El Michels Affair - 24 Hr Sports (Instrumental)

Big Crown Records is proud to present the instrumental version of El Michels Affair’s 2025 instant classic 24 Hr Sports. The roster of vocal features on 24 Hr Sports is amazing, Clairo, Norah Jones, Florence Adooni, Shintaro Sakamoto, two different choirs, and even singing from the man himself, Leon Michels. The background vocals contributions are amazing; Lady Wray and Kevin Martin from Brainstory to name a few. But alas, there’s a new energy that shows up in the listen when you pair it down to the impeccable musicianship and Leon’s tried and true “Midas Touch” production. Leon plays a ton of instruments across the album and is joined by the regular cast of heavy hitters; Homer Steinweiss, Nick Movshon, Dave Guy, Marco Benevento, Hether, and more. There is even a saxophone solo by the late, great Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Some would argue this is some of the best music being made by some of the best musicians of our time. We wouldn’t argue with anyone...we let the music do what it does.

Tracklist:
1. Drumline (Instrumental)
2. Magica (Instrumental)
3. 24 Hr Sports Theme No. 1 (Instrumental)
4. Say Goodbye(Instrumental)
5. Oakley's Car Wash (feat. Dave Guy) (Instrumental)
6. Anticipate (Instrumental)
7. Eastside (Instrumental)
8. Clean The Line (Instrumental)
9. Cortex (Instrumental)
10. Shining (Instrumental)
11. 24 Hr Sports Theme No. 2 (Instrumental)
12. Indifference (Instrumental)
13. Carry Me Away (Instrumental)
14. Take My Hand (feat. Rahsaan Roland Kirk) (Instrumental)
15. Open Season (Instrumental)
16. Victory Lap (Instrumental)

Henriette Eilertsen - Moder

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. 

Tracklist:
1. Fly Ikaros
2. Meeting Joyce
3. Medieval + Moren (feat. Jon Balke)
4. Raka blakk (feat. Jon Balke)
5. So ro
6. Tretakt
7. Botanisk vinterhage II
8. Kulturistisk inngang (feat. Jon Balke)
9. Darn den draumen
10. LOKK

IKE - Clay EP

Almost exactly a year on since we first opened your ears to the lush, cinematic, international sounds of Italian producer and musician Isaac de Martin, he returns as IKE with an expanded EP, offering up a wondrous selection of genre bending takes on the track Clay - one of highlights of 2025’s On Higher Dreams LP.

Last year’s debut for Wah Wah 45s blended jazz and electronic influences into warm, evocative, global soundscapes. IKE is a musical nomad, and one of his favourite places to visit is Egypt. It’s a country that has always held a deep fascination for him, and was deeply influential in the making of the On Higher Dreams album.

The ancient Egyptians would mould small, uniform statuettes known as Ushabti, often out of clay. They would be placed in tombs to act as servants for the deceased in the afterlife. Ushabti roughly translates to
“answerer”, reflecting their role to respond when the deceased was called to work. They weren’t just found in the tombs of the Pharaohs (whose Ushabti would often be made of more expensive materials) but would often be discovered in the resting places of farmers and other manual workers who would be more likely to be at rest with ones made out of clay. In this way, the track is a tribute to equality and dignity for all in the afterlife.

Just as clay can be easily re-shaped by hand, the song itself has here been moulded into five new forms that sit peacefully alongside the original album take. Having worked with Brighton based singer-songwriter (and erstwhile Resonator) Faye Houston on a live show last year, IKE invited her to record her version of the song, which she wrote her own lyrics for, transforming it into an ode to giving and receiving love. The recording also features sophisticated Italian jazz drummer, Jacopo Zanette, who embellishes the groove with a thousand ghost notes while keyboard wizard Valerio Pascucci imposes wild bass notes on the Moog. The result is a powerful and transformative rendition of this evocative piece.

Three other versions came to life on a return visit to Cairo later in 2025 - the first while Chilling at The Bahareya Oasis, and consequently delivering a more carefree, yet somehow driving take that conjures up images of desert sands and the joy of finding relief in the arid heat. Another is the version recorded Live at The Heliopolis University in Cairo. This more quirky, dub influenced rendition features Felipe Vignolo on guitar, as well as local musicians Mody El Shaafee on nay (a traditional end-blown flute), Sherif Moustafa on piano, Moris Emil on electric bass, Hany Zain on percussions and Islam Magdy on drums.

Finally, the Cairo Sandy Roads interpretation heads off in a pseudo-drum & bass direction, erupting into an electro-acoustic frenzy. Added to the package is Clay in its original dubwise form, as well as a very useful instrument of the trio version of the track.

Tracklist:
1. Clay (Trio Version) (feat. Faye Houston)
2. Clay (Chilling At Bahareya Oasis)
3. Clay (Live at Heliopolis University, Cairo)
4. Clay (Cairo Sandy Roads)
5. Clay
6. Clay (Trio Instrumental)

Immanuel Wilkins - Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 1

GRAMMY-nominated alto saxophonist & composer Immanuel Wilkins releases his first-ever live album, a searing 3-volume document of his acclaimed quartet in action at a hallowed NYC jazz shrine: Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live At The Village Vanguard. Wilkins’ quartet featuring Micah Thomas on piano, Ryoma Takenaga on bass, and Kweku Sumbry on drums takes flight on expansive explorations of Wilkins originals in a room steeped in jazz lore, adding his name to a list of jazz greats who have made seminal live recordings within these same walls including John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Bill Evans, and others.

