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Jnbo is the moniker assumed by Melbourne / Naarm-based composer, producer/engineer and bass player Henry Jenkins. Jenkins is known to most as the producer/engineer behind Surprise Chef, Karate Boogaloo, and the Grammy-winning Frollen Music Library. Serving as College Of Knowledge Records’ in-house recording and mix engineer, Jenkins has provided the sonic constitution for Melbourne / Naarm’s instrumental cinematic soul movement. & Friends sees Jenkins turn his abilities to his own brilliant compositions. The album comprises 12 introspective instrumentals - deep, cinematic odysseys steeped in romance and sincerity, with an unmistakable ‘freak funk bump’. Jenkins explains the conceptualisation of & Friends: “I wanted to write a record I would look forward to recording with my friends. The music I was writing had a funk sensibility in the bass and drums, contrasted by a more cinematic approach in the harmonic and melodic content, with guitars slipping and sliding in between. I tried to make that contrast the character of the record. I felt that every song should have the same instrumentation and with the same personnel. This became an enjoyable creative constraint; how much variation could I pull out of the same 8 instruments over the course of the album? I wanted to find as much diversity as I could within these tight bounds.” Jenkins applied these principles to the recording of & Friends, bringing together longtime musical collaborators Hudson Whitlock, Darvid Thor and Callum Riley (Karate Boogaloo), Lachlan Stuckey and Jethro Curtin (Surprise Chef), Lewis Coleman and Lena Douglas (The Cactus Channel) to realise unconventional arrangements across three guitars, piano, string synthesizer, Hammond organ, drums and bass, with Jenkins himself assuming bass guitar and production duties. The resulting album is a strikingly unique melange; moments of picturesque ambience move into head-nodding funk, with the three guitars and three keyboards precisely arranged across the stereo field throughout. The record displays the influences of film composer Bernard Herrmann, lounge pioneer Les Baxter and Motown’s Lamont Dozier, alongside Jnbo’s own eccentric idiosyncrasies. Jnbo - & Friends is out worldwide College Of Knowledge Records on April 3rd 2026.
Backwoodz Studioz is excited to announce the release of Crayola Circles, a collaboration between rapper Fatboi Sharif and producer Child Actor. While both artists have long standing connections to Backwoodz, this album marks their first collaboration of any kind and breaks new artistic ground for all parties. Sharif’s previous album, Decay, released on Backwoodz in 2023, was a haunting experimental rap masterpiece, an acid trip in a mental hospital. On Crayola Circles Sharif trades menacing psychedelia for a simmering stew of blacklight expressionism, his verses slipping effortlessly through the swells and tides of Child Actor’s masterful production. No matter how uneasy the waves grow, Sharif is at ease, a truth teller whispering anti-riddles in your ear. This album feels like a new chamber for Child Actor, as well. The producer has been on an impressive run since dropping CINE- a collaboration with rapper Cavalier- on Backwoodz in late 2024. Child Actor has shown up in the liner notes of everyone from Navy Blue (The Sword & The Soaring) to Earl Sweatshirt (Live, Laugh, Love) to ELUCID (Revelator) to Open Mike Eagle (Neighborhood Gods Unlimited), to Ghais Guevara (A Quest to Self-Mythologize), amongst others. On Crayola Circles Child Actor’s production is dynamic, shifting and sliding into new phases and movements in an instant. The beats are full and knotty, leaning into jazz and folk, while remaining tethered to the tender minimalism that is his signature. It’s a difficult balance for any producer, and here it is executed perfectly, placing us in a world of wood and brass, cowhide and undersea piano. On any other record, this soundscape would steal the show — and it very nearly does — but Sharif’s command never wavers, ever in control; a lucid dreamer in an induced coma. There are no guests, no skits, and no interludes. There might not even be songs, instead Crayola Circles seems akin to a great river; singular, traversing forest and jungle, mountain and valley, running from mouth to endless sea.
Two turntables and a microphone. There is a truth in the clarity of that simple coda, a truth that also belies the breadth of what is possible within its confines. Sometimes you gotta get reminded. I Guess U Had To Be There, the new album from NYC rapper ELUCID and veteran producer Sebb Bash, is one of those ones. So fresh it sounds like it was made tomorrow, but bet money you could put this on in '89 and get heads bopping.
There are moments in music when masters of their craft cross paths at the height of their respective powers - records like Madvillainy, Liquid Swords, Dr. Octagonecologyst, and Hell Hath No Fury - where the result is more than the sum of its parts. ELUCID and Sebb Bash find themselves in this heady, seemingly effortless ephemera on I Guess U Had To Be There. Everything is both familiar and groundbreaking. The beats shift and flip under ELUCID's feet but he tightropes it all, delivery nimble as a mountain goat, producer and rapper moving in perfect synchronization. Some shining stars make memorable appearances: billy woods, Breezly Brewin, Estee Nack, Shabaka Hutchings. But this is a two-man show, and the duo keep the spotlight where it belongs. I Guess U Had To Be There is a captivating, convention-defying listen and a high-water mark for two of the best artists in the genre.
