NEW ARRIVALS

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.”

Go Kurosawa is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and co-founder of the independent label Guruguru Brain. Best known as the drummer and vocalist of Kikagaku Moyo, he has spent the past decade building bridges between East and West, sound and silence, rock and ritual. soft shakes is something different. A personal chapter in Go’s journey, it marks his first solo album, created entirely by himself and made, for the first time, purely for himself. After Kikagaku Moyo disbanded, Go spent some time producing records for other artists, but with soft shakes, there was no plan. Just the instinct to pick up an instrument, play, and see what might unfold. As he puts it, “The whole framework is new. When I made music for the band, I always knew who would play what. This time, it was just me. No plan, no expectation. And weirdly, that became the concept: doing it all myself, for the first time.” Go has a rare kind of musical instinct. He can play anything, hears everything, and yet never takes himself too seriously. For a long time, making music alone wasn’t part of the plan. Music had always been about connection. But over time, as he travelled, collected instruments and set up Guruguru Brain studio in Rotterdam, the sound of a solo voice emerged. soft shakes came together between January and June in Rotterdam, through dark, rainy, quiet days. Each day, Go would head to the studio, pick up whatever instrument was around and simply play. The process was slow and instinctive. “If something still moved me the next day, I’d add to it. If not, I’d start something new. One step at a time, without pressure.” Even as a solo record, the music doesn’t feel tight or controlled. It has the looseness of jamming, the joy of following where the sound wants to go. “I wanted that feeling, even if I was jamming with myself.” What comes through is music that feels playful, layered, rhythmic and delightfully unexpected. Just like Go. The album artwork was created by his partner Ao, her first time doing artwork for a record. “It captures the freedom and boldness of trying something new and I love it,” he says. soft shakes arrives at a moment of transition. Go recently relocated to Fukuoka, Japan, after years of living and working in Europe. “While making this album, we were deciding where to move. I knew it would be my last creation while living in Europe. When I listen back, I can hear that longing for something, towards a far away home.” The record feels like the closing of one chapter and the beginning of another. “Now I’m excited to build a studio in Japan and start again. I don’t know what will come next, but I want it to be shaped and influenced by new surroundings.” And while this record might be personal, Go hopes it offers something to others too. “I wish people would travel somewhere else through music. You float around, lose track of time, and when the record ends, you feel the soft comfort of coming home again.”

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.

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.

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.

Following on from their seminal Light As A Feather LP, Outubro (October) was originally released in 1980 and began Azymuth’s run of prolific output for Milestone Records throughout the decade. Typifying the consummate craftsmanship of the three members’ performances - each with such distinct personality and together so perfectly balanced - their perfectionist attitude to sound is maintained across the production on the album, beautifully colouring the expressionist fusion of samba rhythm, jazz progression, funk attitude and psychedelic electronics. The album hosts a wonderful mix of tempos and styles, from Alex Malheiros’ earth-shaking slap-bass on ‘Dear Limmertz’, which was to become a hit on London’s underground disco and jazz-dance club scenes alike, to the late maestro Jose Roberto Bertrami’s genial melodic Rhodes excursions on the vocoder laden, samba-jazz masterpiece ‘Un Amigo’, while Ivan ‘Mamao’ Conti’s signature swing on ‘Maracana’ exemplifies the root of Azymuth’s ‘samba doido’ (crazy samba) philosophy. The two cover versions on the album are the title track which was originally penned by Milton Nascimento, and Chick Corea’s, ‘500 Miles High’, both of which magically reimagine the originals and further demonstrate the immense virtuosity of this cult recording.

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.

Although he is still completely unknown to Western audiences, for Ethiopians, Tlahoun Gèssèssè is THE VOICE. The first-ever pan-Ethiopian star, he has embodied such nonstop unanimity since the end of the 1950s that is a role-model and a point of reference.

