly sequenced overview of his harmonious short stories, each riddled with an exquisite atmospheric magick that tiles up to an adorable portrait of the troubled artist.
If memory serves, it was a pair of LSD comps that first anonymously seeded Velthuys’ ohrwurms ‘Blue Heron’ & ‘The Day After’ to our lugs, at least, and it wasn’t until a reissue of their motherships ‘Landscapes in Thin Air’ (1985) & ‘Different Places’ (1987) that things began to fall in place. A slightly broader picture now emerges via this new raft of signature, woozy arabesques and powdered ambient pads threaded with a feel for extended melody that ties it all off with a ribbon bow. A solitary, melancholic presence guides from the frosted carillon of ’Something Special’ thru the reedy romance of ‘Uplands (Unplugged Alt Version 2)’, sashaying to types of aerial waltz in ‘Underneath a Dark Sky’ and slowed, Vangelisian brass fanfare with ‘Moonlight Serenade’ that surely shiver nostalgic timbers with an evocative, tongue-tip timbre that tickles places others don’t reach.
100% no brainer for hopeless ambient synth romantics and introverts.
“Peace is not the word to play” rapped Large Professor on Main Source’s 1991 debut album. His plea to stop abusing the word “peace” simply for rhetoric flair sounds just as valid in today’s genocidal world as it did in the streets of New York over 30 years ago. For Oiro Pena to name this album Béke, meaning peace in Hungarian – or white people in French Caribbean creole – it seems like they finally have something to say.
With this group/concept/project called Oiro Pena, circling as a creative vortex around multi-instrumentalist Antti Vauhkonen and his mystical guru Pentti Oironen, each recording has felt like a fresh start – often via recording or improvisation methods. Before, words haven’t come easy and it’s delightful to hear the new heights where their vocal presentation has grown to.
The six compositions are firmly rooted in spiritual jazz molds and folklore traditionals – Finnish language becoming a natural companion in this union. From chanting laments for freedom to covering “Motherless child” Oiro Pena travels seamlessly between Pharoah Sanders’ beautifully wild lyricism and melancholic Nordic folk jazz. Everybody in the group seems to know what they should be doing at each moment, the various swells and turns in the music are navigated with appropriate force and feeling.
Peace isn’t only the antithesis or absence of war and turmoil, but also blossoming of new possibilities and hope. Undiluted creative expression like this album can create form for these new horizons that we humans need now more than ever. While with this music Oiro Pena are playing the word peace, they play it with conviction. Hope somebody somewhere would lay down their weapons after hearing it.
“Peace is not the word to play” rapped Large Professor on Main Source’s 1991 debut album. His plea to stop abusing the word “peace” simply for rhetoric flair sounds just as valid in today’s genocidal world as it did in the streets of New York over 30 years ago. For Oiro Pena to name this album Béke, meaning peace in Hungarian – or white people in French Caribbean creole – it seems like they finally have something to say.
With this group/concept/project called Oiro Pena, circling as a creative vortex around multi-instrumentalist Antti Vauhkonen and his mystical guru Pentti Oironen, each recording has felt like a fresh start – often via recording or improvisation methods. Before, words haven’t come easy and it’s delightful to hear the new heights where their vocal presentation has grown to.
The six compositions are firmly rooted in spiritual jazz molds and folklore traditionals – Finnish language becoming a natural companion in this union. From chanting laments for freedom to covering “Motherless child” Oiro Pena travels seamlessly between Pharoah Sanders’ beautifully wild lyricism and melancholic Nordic folk jazz. Everybody in the group seems to know what they should be doing at each moment, the various swells and turns in the music are navigated with appropriate force and feeling.
Peace isn’t only the antithesis or absence of war and turmoil, but also blossoming of new possibilities and hope. Undiluted creative expression like this album can create form for these new horizons that we humans need now more than ever. While with this music Oiro Pena are playing the word peace, they play it with conviction. Hope somebody somewhere would lay down their weapons after hearing it.