Big Crown is proud to present Thee Marloes’ sophomore album, Di Hotel Malibu. It arrives as a widening of the frame — a confident step away from the lines that once neatly held their sound, and toward something more porous, conversational, and deeply Indonesian. It’s been two years since Perak, the Surabaya trio’s debut for Big Crown Records, introduced their unique sound. This new record doesn’t abandon that lineage so much as stretch it, showing how much they have grown as a band since the release of their debut and all the experiences that came with it. Composed of vocalist and keyboardist Natassya Sianturi, guitarist and producer Sinatrya Dharaka and drummer Tommy Satwick, Thee Marloes have always worked as a unit, their songs shaped by shared reference points and a lived-in sense of groove. On this album, that collective language expands. The arrangements move across a broader spectrum, with new instrumental colors, unexpected rhythmic turns, and a looser approach to structure. The band describes it as a response to the last two years of living: social realities, love lives in flux, and all that success has brought into their lives. The album opener “Under the Silver Moon” is a stone cold two-stepper that addresses the bitter and the sweet of long-distance love affairs over a breezy musical backdrop. “Six Years” is a page from singer Natassya Sianturi’s life and her struggle to take the step of leaving a comfortable and stable daytime job to follow her dreams of a full-time career in music. “Harap Dan Ragu” explores life, death, and the emotions that orbit them, opening with an earworm guitar riff that ushers in Sianturi’s honeyed vocals, this time in her native language of Indonesian. The album continues to switch vibes and tones track to track with the darker, more introspective “The More”. The gorgeous musicianship and pulsing drums are met with the deeply poetic lyrics that walk the line between futility and unbreakable resilience. Thee Marloes dip into their drop dead gorgeous ballad bag with “Through the Changes” with a powerful yet delicate song about how we imagine and deal with what comes after death. “Boru” sung entirely in Batak, a traditional language from North Sumatera, goes further into asserting heritage as a foundation and mission statement for the group while “I’d Be Lost” takes us back to the dancefloor with a light and lovely profession of love. In the end, Di Hotel Malibu is the result of the best type of inspiration: the global attention Thee Marloes have earned, and the chance to play their homegrown music for fans around the world has put wind in their sails. Enjoy the record, then catch them as they tour the globe. Soul Music from Surabaya, another Big Crown Sureshot.
Involved in music for many years : playing music, digging & sharing reggae soul vibes, as a passionate of music, humble mélomane and Dj. Engaged as a selecta on Radio Graf’hit. Thanks to that, we met lot of producers, artists, beat makers etc.. Once, we were involved as a media Ina Dub Camp Festival. Thanks to the people and artists we met, We came to the fact that when you’re engaged with passion in a project, truly humble and hardworking, It came to reality ! We were grateful to meet artists and producers such as Roberto Sanchez, Rico OBF, Ben Alpha Steppa, Stand High Patrol and many more grate artist and producers . Amongst them, we met Roberto Sanchez and shared a very nice vibes. We later recorded a dub plate of Linval Thompson for « Groove Exploration » Radio show. Few month later, Roberto was proposing another dub plate and recording session with Linval Thompson. At that time, we had already experienced the blessing of writing a song , sung by an Artist. A militant Roots Reggae Legend ! I Man Max Romeo ! So, we wer connected , confident , engaged to experience this musical & spiritual work again. That is how we worked on together with Roberto: He proposed two Riddims, We choosed one, and Nesta wrote the lyrics on it. It came & fixed naturally to the Riddim and to Linval ‘s vibe! This « Rebel Up » song is inspired by Platon’s Cave allégorie. That illustrates perfectly today situation of our blind society Enslaved in consumption & materialism Disconnected of our spiritual potential. Beyond our artistic engagement, That is the aim of this song , in a humble way , As militant Reggae Label: To make people get ou of the cave And REBEL UP !!! REBEL UP !! Nesta Egor
Gondwana Records is pleased to announce ‘Interlude’, the second album from Estonian-born, London-based composer and pianist Hanakiv. Showcasing an expanded sound, the compositions trace a journey of overcoming the past, unfolding into a seductively unconventional style imbued with hope and a therapeutic quality. Existing in a liminal space between genres, Interlude , the second album from composer, pianist and now singer Hanakiv is as mysterious as it’s seductively unconventional, with piano, often prepared, only one of its elements, both analogue and electronic. First inspired by “those crystallised moments where time almost stands still, pain hasn’t yet fully set in, and happiness is still just a glimpse,” it provides, all the same, “a sense of hope that standing still is part of living.” Interlude’s range is further intimated by its contributors, including Portico Quartet’s Milo Fitzpatrick, who, as well as playing double bass throughout, co-wrote the refreshed long-term live favourite, ‘Intro’, and the eloquent closer, Stillness’. Also present are saxophonist Pille-Rite Rei, cellist Joanna Gutowska, violinist Gabriel Green, and PIKE on drums, helping capture the instances Hanakiv calls “in-betweens”. Unpredictable, unfathomable, candid and carefree, Interlude embodies flaws embraced as well as senses regained. This record is a product of creative and personal revelation, earned only when one’s true self.