Tracklist:
1. WARRIORS (Live)
2. COMPOSITION II (Live)
3. CHARANAM (Live)
4. ETERNAL (Live)

Homeboy Sandman - Prayer Mat

Kyla Kilzer - Sip & Wonder

There’s a quiet kind of magic that happens when two artists meet at the exact right moment. For Brighton-based 23-year-old singer-songwriter Kyla Kilzer and Jersey-born producer Max Noir, that meeting became Sip & Wonder, a five-track project tracing the slow unfurling of emotion, growth, and self-acceptance. It’s an EP that feels lived in, like pages torn from an old journal, set to beats that shift between soft garage rhythms, introspective hip-hop, and spacious alt-R&B.

Kyla and Max met by chance, and their first studio session birthed the track, ‘Break Through’ - a trip-hoppy meditation on breaking cycles and learning to be gentle with yourself when you inevitably fall back into them. “It was by chance,” Kyla says, “and yet it’s led to so many beautiful things.” The track sets the tone for the rest of the record: grounded but expansive, calm but defiant, built from that shared instinct to turn feeling into sound.

With ‘Frustration’, the tempo simmers. Kyla channels anger into rhythm, Spanish-tinged percussion dances across a hip-hop beat, her voice shifting from silk to steel. “I was angry with myself,” she recalls, “but we just channelled it all into music and came out with this lovely piece.” It’s catharsis rendered in sound, the tension of emotion made tangible through breathy harmonies and bossa nova textures.

On ‘Stay Calm’, the pace slows to a deep exhale. Written as a personal mantra to manage anxiety, it’s tender and grounding, a reminder to come back to the body, to use your senses to steady the noise. Kyla’s voice moves like water over Max’s stripped-back production, the space between each sound deliberate and soothing. “It keeps me calm and serene,” she says simply, and the song does the same for anyone listening.

‘MOOD’ carries that emotional honesty into sharper focus. A song born from friendship, heartbreak, and the ache of realising someone wasn’t who you hoped they’d be. “It broke me more than any romantic relationship I’ve ever had,” Kyla admits. The result is a cinematic blend of moody strings and introspective lyricism, a balance of strength and vulnerability that both artists lean into naturally. “It started with a melody,” Max says, “but after a few revisions, Kyla wrote something incredible around it.”

When ‘Take My Time’ arrives, the duo ease listeners into a world of patience and presence - an airy garage groove threaded with Kyla’s soft, effortless vocals. It’s a song about moving at your own pace, refusing to measure your worth against the speed of others. “It’s fun and upbeat,” she explains, “but it still holds that message of bravery, of not caring what anyone else thinks.” Max’s production keeps things clean and propulsive, layers of strings rising and folding back into motion.

Across ‘Sip & Wonder’, Kyla and Max craft a world that’s equal parts intimate and expansive, music that feels like a conversation between two people learning, healing, and experimenting in real time. It’s the sound of patience rewarded, of lessons learned and cycles broken. A gentle reminder that taking your time is sometimes the fastest way to grow.

Tru Thoughts heard about this music through BandLab Technologies (BandLab/ReverbNation) through an artist submission campaign via Opportunities, and BandLab/ReverbNation are supporting this release. 

Tracklist:
1. Break Through
2. Frustration
3. Stay Calm
4. MOOD
5. Take My Time

Luke Una - Luke Una Presents É Soul Cultura, Vol. 3

*Please note, physical and digital tracklists differ slightly*

The third volume in Luke Una’s cherished É Soul Cultura compilation series on Mr Bongo. A tribute to the dancefloor and its ability to spread love.

With two deeply cherished compilations already in the bag, Luke Una steps up for the third volume in his É Soul Cultura series on Mr Bongo. A love letter to the dancefloor and its power to unite people from all corners of society amid growing division and extremist politics. Genre-spanning in nature, the 17 tracks travel between cosmic soul, boogie, proto-house, slo-mo technoid grooves, drum machine afro, astral bass-bugging futurism, jazz funk, dance, and disco. Each having the ability to move the body as much as the heart.

From his formative years in Sheffield to co-founding Manchester’s much-fabled Electric Chair with Justin Crawford, through to helming the iconic LGBTQ institutions of Homoelectric / Homobloc, Luke has spent 40 years immersed in dance music. His latest outlet, É Soul Cultura, has grown from a label to a globe-spanning events series with Luke holding residencies and embarking on tours across the world from Japan and Australia to America and Europe.

“For me, the dancefloor was never about a one-dimensional, thudding, 130 BPM beat only. It's a much more dynamic, broader vision than that. I cut my teeth in an era where a 100 BPM record had as much impact, excitement, and energy as a 134 BPM dancefloor jazz funk or techno record”, Luke mentions. É Soul Cultura Volume 3 is the perfect embodiment of that notion: “It’s about four decades in the trenches playing dance music, the late-night afters, the shebeens, the basements, warehouse parties, the eight-hour journeys in East London, through to festival sets at Houghton and We Out Here. It’s music unconstrained by genre or tempo and more about making your body move”.

But this isn’t simply a collection of disparate dance tracks; they carry meaning and soul. “It’s less about escapism, more about reconnection. My experience of post-covid has been the coming together of all the clans in various clubs and gatherings. A reaction to a very toxic world out there, where the aggro rhythms of division have sought to divide us, and people don't meet as often. The coming back together face-to-face in clubs has encouraged a real love in the air, there's a real togetherness and collective spirit”.

Opening up the compilation is a track that channels that very message, the transcendental, soul-rousing Harris & Orr ‘Spread Love’. Joining the dots from there, to the low-slung deep house closer of Fatdog ‘Remember’, you’ll find electronic drum machine Nigerian funk, sitting side by side with dancefloor Cape Verdean brilliance, a post-punk cover of Fela Kuti, rubbing shoulders with cosmic electro, and an Una-championed, 8-minute, kickless DJ Harvey remix. There’s jazz funk in various guises moving from boogie synth to astral travelling, slo-mo acidic raw techno, and a ‘79 soul stepper, alongside swirling percussive Italo disco and tribal-charged house. All infused with an innate ability to bring people together.

As society becomes increasingly fractured, É Soul Cultura Volume 3’s message is more than movement. It’s about dance music’s power to unify people from all walks of life and break down the barriers that divide us.

Tracklist:
1. Harris & Orr - Spread Love
2. Toshiyuki Honda - Burnin' Waves
3. Igna Igwebuike - Disco Bomp
4. Admin - Step Into Light
5. Grupo Serenata - Sodade, Tem Pena D'Mim
6. Vital Disorders - Zombie
7. Alphonsus Idigo - Flight 505
8. DJ Food - Peace (Harvey's 30 Something Mix)
9. Man Jumping - In The Jungle
10. Naveed - Day Come Through
11. 49th Floor - Night Passage ( Bongo Mix)
12. Orion Agassi - Desacato
13. FatDog - Remember

Modha - At Your Pace

Dhanya Langer and Max Scholl share a common vision. Tired of the soulless perfection of much modern music, the Berlin-based duo behind Modha have consciously embraced a raw, emotionally honest approach to artistic creation. Their second album At Your Pace captures the energy of live studio sessions, experiments with time signatures, welcomes imperfections, and refuses the relentless tempo imposed by the mainstream music industry and social media culture.

Their songs speak candidly about mental health, vulnerability, and the challenge of making art while navigating the emotional and economic realities of everyday life.

Max, originally from the historic town of Limburg in Western Germany, began his musical journey at just six years old in a metal band, before transitioning to jazz and hip-hop — two genres that continue to shape his sonic identity. Dhanya, from Freiburg in the Black Forest, studied music at university but dropped out to follow a more intuitive, less academic path — eventually working as a drummer and producer in Berlin. It was there that the two met and formed Modha.

Their early collaboration led to the Getting By EP, released on Pinewax in 2020, featuring local talents like JuJu Rogers and James Chatburn. That collaborative ethos remains at the heart of their creative practice — and At Your Pace is perhaps the most complete expression of that spirit to date.

The album is defined by its network of trusted musicians, each contributing their voice, textures, and energy. On Good News, Naarm-based vocalist and producer Allysha Joy (30/70) delivers a warm and soulful performance that feels like a deep exhale. Find Me (Underneath the Sun) features okcandice, whose poetic vocals bring understated brilliance to a song about presence, loss, and emotional memory. Longtime collaborator James Chatburn returns on the tender and minimal The Bee by the Pool, adding his unmistakable tone to the emotional core of the record.

The shimmering single River — featuring Hungarian producer Àbáse and flautist Fanni Zahár — moves through soulful textures and layered instrumentation, while Baton Rouge rapper Wakai brings crisp, articulate verses to Bullet, one of the album’s most rhythmically dynamic tracks. On Breeze, Berlin-based art-jazz ensemble Conic Rose create a cinematic space for Modha to stretch into new sonic territory.

But beyond the featured artists, At Your Pace is the product of a collective process. Musicians like Shanice Ruby Bennett (bass), Käthe Johanning (keys/synths), Fabiano Lima (percussion), Konstantin Döben (horns), Moses Yoofee (keys), Francis Maheux (contrabass), Tim Sensbach (guitar), and others contributed to nearly every track — not simply as session players, but as co-creators who shaped the tone and direction of each piece. As the duo themselves put it:

“While the composition credits acknowledge whoever first sparked an idea, each track grew far beyond its origins. Through collaboration, experimentation, and shared intuition, every musician helped define the sound and spirit of this record.”

That spirit also runs through the instrumental bookends of the album: the opening title track Move At Your Own Pace, a rhythmically intricate statement of intent, and Day by Day, where tender piano meets subtle electronics and sprightly percussion.

Recorded between Berlin and Limburg, the album embraces themes of childhood memory, emotional fragility, and the radical act of slowing down. In rejecting the demands of hustle culture and major-label polish, Modha have found their creative home in Sonar Kollektiv — a label where collaboration, craft, and care are allowed to thrive. 

Tracklist:
1. Move At Your Own Pace
2. Good News (feat. Allysha Joy)
3. River (feat. Abase & Fanni Zahar)
4. Bullet (feat. Wakai)
5. Day By Day (Interlude)
6. The Bee By The Pool (feat. James Chatburn)
7. Breeze (feat. Conic Rose)
8. Find Me (Underneath The Sun) (feat. Okcandice)

Momoko Gill - Momoko

Strut proudly presents the debut album from producer, songwriter and multiinstrumentalist, Momoko Gill. Fresh from her critically acclaimed collaboration Clay recorded with cult electronic artist Matthew Herbert, Momoko steps forward in her own right for the first time with her remarkable debut solo album.

Momoko has long been one of the UK electronic and jazz scene’s best-kept secrets. A self-taught drummer, producer, songwriter, and vocalist, she has brought her unique touch to collaborations with Alabaster DePlume, Matthew Herbert, Coby Sey, Tirzah, and Nadeem Din-Gabisi (her musical foil in An Alien Called Harmony). Extensive touring behind the drum kit, at the keys and in front of the mic have honed her compositional and production instincts.

With Momoko, Gill emerges into the spotlight with an album that is entirely her own. Throughout, you can hear the stylistic flavours of jazz musicians as much as singer-songwriters, experimental artists and electronic producers. Though Gill rejects imitation, sculpting her sound through feel and expression rather than tradition. Based in London and having grown up in Japan and the US, Gill channels her breadth of perspective through her musical ideas and storytelling, with a unique voice developed through instinct, collaboration and solitary study.

The album’s eleven tracks take in a wide spectrum with the jazz-infused groove of ‘No Others’ and harmony-drenched, reflective ‘Heavy’ contrasting with the dark, confrontational sound of 'Shadowboxing' leading into an eerie left-field instrumental beat, ‘Test A Small Area' and the impressive 50-person choir on ‘When Palestine Is Free’ (which includes heavyweights Shabaka Hutchings, Soweto Kinch, Alabaster DePlume, Coby Sey, Marysia Osu and more). It is a deeply personal and poetic recording and showcases the full uncompromising range of Momoko’s vison, presented in her own voice.

Momoko was produced by Momoko Gill, recorded at Total Refreshment Centre, mixed by Matthew Herbert and mastered by Alex Gordon at Abbey Road Studios. 

Tracklist:
1. Satellite
2. No Others
3. Heavy
4. Rewind/Remind
5. Shadowboxing
6. Test A Small Area
7. 2close2farr
8. Anyway, I’m Drowning
9. When Palestine Is Free
10. River
11. Ineffably

Neves E Silva - Ladeiras De Santa Teresa

Far Out Recordings proudly presents Ladeiras De Santa Teresa, the debut collaboration between Rio-jazz maverick Antonio Neves and carioca percussion master Thiaguinho Silva. In what could well be the first ever Brazilian jazz album centered around two drummers, Ladeiras De Santa Teresa is an uncompromisingly groove-rich recording, steeped in trad-samba roots and brass power.

Since his acclaimed 2021 album A Pegada Agora E Esssa Antonio Neves has remained a mainstay of the international facing Brazilian scene, performing both as a trombonist and drummer. His instrumental contributions to contemporary classics like Ana Frango Eletrico’s Little Electric Chicken Heart, Bruno Berle’s No Reino Dos Afetos 2, and Bala Desejo’s Sim Sim Sim will be marveled upon by future generations. His partner in crime Thiaguinho Silva happens to be the son of percussion icon Robertinho Silva, who has played on more or less every canonical Brazilian record, Arthur Verocai (1972), Clube Da Esquina (Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges, 1972), and India (Gal Costa, 1973) to name barely a few. Thiaguinho himself has worked with Marcelo D2, Gal Costa, Liniker and Alice Caymmi, and upon listening to Ladeiras De Santa Teresa, it’s clear that Thiaguinho is more than a worthy successor to carry the Silva family torch.

Some listeners may already be familiar with “Das Neves,” which appeared on Mr Bongo’s Rio De Janeiro-focused Hidden Waters compilation in 2023. The track showcases the profoundly skilled Neves family brass section (Antonio alongside father Edu, who has performed with Hermeto Pascoal), the fiery elegance of pianist Luiz Otávio (Dora Morelenbaum), and Thiaguinho’s pulsating samba breaks. This synergised combo continues across the album, notably on “Fendas Vocais” with Neves doubling up on drums, exhibiting his inventive and fearless skill as an arranger. The album also features street-artist, musician and rapper Joca, adding vocalised dynamism and swagger to an otherwise entirely instrumental record on “Viagem de Trem”.

The album’s title Ladeiras De Santa Teresa (The hills of Santa Teresa) is named in tribute to Rio De Janeiro’s famed Santa Teresa neighborhood, a bohemian enclave with scenic views of the iconic cityscape. The spirit of Santa Teresa with its expansive city views and bustling energy is embodied in the album which encapsulates the jazz and samba histories felt within the neighborhood’s windy alleyways and cobbled streets. 

Tracklist:
1. Das Neves
2. Romenia
3. Fendas Vocais
4. Morro Dos Prazeres
5. Viagem De Trem
6. Misericórdia

Shy One - Mali

London's Shy One presents her long-awaited second album 'Mali'.

So called after her given name, 'Mali' is a shimmering ode to personal artistic growth as well as the Black British and wider diasporic sonic lineage. It marks a period of clarity, following intuition and arriving at a sound that “feels more like her.”

An artist, globetrotting selector and award-winning NTS Radio host, Shy One has spent years refining her well-respected practice. Raised on pirate radio and shaped by the full spectrum of black music, all of these influences funnel into 'Mali'.

Across 10 tracks, her production prowess meets a now-finely tuned grip on sonic storytelling. Crafted alongside a powerful cast of Black British collaborators: photography from Ronan McKenzie and tightly mixed by CDR head honcho and educator, Tony Nwachukwu, plus album features from George Riley, Steve Spacek, Private Joy on the soulful “Moonlight” and James Massiah on “16 Hours”, which bops through a fitting celebration of the party and the afters.

Shy One's global reputation as a fan-favourite club DJ is well-known by now. Releasing music on labels such as Eglo, Numbers, Rhythm Section and Beats In Space, while delivering countless recorded mixes and remixes for Nubya Garcia and Oscar Jerome. Her touring has taken her to Berlin’s Panorama Bar, NYC’s Nowadays, and festivals including Glastonbury, GALA and Nuits Sonores among others.

This album has been supported by the PPL Momentum Music Fund. PPL Momentum is managed by PRS Foundation, with support from PPL, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Invest NI, and Creative Wales. 

Tracklist:
1. Evidence Of My Love Affair
2. I Can Tell (feat. George Riley)
3.  Loosen Up
4. Moonlight (feat. Private Joy)
5. Full Circle
6. Driving On Sand (feat. Steve Spacek)
7. Nort Wess
8. Same New Song
9. 16 Hours (feat. James Massiah)
10. Live Dis Ting (Belt Drives)

Tyrone Allen II - UPWARD

Tyrone Allen II / UPWARD - Starting with a traditional quartet of saxophone, piano, bass and drumset, then adding harp, trumpet and a smear of electronics, "UPWARD" transports you to an almost familiar dream. Taking inspiration from Jazz and R&B with electro-acoustic elements, Tyrone Allen II chronicles the parallels of personal and societal experiences of the last decade in his debut release. "UPWARD" will take you on a journey blending the real with the surreal, while challenging you to question your expectations.

Tracklist:
1. (early 2020's)
2. Smp Sng
3. Cassia (Instrumental)
4. UPWARD
5. art day
6. The A-Side (Dedicated to R.P.)
7. 2020's intro
8. Stuck
9. harp solo
10. Mood 1a-1b
11. Mood 1c
12. Alt. Stuck
13. when is it ever really smp / smp 4 me
14. Bass UNLIMITED

VA - Jazz Dispensary: Magia Brasileira

Jazz Dispensary comes to Brazil! Our groove alchemists tunneled deep into the vaults to pull together a smoking spread of Samba sizzlers, airy and intoxicating vocal-jazz dreamscapes, funk-drenched jams, and guitar lines so catchy they practically shimmer in the sun. Featuring legends like Bola Sete, Flora Purim, Dom Um Romão, João Donato, Paulinho da Costa, this batch of aural Caipirinha is pure musical jet fuel.

Tracklist:
1. Dom Um Romao - Shake (Ginga Gingou)
2. Bola Sete and His New Brazilian Trio - Soul Samba (Remastered 2026)
3. Raul De Souza - Dr. Honoris Causa
4. Cal Tjader - Samba De Oneida
5. João Donato - Whistle Stop
6. Dom Salvador - Suddenly
7. Paulinho Da Costa - Carnival Of Colors
8. Flora Purim - Butterfly Dreams

VA - When There Is No Sun

From Detroit’s techno resistance to Berlin’s elastic minimalism, Lusaka’s ancestral futurism to Chicago’s house communion, When There Is No Sun is a global recording project, uniting visionary electronic music producers to reimagine the universe of Sun Ra.

One of the most radical musical pioneers of the 20th century, Sun Ra used jazz, electronics, poetry, and performance to expand the possibilities of sound, identity, and imagination.

Commissioned by Omni Sound and curated by Ricardo Villalobos, the series brings together Underground Resistance, Chez Damier & Ben Vedren, Calibre, A Guy Called Gerald, She Spells Doom, Barış K, and Ricardo Villalobos himself.

Drawing from Omni Sound’s recordings of Living Sky by the Sun Ra Arkestra and My Words Are Music, a spoken-word album of Sun Ra’s poetry, the producers pull fragments of sound and text into their own creative orbits, passing through the portal that Sun Ra opened into a realm where the impossible is possible.

Invocations by Saul Williams, Anthony Joseph, Mahogany L. Browne, Abiodun Oyewole, Tunde Adebimpe, and Tara Middleton turn rhyme into rhythm and resistance into revelation.

Rooted in deep reverence for Sun Ra’s legacy, yet reaching forward as a living, generative force, When There Is No Sun is not a tribute but a continuum, balancing the pulse of electronic music with the spirit of experimentation, embodying Sun Ra’s promise that ‘there are other worlds’ if you are willing to see them. 

Tracklist:
1. Underground Resistance – When Angels Speak (feat. Saul Williams)
2. SHE Spells Doom – Somebody Else's Idea (feat. Sun Ra Arkestra) (SHE Spells Doom mix) 
3. Chez Damier – The Three Dimensions Of Air (feat. Anthony Joseph) (H2H Kora mix)
4. Calibre – Chopin (feat. Sun Ra Arkestra) (Calibre mix)
5. Ricardo Villalobos – I Have Forgotten (feat. Tara Middleton) (Earlier Than Late mix 2)
6. Chez Damier – The Endless Realm (feat. Tunde Adebimpe) (H2H mix)
7. Underground Resistance – The Outer Darkness (feat. Saul Williams)
8. A Guy Called Gerald – Message To Black Youth (feat. Mahogany L. Browne) (Gerald rework)
9. SHE Spells Doom – Portrait Of The Living Sky (feat. Sun Ra Arkestra) (SHE Spells Doom mix)
10. Ricardo Villalobos – I Have Forgotten (feat. Tara Middleton) (Earlier Than Late mix 1)
11. Baris K – Somebody Else's Idea (feat. Abiodun Oyewole) (Baris K & Mini Bashekim mix)
12. Calibre – Chopin (feat. Sun Ra Arkestra) (Calibre ambient mix)

Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, Macie Stewart - BODY SOUND

Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart are a trio who utilize string instruments, voices, and manual tape effect processing to craft compositions from alternately tranquil and disquieting improvised music. The three musicians are individually rooted in deep sound exploration, multi-disciplinary composition, and all manner of cross-genre collaboration. The musical ground covered by their solo practices is correspondingly expansive, and their individual recording and performance credits read as a veritable who’s who, ranging from DIY darlings to household names of experimental avant-garde, electronic, indie rock, and more.

The trio’s collective sound is based in improvisation—automatic, intuitive composition via their three voices and three string instruments (viola, cello, and violin, respectively). Their influences are vast—dispatched with more playful ease than a trio of string instruments is typically approached with, and just as likely to be found in the cloud-obscured mountains of Donegal, the low-rent cacophony of a midwestern basement, or the revelatory expanse of the Nurse With Wound list as in the storied halls of the academy. Touchstones and areas of interest aside, the main thing that Johnson, Kohl, and Stewart engage with in BODY SOUND is listening and reacting.

“Improvisation has a special capacity to facilitate a kind of sonic intimacy,” says Kohl. “We're making choices together in the moment. We're creating time together before thought enters the equation. It's an incredibly intimate and intuitive space to share, and feels like the heart center of this music and this practice.”

The trio’s approach to improvisation is very much embedded in and informed by their Chicago music community. The city’s ongoing improvised music tradition, which can envelop every genre imaginable, is one where a working musician’s ideas can evolve at a near-constant pace and where anything can be explored in the name of sound. And with sound, there’s always space to consider.

Where will the improvisation take place?
How will that space shape the sounds being made?
How will that sound resonate in the dim light of a small neighborhood bar?
How will it sound in the chromatic refractions of an ornate church?
Can it feel different-yet-equally perfect?

For Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart the answer to the last question is yes, definitely.

Stewart: Our quest as a crew is to explore space and every iteration of what that can mean, be it physical space, emotional space, sonic space, etc. Space is an instrument.

Johnson: It’s more than the acoustic properties of the recording spaces. Our bodies, emotions, and relationships show up in those spaces with affordances and limitations for the music each time. We are vibrating beings, sensitive and expressive, an amoeba of physical and psychic pressures with specific resonances in time and space.

Kohl: The space we’re in always feels like a collaborator in this trio more than in other contexts. I can always feel us all responding to where we are and the resonances that live there.”

On BODY SOUND, the trio worked with International Anthem engineer and album co-producer Dave Vettraino to translate the sonic specificities of three recording locations: International Anthem studios on Iron Street (Chicago), Shirk Studios (Chicago), and Boyd’s Jig and Reel (Knoxville, TN, as part of Big Ears Festival). Vettraino also brought a deep knowledge of tape manipulation and a willingness to experiment. “All it took was for one of us to say, ‘What if that was a loop?’, and he was already setting up the reel-to-reel,” says Johnson of the album’s post-production, which leaned heavily into their shared love of saturated tape sounds.

That trust, it seems, was already there. In addition to the communal criss-cross inherent in sharing their Chicago home base, the trio worked with Vettraino on Stewart’s 2025 solo effort When the Distance Is Blue. It was her debut on International Anthem but far from her first appearance in the label’s catalog as a player. Ditto for Kohl and Johnson, whose collaboration and friendship with the label goes back years. Taken as a whole, we could argue that this most recent collaboration, the tape-manipulated fried beauty documented on BODY SOUND, has been a long time coming.

In the context of this work, tape sound is much more than a mixing treatment or a production tactic. Here Johnson, Kohl, and Stewart are using variations on the medium to edit and reshape the pieces themselves, employing multiple analog tape machines to reimagine their improvised material into meticulously crafted compositions (“another layer of improvisation,” says Stewart). It’s all a response to the spaces they were originally engaged with, and the use of a highly physical medium like analog tape deepens the spatial engagement of the trio’s work to striking, playful, and organically psychedelic effect.

The resultant BODY SOUND is deep, melancholy, and triumphant, coming across like a kind of lost or amalgamated folk music. It’s certainly part of an ongoing creative continuum, even boasting track titles adapted from Yoko Ono’s classic book of text scores Grapefruit.

The album’s opener “dawn | pulse” puts a morning drone at the threshold of their sound world. This undulating slow roller is a free time drift of bowed tonal clusters respiring in long, melodic swells, and unfurling among wordless singing. Despite the time marker in the title, this piece feels suitable for any part of the day—the morning stretch skyward, the afternoon ambling respite, or the late-nite chillout. Both majorly serene and deceptively avant garde, “dawn | pulse” is a perfect entrée into BODY SOUND.

“laundry | blood” begins with a near-waltz percussive tumble created by a tape loop of Kohl’s barrette-prepared cello. Its soft and eerie triplet propels a deep and snarling viola-cello-violin drone forward à la the doomiest moments of the Berlin School canon or the repetitive outsider glory of Tony Conrad & Faust's Outside the Dream Syndicate. It’s a darkly cinematic take on the ambient ideal for the scarcely visible slow-moving night train chug. You can almost see it roll by.

Some moments feel intentionally disconnected from the performance, instead tied more closely to the concept of LP format listenership: the disintegrated melodic pumps and clomps of “chewing gum”, the body shaking radiator hiss come-apart of “snow | touch”, the otherworldly bass and sub-bass of “stone | piece”.

Across the album’s 11 tracks, each piece manages to keep a foot in both worlds. “burning | counting (sleeping)” begins abruptly with massive bursts of heavily-bowed sawtooth strings looping in real time, creating a near-synthetic feeling. Deep stutter-step freneticism, tape-manipulated and rendered into overlapping moments of dense psychedelia give way to an oncoming long-note tranquility—an improvised cacophony evoking some long dissipated storm-paced Irish folk drone more so than a New Music exercise or a study of Kronos / Reich.

And that seems to be the story with all of the material within BODY SOUND. It’s music with inexplicably broad appeal while maintaining a sort of mysterious outsider quality. Johnson, Kohl, and Stewart have created a stunning album—an exquisitely textured, spatially vivid, wordlessly expressive, sonically multitudinous collection—that manages to decode a slew of high level concepts while clearly and directly speaking to the human impulse. BODY SOUND is right. 

Tracklist:
1. dawn | pulse
2. laundry | blood
3. chewing gum
4. door | watch
5. stone | piece
6. burning | counting (sleeping)
7. shadow | mess
8. paper folding | disappearing
9. cough | laugh
10. snow | touch
11. fog | mirror

Work Money Death - A Portal To Here

ATA Records proudly presents A Portal to Here, the new release from Work Money Death.

Continuing the group’s deep exploration of Spiritual Jazz and the 60s New Thing - honouring the spirit of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders The album marks their first recording since the passing of ATA guitarist Chris “Earl” Dawkins. Its four tracks trace the band’s collective journey through grief and reflection, standing as both a testament to Chris’s artistry and a tribute to his enduring influence.

A Portal To Here brings the spirit of Alice Coltrane via Alice Roberts on harp, as well as Sun Ra-esque horn sections featuring the cream of Yorkshire reed and brass players, who lift the mood whenever they appear. Percussion, and particularly the celebratory sound of group handclaps, infuse the whole album with emotional intensity, whether that be joy or sorrow.

Influences range from New Orleans to India to the Baptist Church and the Blues. Standout tracks are the second, Dance of the Spirits, with a strong core of Baptism and The Blues and some rapturous playing by Richards, and the third track, Brother Earl, which begins with Tony on flute over rhythms that are directly reminiscent of open-hearted, late-60s spirituality. Tony later moves to tenor and, as on all four tracks here, eventually builds to the peaks of shattering emotional intensity that fans of Work Money Death - and spiritual jazz in general - connect deeply with.

A Portal to Here is a stunning addition to the Work Money Death catalogue and a clear statement that the band continues to create and produce, whatever life throws its way. 

Tracklist:
1. Pain Becomes Prayer And The Prayer Becomes A Song
2. A Dance For The Spirits
3. Brother Earl
4. Sometimes It's Death

Xylitol - Blumenfantasie

Xylitol, a.k.a. producer and DJ Catherine Backhouse, shifts up the refinement and musical breadth for her second album Blumenfantasie, the follow-up to her Planet Mu debut Anemones.

While Anemones pulled together her formative influences of early jungle, garage and kosmische musik, interspersed with elements of early central and eastern european electro to draw connections and contrasts between dance music and vintage electronics, in Blumenfantasie mitteleuropean melancholy comes to the fore, particularly drawing on the work of Sarajevo-born minimal synth composer Miaux, whom she recognises as “a kindred spirit in terms of her directness and melancholy, as well as her lightness of touch.” She cites her as her “single biggest inspiration in the shift between Anemones and Blumenfantasie and I think the shift of mood and palette is quite apparent, even if our music is very different in how it presents.”

A fitting analogy of the album’s feel can be found in the origin of its title:

“When I stayed in Berlin earlier this year to play for the Planet Mu 30th Anniversary show I had a vivid flashback to my last stay in the city some 20 years earlier. I was out raving every night with a friend who was squatting in a disused flower shop; the trip was a kind of therapeutic letting go but the memory fragment that stood out to me was the GDR era signage above the front window in brown tiles embossed in beige reading ‘Blumenfantasie’ in that kind of classic 1970s psychedelic font.” 

In her new album these crossing timelines, collisions of memory and aesthetics tessellate precariously together.

With Blumenfantasie, Xylitol wanted “to make space and for the music to float and propel at once”, finding routes through the pointillistic figures, cascading synths and the meditative stillness of kosmische musik and bolder breakbeat programming. She reaches this delicate balance through careful subtraction, hoping “to convey a sense of intimacy and sadness but without sentimentality” which she manages with a feel and sound that's raw and intuitive.

Blumenfantasie rolls through detailed jungle workouts that flutter and bleep, through beatless ambience, taking a rare dip below 160 bpm for the elegiac Mirjana, the album’s most explicit nod to Krautrock with a drum break chopped up from Amon Duul II’s anthemic ‘Archangel’s Thunderbird’, through to a bare bones grime rhythm that calls to mind the missing link between industrial pioneers Nurse With Wound and Wiley's Eskibeat. 

For Blumenfantasie, Catherine cast her net to draw in experimental audiovisual duo Sculpture and Reading based post-rock band The Leaf Library as collaborators, pulling the former’s whirling eddies of musique concrete into a slice of sublime aquatic jungle, and the latter’s radiophonic folksong into a dark and disorientating breakbeat workout equally indebted to Source Direct as to Broadcast.

Blumenfantasie moves with a confident, self-effacing fluidity which has been informed by DJ Bunnyhausen’s more regular DJ gigs. She speculates “if this album feels more cohesive than its predecessor it's likely because I've been DJing a lot more, with Worthing Techno Militia, with central and eastern european electronica collective Slav to the Rhythm, as well as being part of Italo Disco crew Flex. Moving between these zones seemed to open up hidden pathways between the disparate musical trajectories they represent.”

While Anemones contrasted the rough and the delicate, its successor is an album built for the head, hips and heart, with painterly sounds and a sense of intimacy that encourages deep listening while keeping its eyes on the strobelight and its feet on the dancefloor. 

Tracklist:
1. Chromophoria
2. Blumenfantasie
3. Tilted Arc
4. Melancholia
5. Mirjana
6. Sudwestwind
7. Lights
8. Bowed Clusters
9. Halo
10. Falling

Zena - TEMESGEN

21 JAN 2026: ZENA, the contemporary ethio-jazz duo from London comprised of producer, keyboardist and synth player Yohan Kebede and bassist/producer Menelik, have announced the forthcoming release of their debut EP ‘TEMESGEN’.

Set for release on March 20th via Brownswood Recordings on all digital platforms as well as vinyl, ‘TEMESGEN’ is a six-track aural odyssey that balances uncompromising experimentation with a deep sense of home, comfort, and exploration. In accordance with the duo’s mission, the project is seeking to redefine and reimagine Ethiopian music for a new generation.

Speaking on the inspiration behind the EP’s title, Yohan said: “‘TEMESGEN’ means “Thank God” in Amharic, and for me, I never heard my mother receive good news without saying it aloud. After the first couple gigs we did as ZENA, we saw how people reacted to our music and how it resonated with them. It spurred in us a feeling of overwhelming gratitude, after which the EP kind of named itself”.

Coinciding with the EP’s release, ZENA has unveiled ‘MY LOVE YOUR LOVE’ as the project’s lead single. Drawing from a rich blend of psychedelic funk, dub, R&B, jazz fusion, interwoven with the rhythmic and melodic language of Ethiopian Raya and Lasta music, ‘MY LOVE YOUR LOVE’ is slow-burning and fluid composition with a trance-like flow. 

Beholding distinct twangy guitar lines and sonorous synth work, the track emerged bit by bit through improvisation, with spontaneous moments driving its evolution and transcendent climax. Elaborating on the song’s conception and their decision to release it as a single, the duo said: “It was one of the first songs we started working on. It’s become a favourite and we found it's always a bit of a mood lifter”.

The unveiling of ‘MY LOVE YOUR LOVE’ comes after the release of their bold reinterpretation of Admas’ 1984 cult classic 'ANCHI BALE GAME’, which served as their standalone debut single. Upon its release, the single earned acclaim from The Voice Newspaper, CLASH, NOTION, OkayAfrica and Rough Trade for reworking the original track into a brooding and languid mix of alternative R&B, trip-hop and downtempo electronica.

Born out of a mutual love and respect for the music of their shared Ethiopian heritage, ZENA are charting a new endeavour where Ethiopian musical traditions meet the future. Building upon the roots and foundations laid by legendary Ethiopian musicians Haliu Mergia, Alemayehu Eshete and Mulatu Astatke, ZENA fuses the haunting spirituality and earthiness of the ethio-jazz tradition with a modernity, sensuality and sense of disruption that is distinctly London.

ZENA’s formation comes off the heels of a momentous year for Yohan Kebede, who with Kokoroko released their second studio album ‘Tuff Times Never Last’ last July. Upon its release, it was met with mass critical acclaim from the likes of The Guardian, The Times, Bandcamp Daily, Hypebeast, Mixmag, The Voice Newspaper, Pitchfork, PAPER Magazine, SPIN, The Fader, Essence, MOJO, UNCUT, NOTION and The Arts Desk. Eventually parlaying into a on NPR’s famed ‘Tiny Desk’ series, a North American tour and the biggest headline show of their career at the O2 Academy Brixton in London.

Menelik Mulugeta Claffey, better known mononymously as Menelik is a bassist and producer who’s spent years in the inner circle of London’s music scene. Spending significant time on the road and in the studio with Alina Bzhezhinska and keyboardist and Brian Jackson on the Alice Coltrane Celebration Project, Bill Laurance and Divine Earth (fka muva of Earth) Bill. A long-term elusive figure, his lowkey presence has become almost synonymous with his name and a signature. 

Tracklist:
1. ZENA!
2. MY LOVE YOUR LOVE
3. KAZANCHIS
4. IT'S YOU (ANTE NEH) [feat. Meron T]
5. LONG TIME NO SPEAK
6. TEMESGEN