Ricky V runs wild on Mohammad Reza Mortazavi’s Persian tombak hand drum actions, expanding a 4 min kernel of inspiration into 24 minutes of mesmerising polyrhythmic traction. From an original 'Swamp' piece that practically recalls Ricardo’s style of slinky minimal techno sorcery to begin with, the Chilean-German maverick derives a more driving tract of rough hewn rhythmic grit bound to hypnotise dancefloors for the duration. Accentuating the undulating bass and dialling up the volume whilst retaining the frictional grind of the original, Villalobos gets right inside the groove with typically obsessive tekkerz, plucking out additional string motifs and tempering the flow with signature, taut but sinuous, loosey goosey flex that cross-pollinates cultures and gets right under the skin of the thing. Mohammad Reza Mortazavi (b. 1979, Iran) is a virtuoso percussionist known for his groundbreaking work with the tombak and daf, traditional Persian drums that he has radically redefined through new playing techniques and extended vocabulary. Mortazavi began playing the tombak at the age of six. By nine, he had already outpaced his teacher and won Iran’s national tombak competition — a distinction he would earn six more times. By his early twenties, he was widely regarded as one of the foremost players of the instruments. Since then, his music has continued to evolve, embracing new forms and vocabularies beyond tradition. Ricardo Villalobos (b. 1970, Chile) is a pioneering figure in minimal techno, celebrated for his hypnotic approach to rhythm. Raised in Germany after his family fled Pinochet’s regime, Villalobos was drawn early to percussion — he began playing congas and bongos at eleven, developing a tactile relationship to rhythm that would later inform his distinctive production style. Immersed in both Latin American folk traditions and the emerging house and techno scenes of late-80s Europe, he began DJing and producing in the early 1990s, quickly achieving cult status within global club culture. Swamp originally appears on the album Nexus, released in 2025 via Latency.
Parisian label Latency presents "Without References / Cindy van Acker (Variations)", a new release by goat (JP) and legendary producer Ricardo Villalobos. For this project, Villalobos reinterprets two tracks – "Orin" and "Factory" – originally composed by goat (JP) for choreographer and performance artist Cindy van Acker’s dance piece "Without References". The release follows Latency’s recent publication of Villalobos’ variation on percussionist Mohammad Reza Mortazavi’s "Swamp" (Latency, 2025), continuing the label’s exploration of reinterpretation and rhythmic dialogue. goat (JP), led by Osaka-based composer Koshiro Hino (YPY, Kakuhan, Boredoms, Mark Fell), is widely regarded as a leading force in contemporary minimalist composition. In “Without References/Cindy Van Acker”, goat (JP) transforms non-tonal rhythmic patterns into intricate, hypnotic structures with remarkable depth. In this new version, the group’s simultaneously tribal and futuristic sound is reshaped by Villalobos’ distinctive production style, which draws from both minimalist techno and Latin American rhythmic traditions. Ricardo Villalobos is a pioneering figure in minimal techno, known for his hypnotic and deeply rhythmic approach to electronic music. Born in Chile and raised in Germany after his family fled Pinochet’s regime, Villalobos developed an early fascination with percussion, beginning to play congas and bongos at the age of eleven. This tactile engagement with rhythm continues to inform his production work today. Influenced by both Latin American folk traditions and the emerging house and techno scenes of late-1980s Europe, he began DJing and producing in the early 1990s and quickly gained cult status within global club culture. Cindy van Acker’s dance piece "Without References" features scenography by visionary choreographer Romeo Castellucci. The stage environment evokes a space that shifts between a waiting room, a train station hall, and a mid-century installation. Eleven dancers interpret Van Acker’s precise yet fluid movements, interacting with goat (JP)’s percussive, stripped-down compositions to create a visceral and immersive performance. The artwork features photographs by Magali Dougados from a staging of "Without References" at the Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis.