Their first project as a duo, 'Midmeste' is Aussie composer-performers and long time collaborators Judith Hamann and James Rushford's latest slow-mo meditation on musical history, psychoacoustic phenomena and minimalism, performed on cello and various pipe organs. Hamann and Rushford have been working together for years, most visibly alongside Sam Dunscombe as Golden Fur, a chamber ensemble the friends established back in 2008. Each artist has moved decisively in the time since: Berlin-based Hamann outdid herself on last year's intimate and deeply personal 'Aunes', while Rushford brought his various experiments to a focal point on 'Turzets', balancing his tongue-in-cheek electroacoustic experiments with bold medieval deconstructions. Working as a duo, the pair isolate the similarities in their respective musical signatures; the title is a Middle English word meaning "the middlemost point" and signals the album's creation, where they searched out creative overlaps: xenharmonic tunings, organology, psychoacoustics and unintentional sounds, just for starters. And knowing each other so well is also a boon. Where so much minimal avant-garde gear can sound stuffy to the point of being exclusionary, 'Midmeste' sounds inviting even at its most uncompromising. They use English early music composer John Dunstaple's 'O rosa bella' to anchor their experiments, returning to its core themes every time the album starts to veer too far off course. And there's a refreshing calmness to this technique; in the beginning, Hamann's piercing harmonics provide the edge, while Rushford's rounded organ chords welcome in a more familiar structure that Hamann respects with elegant cello tones. Interestingly, the duo were given the opportunity to record the world's oldest playable organ, a 15th century instrument at Basilica St Valere in Switzerland. Since they were both on residency at La Becque in Lake Geneva, it made perfect sense to document the organ's unique character and add it to their composition - contextually, it's right on point. Mid-way through the first side, we can hear its creaking, crackling wooden frame and whistling resonances, the puffing bellows and the sound of hands and feet on the instrument. It's these impeccably captured peripheral sounds that give us a sense of place, bolstering the duo's engagement with history with a tangible historical object that still tells us its age. Tones warble, wobble and boom through the centuries-old pipes and Hamann follows the course with her patient, literate responses that add romance, mystery and humanity to what, on its own, might be dry. So we end up with forty minutes of some of the most unashamedly beautiful music either artist has put their name to yet - 'Midmeste' is a duet that whisks you through time, physical space and tonality itself. Remarkable stuff.
"David Jackman released the eight-part "Organum Electronics Subscription Series" via Die Stadt between 2023 and 2025; 'Mausoleum' is his latest work, created to further advance the trajectory established by that series.
While 'Mausoleum' follows the lineage of the "Organum Electronics Subscription Series," long-time listeners will likely be reminded of earlier albums like *HORII* or *RASA* the moment playback begins. The placement of sounds, the handling of deep bass, and the unique sense of time driving the piece all embody the essence of David Jackman—qualities that have remained consistent since his earliest works.
The composition features a tanpura, layers of deep bass drones, church bells and gongs, and high-register organ tones that emerge like shafts of light breaking through the clouds. Each sound is constructed with a precise understanding of exactly when it should ring out and where it should be placed. Although it possesses the meticulous sound design characteristic of his recent output, *Mausoleum* is by no means a mere recreation of the past.
While the work shares a conceptual nature with the paintings of Rothko or the compositions of Morton Feldman, it asserts a powerful presence as a standalone piece rather than functioning merely through repetition or variation. It represents a coexistence of his unchanging artistic identity and a persistent drive to explore new forms with every release.
What makes this album truly special is its exceptional level of refinement. David Jackman’s work is not typically intended as entertainment; however, here, the precisely controlled sense of pacing and structural integrity come together at a high level, resulting in a work that captivates as a piece of pure music.
In this sense, 'Mausoleum' stands as a milestone in David Jackman’s recent body of work. At the same time, subtle signs of a shift toward a slightly different direction appear throughout, hinting at the evolution to come. This work embodies two facets: it is both a culmination of the artistic identity cultivated over time and a starting point for a new evolution..."
The virally Tok'd Everyone Asked About You return with their first new recordings in 25 years. Never Leave follows up on six midwest emo seeds set into the wind of adulthood. What do we become when the guitar is pawned, when we sing only in the shower, when our hair begins to thin, when our parents die, when the dog is on prozac. Can we crash synths and guitars and ADHD polyrhythms into our abandoned teenage call and response dreams. How can we miss our band if we never leave? Catching up a quarter of a century of life in just 13 minutes, Never Leave's four songs are urgently paced—there's no extra time in the couch cushions of middle age. Rehearsed and tracked in their native Little Rock by Jason Weinheimer during April 2024 Total Eclipse, the EP confronts America's own darkening and wryly replies, "Where we goin' next?" Available exclusively from Numero or the Everyone Asked About You merch table, Never Leave is packaged in a sharp picture sleeve with accompanying lyric sheet for easy screaming along.
"Never before heard tunes from the heart of Manchester circa 1989. The lost demos of the band that was Joanna, recorded at iconic Strawberry and Pentagon Studios were discovered in a Manchester apartment loft after 35 years on the shelf. For fans of The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Charlatans. With the release of Hello Flower, Joanna is no longer “the most popular band without a record out,” as NME called them in 1990, but their singular spirit is now available for anyone who wants a taste." It’s 1989. The Stone Roses are dominating the Indie scene and music press. Happy Mondays are laying the foundations of what would come to be known as the Madchester era with chaotic live performances. All eyes are on the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Along the East Lancs Road, throughout industrial heartlands between Manchester and Liverpool, punctuated by woollyback accents, four young musicians meet and form the next contender for the scene’s attention, Joanna. Neil Holliday (vocals) and Terry Lloyd (bass), work colleagues from Runcorn and Widnes, join forces with Leigh Music College students Tyrone Holt (guitar) and Carl Alty (drums). They hail from thoroughly working-class backgrounds, raised by hard working dads and harder working mothers. Rejected by other local bands because of their perceived youthful naïveté, the four lads create a world of their own inside Pentagon Studios in Widnes. This world includes a stolen smoke machine and strobe lights, a wooden shack to prevent feedback on the vocals, and the occasional friend who would dance around wildly. “I think the first tune we rehearsed was called (I Wanna) Marry Joanna,” says Holliday, “I’d never sang into a mic before and had no clue about levels, amps or speakers and started sweating after a couple of failed attempts to vocalise the words I had on a scrap of paper about smoking weed.” Each track on Hello Flower came together in the Pentagon rehearsal room, a fusion of hard-edged indie rock with bass funk rhythms and crunching guitar riffs spiraling into infinity. With a clear sixties influence, Joanna was impossible to ignore and irresistibly danceable. Listening back today, their music evokes fantasies of Hacienda acid trip jubilees, where the hook is secondary to the groove and attitude. Organic and jammy, their demos are infused with a kinetic energy, full of the defining youthful experience of figuring it out. Their momentum grew quickly. They were interviewed on the cult Kiss FM by future Best Selling author and filmmaker Jon Ronson, performed at the 1500 capacity Ritz in Manchester, International 1 and Liverpool Polytechnic. The band secured coveted support slots for established acts of the time including Shack, Dr. Phibes and the House of Wax Equations, Rig, and Asia Fields. After recording several demos, Joanna had the opportunity to perform in London. It seemed like a given. The A&R people would show up, the band would sign a contract backstage, and their local-legend status would evolve into international superstardom. They were already mentioning an upcoming record deal in interviews, with a bravado that inspired one journalist to describe Joanna as epitomising “the simple beauty of youth.” Bands like World of Twist, Charlatans, Rig and Paris Angels had all followed a similar route towards recognition and secured record deals. A few hours before their fateful London show after the band had sound-checked, singer Neil bumped into a girl he knew from school. She had started dating a guy with a good job and settled into London life and escaped beyond their small-town limitations. She’d made it out. Neil puffed out his chest and let her know about Joanna’s big show and imminent success. She laughed. Neil returned to the venue in a black mood, leading to a domino-like fall of morale. They were never offered a record deal. As soon as doubt was seeded about the individual talent of any one member, and strategy became more important than expression, Joanna started to lose its magic. Wounded, they limped along for another year, never recovering their initial verve. This story doesn’t have the happy ending of instant success, but it does preserve something much more ephemeral and unique. Joanna constantly brushed shoulders with fame as manager and friend Martin Royle pulled the strings with a quiet determination in the background. A major player in the Liverpool scene, Dave Pichilingi, offered to manage the band. The Boardwalk, which later became the rehearsal space for Oasis, asked Joanna to headline their re-opening after a major refurb, selling the venue out. Was a certain young roadie called Noel Gallagher there to witness the evening while he was putting his own band together? Definitely. Hand-written letters on headed stationery, recently found in the attic of the Isle of Man home of Royle, show labels like Rough Trade, Factory Records and Polydor courted and encouraged the band to keep playing and recording. Thirty-five years later, these long-forgotten ¼-inch reel tapes from Pentagon Studios were discovered in the loft of a mutual friend, their manager having handed them off to him 24 years earlier. These musical time capsules contained tracks the band members themselves hadn't heard in over three decades, offering a poignant reconnection with their creative past and tantalising glimpses of what might have been. “We realised we were actually as good as we remembered,” says Alty. The memories between the band members are blurred and contradictory but the tapes hold everything together, they are real, definite and irrefutable. With the release of Hello Flower, Joanna is no longer “the most popular band without a record out,” as NME called them in 1990, but their singular spirit is now available for anyone who wants a taste. The simple beauty of youth can only be experienced when you are invincible, fulfilling your natural destiny, buoyed by complete optimism… This record captures innocence untainted by failure. Beyond analysis, beyond critique, just lost in the groove.