Souldynamic celebrates the 10th year anniversary of their all time classic “Equatoriale” with two special re-edited and re-mastered versions, including an instrumental mix and released on vinyl format only on Excedo Records. “Equatoriale” became Souldynamic's biggest track after the release of the legendary video showing Lil Louis playing it at Concrete in Paris with the acapella of Chuck Roberts - My House. The 12 inch record also includes two more fresh new tracks which make this record perfect for the summer heat.

Born in 1944 on Martinique island, Max Cilla worked his whole life to resurrect the bamboo flute played by his forebears in the fields from the relative oblivion into which it had fallen in the early 20th century. At first, Max Cilla built them. He went up into his native coastal hills to manufacture them according to traditional rules used in India. Using a simple piece of rough wood, he fabricated a noble instrument of great « historical » significance that showed the way for a younger generation in search of its identity. « I came up with the name of the coastal hills flute »: the great mystic asserts. Fascinated by Cuban music and Latin rhythms, he composed & played his own songs accompanied by the island’s traditional percussions. He recorded and released La Flute des Mornes Vol.1 in 1981. Max Cilla played with Archie Shepp in Paris, recorded on Bonga’s album Angola 74, shared the stage with Tito Puente & Machito and keep on playing today.

At the beginning of the 1960s, at the Berklee College of Music, Byard Lancaster met some feisty friends: Sonny Sharrock, Dave Burrell and Ted Daniel. It is easy to see why he rapidly became involved in free jazz. Once he was settled in New York, he appeared on Sunny Murray Quintet, recorded under the leadership of the drum crazy colleague of Albert Ayler. In 1968, the saxophonist and flutist recorded his first album under his own name: It’s Not Up To Us. The following year he came to Paris in the wake of… Sunny Murray. He would come back to France in 1971 (again with Murray) and in 1973 (without Murray for a change). This is when he met Jef Gilson, the pianist and producer who encouraged him to record under his own name again. On Palm Records (Gilson’s label), he would release four albums: Us, Mother Africa, Exactement and Funny Funky Rib Crib. The recording of “Exactement” required two sessions in the studio: February 1st and May 18th 1974 – in between the two dates, Lancaster recorded, alongside Clint Jackson, the excellent “Mother Africa”. Two names appear on the cover of “Exactement”: Lancaster (Byard) and Speller (Keno). Byard Lancaster wanted to be precise, moving regularly from one instrument to another: first on piano, which was the first instrument he learned. On “Sweet Evil Miss Kisianga”, his inspiration is first and foremost Coltrane (even if leaning more towards Alice than John), this announces the storm to follow. It is Lancaster’s horn-playing which really stands out: on alto (the sound of which is transformed by an octavoice on one track, "Dr. Oliver W. Lancaster") or soprano saxophones, as well as on flute or bass clarinet, the musician walks a tightrope making the most of all the risks he takes. Using the full register of his instruments, he has fun with the possibilities. Then, Lancaster invokes or evokes Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and even Prokofiev, before going into a danse alongside Keno Speller on percussion. Above all, he has a unique sound. Byard Lancaster, on whatever instrument he plays and by continually seeking, always ends up hitting the right note… ends up by playing exactement the note he had to play.

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.

Originally released in 2005, Out To Lunch by Otomo Yoshihide’s New Jazz Orchestra (ONJO) is a bold, track-by-track homage that reimagines Eric Dolphy’s legendary 1964 album of the same name. Bringing together the early members of ONJO, this record serves as the most vivid manifestation of Otomo’s "New Jazz" concept at the time—placing a jazz orchestra, free improvisation, and electronic textures on the exact same stage.

Experimental dark folk group Brannten Schnüre's 2016 album, 'Geträumt hab ich vom Martinszug' back in print. "Dich lieb ich, Erde! trauerst du doch mit mir! Und unsre Trauer wandelt wie Kinderschmerz In Schlummer sich und wie die Winde Flattern und flüstern im Saitenspiele The third stanza of Friedrich Hölderlin’s poem ‘Dem sonnengott’ evokes a narrator who is tortured by Spleen until slumber makes his childlike gloom disappear with music. Although today’s readers might judge these nineteenth century musings of the Imagination as mere stylistic platitudes, they also still speak beyond the grave as universal truths. A mere two hundred years later similar anxieties and hopes are still channeled through various art forms, with changing success and reverberation. Brannten Schnüre are one of those neo-romantic music experimentalists who add to a long tradition of celebrating folk tale and exoticism. Their meticulously crafted loops, hesitant melodies and heavily nostalgic lyricism could easily be translated to what the late philosopher and music critic Mark Fisher called ‘hauntology’, a postmodern longing for a lost future. To describe the beauty of ‘Geträumt hab’ ich vom Martinszug’, however, the term seems somewhat dissatisfying. Romanticism is a hard nut to crack in the Anthropocene, and Brannten Schnüre’s realms of the cerebral are too deeply ingrained in a German tradition of story telling to define them within popular paradigm. ‘Geträumt hab’ ich vom Martinszug’ was recorded in 2014 in Würzburg and functions as the autumn part of the band’s seasonal cycle quadrilogy (the other segments being ‘Aprilnacht’ (SicSic), ‘Sommer im Pfirsichhain’ (Aguirre) and ‘Durch unser zugedecktes Tal’ (Youdonthavetocallitmusic)). It deals with the Saint Martin’s parade, a mostly European tradition to celebrate the medieval spirit of Saint Martin of Tours, friend of children and patron of the poor. Around 11 November children come out on the streets with lanterns and sing ancient songs in exchange for sweets. It’s a period of snugness and expectation, of yearning and dreaming, and therefore a consummate subject for the duo to scrutinize. To the adult’s ear the dream of the Saint Martin’s parade isn’t all that consolatory. The dark and slow loops of Christian Schoppik rather sound like motifs for a welcome paralysis. Sometimes as a gentle backdrop for vocals by Katie Rich and Schoppik himself, the repetitive structures serve as tricksters that trade innocence for the uncanny. The dream becomes a fever dream which quickly absorbs the listener into a vacuum, an eternal post-panic attack semi-relief. Maybe that’s the amazing paradox of Brannten Schnüre. The space they occupy is never comforting – as if being locked up inside a Carl Grossberg painting – but it’s also a subliminal aural zone you do not want to leave. It’s music as being, as a stream, devoid of climax or catharsis. And because it is flux and being, and exists to be taken, it speaks in art’s purest form. ‘In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art’ Susan Sontag famously concluded her essay ‘Against Interpretation’ with. Well, look no further …"

Brannten Schnüre, the experimental dark folk group out of Würzburg, Germany's 2015 album, 'Sommer Im Pfirsichhain' back in print. "Christian Schoppik composed and played all the music, Katie Rich whispers, recites and sings. Together they make astoundingly beautiful folk with a rich instrumentation leaning towards the atonal spectrum. Instrumental wanderings stand alongside Nico-esque poetry tales. Christian plays the accordeon and in some songs guitar and flute. Inspired by hierophants like Nový Svět and David Jackman, solemn song fragments (a lot of old greek rembetiko-recordings) are modified and looped, with additional instruments and voices being integrated later on. His music has been described as “surreal folkcollage” and “german hauntology”. With the emergence of Schoppik’s second project, a dada cabaret called Agnes Beil in 2010, Brannten Schnüre moved closer to the song structures of its frivolous sibling. The songs of Schoppik’s latest creation Sommer im Pfirsichhain are further accompanied by a female singing voice, lending the pieces the voluptuous quality of a stickily tense midsummer. Sommer Im Pfirschhain (Summer In The Peachgrove) is the second part of a quartet of releases. The first being Aprilnacht which got released on Sic Sic Tapes last year. Part three Geträumt hab' ich vom Martinszug and part four will follow later. Reference points are bands like Winter Family and Twinsistermoon. Music etched on folkloric, ritual elements transferred into the 21th century. Also worth mentioning is the hand-drawn artwork which is made by artist Gwénola Carrère."