A sonic journey through rhythm and abstraction by the cult Japanese post-rock ensemble goat (jp). Originally composed as the score for Cindy Van Acker’s eponymous dance piece ‘Without References,’ this release expands the group’s radical approach to rhythm and structure into the realm of contemporary performance. Hailing from Osaka and led by Koshiro Hino (YPY, Kakuhan, Boredoms, Mark Fell), goat (jp) has redefined minimalism by prioritizing pure percussive interplay over melody—using guitar, bass, drums, and percussion. Their intricate rhythmic architectures blur the line between mechanical precision and organic fluidity, using harmonics outside standard tonality, muted bass tones, and interlocking drum patterns. The result is a relentless, hypnotic sound—one that pulses like an urban ritual, at once tribal and futuristic. goat (jp) elevates rhythmic composition to an extreme, creating performances that immerse audiences in a trance-like state. Their sonic explorations push the boundaries of instrumental music, making their live shows both physically intense and meticulously controlled. Recognised as one of Japan’s most compelling avant-garde acts, goat (jp) transforms rhythm into pure architecture—an evolving structure of sound that unfolds with unwavering precision and power. goat (jp) recently supported Ryoji Ikeda for a series of major shows in Japan as part of the ‘Ultratronics Japan Tour,’ further reinforcing their prominent role in the contemporary experimental music scene. Recently, goat (jp) has performed at Liquidroom (Tokyo), Rewire Festival (The Hague), Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), Gnration (Braga), Centro de Artes Visuais (Coimbra), Galeria Zè Dos Bois (Lisbon), and Creative Center (Osaka). About Cindy Van Acker’s ‘Without References’ : A choreographic exploration of form, duration, and memory, Cindy Van Acker’s ‘Without References’ features scenography by visionary director Romeo Castellucci. The performance creates a space that oscillates between a waiting room, a train station hall, and a mid-century installation. Eleven dancers interpret Van Acker’s stark yet fluid physical language, interacting with goat (jp)’s percussive and purified compositions to create a visceral, immersive experience.
Mohammad Reza Mortazavi returns to Latency with Nexus, a full-length album recorded in Berlin that extends his radical reinvention of Persian percussion. Renowned for pushing the tombak and daf into new territory with unprecedented techniques, Mortazavi now incorporates voice, effects, and electronic treatments into his sound for the first time. These additions deepen, rather than depart from, his lifelong exploration of rhythm and resonance. The record opens with ‘Zendegi’ (‘Life’), built from the chant “Woman, Life, Freedom” as a gesture towards his homeland and beyond. Throughout Nexus, Mortazavi explores connection, transformation, and the unseen forces that shape reality, presenting rhythm as both guide and teacher. The album title itself points to a meeting place where energies, ideas, and times converge, capturing its meditative but exploratory spirit. The cover features artwork by American artist and filmmaker Jordan Belson, whose “visual music” aligns with Mortazavi’s trance-inducing percussion language. His hypnotic live shows have reached the Berlin Philharmonie, Paris Pantheon, and Sydney Opera House, while his rhythmic innovations have earned acclaim across experimental and electronic circles, including collaborations with Burnt Friedman and Mark Fell.
Brazilian avant-jazz vanguardists Grupo Um celebrate their 50th anniversary, sharing a second previously lost 1970s album from the vaults. Nineteen Seventy Seven (titled after the year it was recorded) is another rip-roaring instrumental fusion treasure from the band which spawned from within Hermeto Pascoal’s famed mid-1970s São Paulo collective.
Like their debut album Starting Point, Grupo Um’s Nineteen Seventy Seven was recorded when Brazil's military dictatorship was at its most repressive. “There were no open doors to those who dreamt to be protagonists in creative instrumental music”, remembers drummer Zé Eduardo Nazario, “even popular composers and singers had to submit their songs to censors and many records were banned and confiscated from the stores.”
Just like Hermeto Pascoal's Viajando Com O Som (1977) and Grupo Um's previous album Starting Point (1975), both of which remained unreleased until the 21st century, Zé Eduardo asserts that the 1977 album was flatly 'without any chance to be released at that time."
Recorded at Rogério Duprat’s Vice-Versa Studios in São Paulo, the group were under both time and space restraints, “we chose the small Studio B,” Lelo Nazario recalls, “which had a Tascam (TE AC) 12x8 console and a 4-channel AMPEX AG 440 machine. Therefore, we had to record without overdubs, everything straight to tape.”