Continuing its faithful documentation of the early years of Monolake, Field Records proudly present the first-ever vinyl pressing of seminal 1999 album Interstate. In a kaleidoscopic lattice of micro-rhythms and exquisitely dynamic textural work, Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles fully collaborated for the final time on this record — and created an electronica landmark in the process.
Monolake's evolution from their earlier dub-techno-tinted works saw their exploration of Max/MSP go further out. The duo yielded greater complexity in the behaviour of their sound palette to achieve an organismic quality that remains an enduring influence on so many strands of experimental electronic music today. Interstate is a vivid record that builds up eight different ecosystems of sound and subtly threads elegant grooves through their root structures.
There's a house-like undulation to the low-end driving 'Tangent-I' and 'Tangent-II', but the infinitesimally detailed layers of sound on top swoon from techno synth shimmers to trickling waters, snaking delay trails and pin prick percussion. You can hear the unmistakable, snappy rhythmic thrust of drum & bass driving 'Ginza', but here it's used as an engine for the crispest array of designer percussion and dub-soaked synth chirrups. Across every track, Henke and Behles demonstrate a potent combination, both groovily instinctive and eternally fascinating to try and pick apart.
After Interstate, Behles departed to focus entirely on the development of Ableton Live and Henke steered Monolake towards a leaner — but no less pioneering — sound. Every Monolake record has its own unique context and sound, and the circumstances of Interstate could never be repeated. Capturing the leaps in progress that were being made in digital music production at the end of the millennium, it's an information-rich document of a moment in time that still sounds wildly futuristic 27 years later.
Dewa Alit, master of radical Balinese gamelan, returns to Black Truffle with Baur Bentur."Genetic (2020) introduced international listeners to the magical sound-world of Alit’s Gamelan Salukat, who perform on instruments tuned to a unique scale derived from modified versions of two traditional Balinese scales. The two pieces heard on Chasing the Phantom (2022) further demonstrated his radical fusion of tradition and experimentation, with passages where unorthodox techniques make the acoustic ensemble resemble glitching electronics. Baur Bentur now highlights another aspect of Alit’s work, presenting pieces composed in 2024 and 2025 where Gamelan Salukat performs alongside virtuoso pianist Sri Hanuraga.Alit’s music is grounded in deep reflection on the tradition of Balinese gamelan and its place in the contemporary world. His title, ‘Baur Bentur’, which translates as ‘mixing and smashing’, points to his embrace of the intercultural mixture of Eastern and Western elements in the search for innovation. Against the calcification of Balinese music into tourist entertainment, Alit poses his searching, experimental work, which celebrates the communal values and performance practices of traditional gamelan while pushing into startling new directions.‘Sukat Tacara’ is a study in layered tempos, meters, and polyrhythms, a constantly shifting dialogue between piano and the instruments of Gamelan Salukat. It begins close to a traditional concerto, pairing a brisk sequence of melodic variations from the piano with a spare but propulsive accompaniment of drums and hanging metallophone tones, punctuated by low gong strikes. The piano builds in volume and density across a rapid succession of fragments, at points recalling George Antheil’s ticking wind-up machinery, though Hanuraga’s jazz background shines through in the fluidity with which he navigates the complexities of the score, where chromatic movement co-exists with bluesy phrases. An abrupt change in the piano to patterns of dense clusters introduces a new episode, during which the metallic instruments of the gamelan enter the foreground. The piece dazzles with its inventive rhythms and dynamics, building to a stunning passage featuring the signature heavy muting technique of the Gamelan Salukat metallophones in kinetic patterns that would be at home on a Príncipe release.The title piece begins at high intensity and rarely lets up, working through bracing unison ensemble melodies and punctuation points where piano and gamelan together seem to become a single, thudding drum. For much of the piece the piano is tightly integrated into the ensemble, the harmonic extensions of the melodic line subsumed into a moving cloud of complex overtones generated by the gamelan instruments. Wildly kinetic on the rhythmic level, the piece swarms with microscopic movements of beating patterns generated by the ‘blend and crush’ of three simultaneous tuning systems: the equal temperament of the piano and the saih cenik (small scale) and saih gede (big scale) used by the gamelan instruments. Accompanied by the composer’s thoughtful liner notes and images of the musicians, Baur Bentur is a stunning next step in Alit’s radical combination of tradition and innovation."
Appearing for the first time on vinyl is the complete performance of "THE NILE" from the Saturn LP "When Sun Comes Out", recorded at The Choreographers Workshop in New York in November 1962. THE NILE parts 1 and 2 creates a dense atmosphere of rolling percussion, lugubrious bass and clinking piano ostinatos beneath the evocative flute of Marshall Allen. This recording, especially when heard in its full form, invokes a deep sense of an unknown but familiar place and time, merging past-present-future through the spacious over/lapping drummings of Clifford Jarvis, John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Tommy Hunter and RA. Both sides of the single sound particularly good when layered on top of each other, a confluence of Afro-Futurist myth science and primordial waters. Beautifully mastered for 7" by Adam Gonsalves and Telegraph Audio, and expertly pressed by Smashed Plastic in Chicago. Packed in hand-assembled silk-screened metallic gold and black ink jackets printed by Seizure Palace, with 4 different cover variations. Includes picture sleeve and ephemera.
Inventor of the “infinite guitar,” Canadian musician Michael Brook’s 1992 4AD record Cobalt Blue is a timeless and quietly stunning collection of instrumental pieces and shimmering dreamscapes, featuring contributions from ambient music pioneer Brian Eno, composer & multi-instrumentalist Roger Eno, and Grammy-winning producer Daniel Lanois.
Recorded later that year, Live at the Aquarium captures Brook’s rare solo performance in London, highlighting the hypnotic sustain and atmosphere that define his work. Beyond his albums, Brook has scored acclaimed films including Into the Wild, Brooklyn, and An Inconvenient Truth.
Newly remastered by Rashad Becker and presented as a 2XCD and crystal clear 2LP with artwork by Alison Fielding based on the original v23 designs, this set marks the first vinyl reissue of Cobalt Blue and the vinyl debut of Live at the Aquarium — a long-overdue celebration of an underrated gem in the 4AD catalogue.
Brook is known as a pioneer in the ambient music movement and a highly sought-after producer, especially in the arena of world music, for Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records. He has worked with a vast range of important artists, including Cheb Khaled, U. Srinivas, Mary Margaret O’Hara, and the Pogues, and toured with David Sylvian and Robert Fripp and with John Cale.
Brook was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1996 for his album with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Night Song, and for a Golden Globe in 2008 for the Into the Wild soundtrack. El Infierno won the 2011 Havana Film Festival award for best music. In 2024, Nusrat’s album Chain of Light, produced by Brook, was The Guardian’s World Music album of the year.
At the age of 72, "Evil" Graham Lee, the legendary pedal steel pioneer and veteran of the iconic Australian band The Triffids, delivers his first ever album under his own name titled ‘I Think I’m Alone Now’. In addition to his work with The Triffids, Graham’s place in ambient history was cemented in 1990 when his evocative pedal steel became the soulful centerpiece of The KLF’s masterpiece, Chill Out (specifically on the highlight “Baltimore to Fair Play”).I Think I’m Alone Now is a profound exploration of the instrument's emotional range, blending traditional country infused melodies with vast, reverb drenched ambient textures. The album spans six tracks, anchored by the Side B title track, a 15 minute textural piece that leans heavily into the ambient genre. From the delicate melancholy of "Seeking Beauty in Sadness" to the curious abstraction of "Nursery in the Beehive," Lee uses his pedal steel and an array of pedals to sculpt unique, haunting soundscapes that exist between tradition and the avant garde.The connection is brought full circle with exclusive liner notes written by The KLF’s Bill Drummond. Reflecting on a forty year friendship that began when The Triffids served as the backing band for Drummond’s solo debut, The Man, Drummond provides a personal and poignant context for this long awaited solo bow.A 180g pressing housed in a full sleeve designed by Bradley Pinkerton with metallic sticker and bespoke inner sleeve featuring liner notes signed by Bill Drummond.
It began somewhere between sleep and memory. After first meeting in dreams, in Brussels and Berlin, on landscapes that felt strangely close to Vilnius, Marija Rasa aka emer and Ugnė Uma leisurely rewrote those visions into songs. What followed became a collection of moments suspended in idle summers, familiar faces, gentle motions, skin touched by golden sun. These songs wander through closeness and distance, tracing the delicate emotional shifts between us, who almost understand each other completely. ‘you and me’ lives in the space where magical realism meets everyday intimacy: honey-colored evenings, recurring thoughts, and the slow surrender to things unfolding on their own.
On Timeless Records: From The Archives (1974–1991), Antal rethreads the Dutch label’s glory years into a double‑LP of modal and spiritual fire - from Pharoah Sanders to Art Blakey, Woody Shaw and beyond - built for dancers, diggers and late‑night headphones alike. Timeless Records: From The Archives (1974–1991) is the sound of a crate‑digging DJ kneeling at the altar of a jazz label that quietly documented a whole other history. Amsterdam selector and Rush Hour founder Antal has spent decades slipping Timeless sides into house and techno sets, letting modal vamps and spiritual climaxes light up dance floors that never thought of themselves as “jazz” rooms. Here he steps out of the booth and into the curator’s chair, assembling a double album that pulls prime cuts from the label’s classic era into a single, deeply personal narrative. Rather than a label sampler, this is a love letter: tracks chosen not for rarity points, but for the way they still crackle when dropped between drum machines and deep‑cut disco. The line‑up reads like a roll call of late‑20th‑century improvisational heft. Pharoah Sanders bookends the set, his tenor and spiritual gravitation field framing everything that happens in between. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers bring the hard‑swinging core, a reminder that Timeless never treated “modern” and “tradition” as enemies. There are burnished, road‑tested grooves from George Adams, modal fire and lyricism from Joanne Brackeen, and muscular, harmonically charged excursions by Woody Shaw in league with the Tone Jansa Quartet. Carter Jefferson and Gary Bartz carry the post‑Coltrane torch in their own ways, weaving horn lines that tug between horizontal melody and vertical harmonic exploration. On the rhythm‑section side, records by Ronnie Mathews Trio, Rodney Jones, John Lee & Gerry Brown feat. Gary Bartz, and Joe Gilman feat. Joe Henderson testify to how deeply Timeless believed in documenting working bands, not just studio one‑offs. For Antal, the compilation is as much about ethos as it is about individual tunes. Timeless, founded and run by the Wigt family, built its catalogue on a combination of obsessive listening and independent stubbornness: recording American heavyweights in Europe, investing in younger European talents, and giving space to sessions that didn’t quite fit US label expectations. That spirit resonates with Antal’s own path as a DJ and shop owner, continually making the case that “a great song is a great song, no matter when or where it was made.” In his hands, Timeless’s recordings cease to be archival artifacts and become active tools again - modules for sets, lenses for hearing contemporary music differently, invitations for new ears. Musically, the focus leans hard into modal and spiritual jazz, the zones where repetition, vamp and chant open up into something trance‑like. You can hear why these sides speak to a house‑raised selector: bass figures that roll for days, drum patterns that sit right in the pocket, themes that ascend slowly rather than peaking in a hurry. Yet the set also honours Timeless’s breadth, folding in more straight‑ahead swing, Latin undercurrents and tightly written heads that showcase the compositional muscle of the label’s artists. The sequencing moves with a DJ’s sense of flow rather than chronology, arcs of energy and colour that encourage you to play both records front to back instead of cherry‑picking the obvious names. Physically, From The Archives (1974–1991) arrives as an object worthy of the music it carries. Housed in a sturdy gatefold sleeve, it features liner notes by Antal himself, tracing his long relationship with the Timeless catalogue and sketching out why each inclusion matters to him. Dirk‑Jan Deckwitz’s artwork nods to classic jazz‑sleeve iconography without lapsing into retro cosplay, placing the compilation firmly in the present. A 50th‑anniversary Timeless Jazz sticker on the outer sleeve quietly reminds you that this is not just any reissue project, but part of a half‑century celebration of one of Europe’s most quietly important jazz labels. For collectors, the compilation functions as both map and doorway into a discography that can otherwise feel daunting. For selectors, it’s a crate within a crate: ready‑to‑go cuts that can slot into sets without losing their edge. For new explorers, it’s an introduction to a world where Pharoah Sanders, Art Blakey, Woody Shaw, Gary Bartz and their peers still sound shockingly contemporary. In bringing these recordings back into circulation with a dancer’s ear and a fan’s heart, Antal turns Timeless’s past into a living resource, confirming that this music was never meant to stay in the archives.
NYC’s Urner chimes with Dutch label topo2’s tastes for shimmering electronic melody and subtly crooked structures on a quietly charming LP made from Japanese lava, modular synths and software: tipped to fans of Irdial’s Anthony Manning, Georgia’s Brian Close, Visible Cloaks. In the wake of a self-issued 2020 debut and tape on Atlantic Rhythms, ’Afterimages’ is Isaac Pearl aka Urner’s 3rd album and the first to fix his ephemeral tactility to vinyl. Under a name and title hinting (to us at least) a play on psychedelic or oneiric experience, the music follows with an often fleeting, tongue-tip sensuality that patently fits topo2’s emerging remit, as heard in their sides by Upsammy, Mor Elian, Windu. It’s not hard to trace lines from ‘80s Japanese environmental ambient to ‘90s electronica and modernist reflections on new age, partly thanks to its combo of clinking, rhythmelodic Sanukite lithopone tones - think a xylophone made from rare volcanic rock - with analog and digital synth sources, applied with a mix of care and nuanced daring that feels timeless yet also up-to-date in its oloid asymmetry. A whispering opener ‘Options, Thoughts’ unfolds into hyaline dimensions, where the rest settles, offbeat, at meditative pace, between plucked melodic chin reactions of ‘Stranding’, dreamy aeolian harmonics of ‘Anni,’ and air-kissing romance of ‘Lover Cusp.’ The Visible Cloaks comparison is apt on a standout ’Suspend’ and the cascading notes of ‘Tides,’ to a quietly fizzing conclusion.
In spring 2025, Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri created the source material for their second album, Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun, during a three-day residency at Morphine Raum in Berlin. Functioning as both recording studio and performance venue, the space has no stage, with the audience gathered around the performers. Working within an open framework, the duo reshaped the music each evening while recording the performances live to multitrack. Rotary speakers, modular synthesizers and bowed guitar formed the core of their sonic language, captured through a 1970s mixing console and microphones placed around the room. Back in Mogard’s studio in Rome, the material was further crafted as motifs were stretched, fragments isolated, and tempos dissolved. Irisarri recorded additional guitar textures and treatments in New York, while passages recorded by Martina Bertoni and Andrea Burelli in Berlin reinforced the harmonic centres and brought breath, refinement and a new sensibility to their compositions. The process continued as Mogard’s layering and subtraction reassembled everyone’s parts into the final arrangement. The album opens with “In the Eastern Wild,” building from a sparse outline into a monumental formation of low-frequency weight, its internal motion shaped by the rotating Leslie speaker. “Over the Domes” widens into a broader acoustic field, where sustained modular tones meet waves of softly plucked guitar. The music then turns inward with “A Blue Descent,” centred on Bertoni’s cello, whose growling timbre introduces a melancholic depth. At the album’s centre, “In a Quiet Radiance” unfolds around a slow guitar ostinato, its luminous stillness opening into a more expansive and reflective state. Across its ten-minute span, Burelli’s violin lines and Bertoni’s lower cello phrases gradually surface, weaving through the harmonic field. Mogard brings Burelli’s processed voice to the fore, its emotive, operatic presence becoming one of the record’s pivotal moments. “Of Blessed Ages” suspends the sonic flow, shifting between parallel major and minor chords as lingering, slowly decaying melodies shape the music’s internal drift. The closing “Among Shadows” settles into a darker resonance as layered textures recede. Mogard and Irisarri’s shared language balances restraint and maximalism. UK magazine Crack describes the music as “a tidal wave held in suspension,” while Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant writes, “What a colossal sound, and how this music strikes at the emotions.” Reflecting on the residency sessions, Irisarri recalls: “At moments I genuinely couldn’t tell if a sound was coming from me or from Abul. It stopped feeling like two people making decisions and began to feel like we were inside a system moving on its own." Marja de Sanctis’ cover artwork revisits the vessel sculpture from the duo’s first album, Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close. There it appeared as raw, unfired clay. Here it has been fired in the kiln and finished with a glaze. Light gathers on its polished surface and spills into the surrounding space. As she explains, “I wanted to convey the idea of continuity within the duo, and the vessel became a kind of container for that idea. However, their music felt different this time, and with the collaboration of Martina and Andrea, I felt it should have a sleeker, softer, more glamorous look, very distant from the first raw appearance.” The transformation of the vessel from raw clay to fired form suggests a passage from immediacy toward permanence, mirroring the music’s gradual expansion.
The visionary musician and record producer Augustus Pablo made some of the most unique and individual recordings in the history of reggae. As with his friend and mentor, Jackie Mittoo, the man born Horace Swaby was of mixed Indian and African heritage, and although his middle-class background might have pointed him in a very different direction, the lure of Jamaica's sound system culture captured him at a young age, particularly after debilitating health problems saw him drop out of school. He began recording as a session keyboardist as the '60s gave way to the '70s, but everything changed when a school-friend introduced him to the melodica, a small plastic keyboard operated by a mouthpiece, which he used on seminal recordings for producer Herman Chin-Loy, credited to Augustus Pablo on the release. During the early 1970s, Pablo crafted melodica instrumentals for all of the leading reggae producers, scoring "best instrumental" for "Java" in 1973, and launching the Rockers label to showcase self-produced work at the same time. This multi-faceted compilation, first issued on Bunny Lee's Attack label in 2005, compiles memorable melodica interpretations of some of Lee's greatest productions, recorded over dub cuts of immortal numbers such as Cornell Campbell's "Queen Of The Minstrel" and John Holt's "My Desire".