Another blinder from Basic Channel's Wackies re-issue programme finally gets a re-press. Between stints in Jamaica for legends like Glen Brown and Junjo Lawes, Wayne Jarrett travelled from his Connecticut base to record this album during the same weeks as the sessions for everyone's favourite - Horace Andy's Dance Hall Style. These are two of the great vocal reggae LPs of all time - no questions asked. With Clive Hunt in full effect, Showcase Volume One follows the six-track dub-showcase format and Wayne never sounded more like Horace with his yearning throaty gargle! Blues afficionados might even want to discuss the influence of the late, lamented Bobby 'Blue' Bland on reggae vocals, but that's by the by. Including four unmissable Studio One versions - Azul's deadly Rockfort Rock, Sleepy's Every Tongue Shall Tell (with outrageous Isley fuzz), yet another Heptones cut via Leroy Sibbles, and a killer Drum Song.

This compilation ‘Pas Un Pas Sans… The Boleros of O.K. Jazz 1957-77’ is a selection of songs from what is one of the most unique and passionate music genres on earth, the Congolese bolero. Of all Congolese bands venturing into the bolero, the O.K. Jazz orchestra is by far the king of this musical style which originated in the late 19th century in Cuba. In its nearly forty years of existence, the illustrious band released dozens of boleros, with beautiful compositions, mainly by Franco and Vicky, and occasionally from Kwamy, Edo, Simaro and Mujos among others. The slow form of the bolero allowed Franco, who said in various interviews that he loved all forms of ‘slow music’, to express his most profound soul stirrings and create a style of his own. With the suave voice of Vicky and the breathtaking and dramatic guitar touch of Franco, O.K. Jazz was able to capture the true essence of the bolero. The favorite theme in the bolero songs of O.K. Jazz was, without doubt, the joy and pain of love, but it also touches on friendship, city life in Kinshasa, laments, politics and even advertising for a shoe brand like the remarkable song ‘Pas Un Pas Sans Bata’ featured on this compilation. All of the songs, except one, were restored and remastered from the original 45 rpm or 78 rpm release. The selection chronologically presented here consists – as always – for a good part of songs never reproduced after their original release.

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.

Abstract dub dream-weavers SKRS INTL. & WZRDRY remerge at the behest of Bristol’s Accidental Meetings for a super lush dose of wormholing ambient dance pressure tipped FFO Rezzett, Peak Oil/False Aralia, Second Woman. ‘Orbit Flares’ combines the two Canadian units for the first time in over a decade, naturally reprising an empathic level of vibes in a half hour of music that betrays illusive tekkerz developed over the interim. Any semblance of sharp edges are smudged to a brilliantly psychedelic, polychromatic lustre and laced with disciplined, yet properly wayward rhythms that tumble, buckle and vaporise in fractious delirium. Each new SKRS drop is welcome around ours but, jeez, they really push into their most impressive work here, possibly thanks to wzrdryAV’s synaesthetic suss. Front to back it feel likes they catch minds/bodies in the split second before going under anaesthesia, and extrude us into pitch-bent helical vortices of plonging dub chords and gooey bass, finding bold new realms of computerised dub suss. Handrails are slippery as fuck, ground melts beneath feet, leaving bodies gyring in space between the weightless dub techno inflections of ‘1.1’, into air-stepping chicanery on ‘1.2’, or glitching like a hair-kissing Vladislav Delay on ‘1.3’. The smeared chords and scudding subs of ‘2.1’ call to mind Second Woman emulating the illusive dub-soul of False Aralia drops, and ‘2.3’ feels like distant rig heard on a Nitrous-induced permo. Sheer class for harder to please future dub freaks.