Expanding from a trio to a quintet, original Grupo Um members Lelo Nazario (keys), Zé Eduardo Nazario (drums), and Zeca Assumpção (bass) were joined by saxophonist Roberto Sion and percussionist Carlinhos Gonçalves. Carlinhos, Zé and Zeca had already played together in the group Mandala, while brothers Lelo and Zé had just finished a stint backing Hermeto Pascoal during his years in São Paulo.
Lelo was deeply immersed in modular synthesizer experimentation during this period, working extensively with the ARP2600 and EMS Synthi AKS. These electroacoustic explorations formed the sonic foundation for "Mobile/Stabile," one of his first compositions to merge modular synthesis with Brazilian music, a fusion that would ripple throughout the Brazilian jazz scene. The piece premiered at the first São Paulo International Jazz Festival in 1978, performed by Grupo Um with guest trumpeter Márcio Montarroyos. In a shocking moment, festival organizers interrupted the show mid-performance, sparking fierce backlash from both audience members and journalists who denounced the incident as artistic censorship during Brazil's era of political and cultural repression. The version on Nineteen Seventy Seven is the first recording of the composition.
Nineteen Seventy Seven combines Afro-Brazilian rhythm, modular synthesis and a plethora of whistles, percussion and effects pedals. Album opener “Absurdo Mudo” - so titled for the absurd difficulty it poses to the musicians performing it - starts out in a cloud of mysterious dissonance, before the haze breaks for a glorious keyboard and saxophone interplay atop an uptempo samba groove. “Cortejo dos Reis Negros (Version 2)” (Procession of the Black Kings), based on the maracatu rhythm, inverts the traditional jazz song structure by beginning with improvisations, which are followed by the theme and a final coda. “The studio also had two Parasound electronic reverb units,” Lelo notes, “and the timbre is very audible on the soprano sax and percussion.”
Grupo Um’s daring music represents a manifesto of resistance during the dictatorship years, but it’s one which remains just as relevant today. As Lelo puts it: “For me, the aesthetic issue has always been about combining contemporary avant-garde languages with Brazilian music, independent of categories and commercial interests. The result of this fusion takes music to a new level.”
Nineteen Seventy Seven will be released for the first time on vinyl LP, CD and digitally on 23rd January 2026 via Far Out Recordings.
Pax Nicholas is one of the last living veterans of Fela Kuti’s Africa 70 — the ensemble that defined Afrobeat as a global force. Born in Accra, Ghana, he joined Africa 70 as conga player and backing vocalist in 1971, appearing on landmark recordings including Lady Shakara. Living through the violent raids on Fela’s Kalakuta Republic and nine months of imprisonment under Nigeria’s military dictatorship, he experienced firsthand the dangerous power of music as resistance. In 1978, he left Africa 70 at the Berlin Jazz Festival alongside drummer Tony Allen, and settled in Germany, where he built a remarkable second chapter — leading the twelve-piece Afrobeat ensemble Ridimtaksi, collaborating with Finnish jazz maverick Jimi Tenor, and reuniting with the African diaspora in Berlin for Ebo Taylor’s celebrated 2012 album Appia Kwa Bridge released on Strut Records, alongside Tony Allen and Africa 70 guitarist Oghene Kologbo, recorded at Berlin’s analogue Lovelite Studios. In 2009, Daptone Records reissued his 1973 cult classic Na Teef Know De Road of Teef, earning him long-overdue global recognition. Now signed to Paris-based Afrobeat imprint Comet Records, Pax Nicholas returns with his new single “Mind Your Business” — a heavyweight dancefloor Afrobeat cut built on thundering brass, interlocking percussion and a razor-sharp guitar riff. The release features an exclusive remix by Gabriel Belabbas, producer, DJ and co-founder of Parisian label Positive Future, who recasts Mind Your Business in deep, minimal territory — a sparse, tension-laced groove that channels the hypnotic darkness of Moodyman and Ricardo Villalobos. Stripping the arrangement back to its percussive skeleton, he lets the Afrobeat elements — brass, rhythm, heat — surface and recede like smoke, leaving just enough space for the tension to build and the dancefloor to fall. Slow-burning and devastating on a proper soundsystem.
Written and produced by Mika Vainio in Turku in 1993
Muutaja is written and produced by Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen