Me and My Friends - Before I Saw the Sea

This album is about anticipation and change. The moments in which we feel the certainties that hold us securely in place come adrift.

The inception for many of these pieces took place in the first lockdown of 2020, when our diaries were abruptly cleared and the churn of everyday life ground to a halt. Suddenly, there was so much time, in which ideas could percolate uninterrupted, revisited each day without distraction, taking shape gradually in a process that seemed inconceivable before.

We had always assumed that we needed to be in the same physical space to create new music together, but pandemic restrictions forced us into experiments in collaborative writing online we’d never have considered otherwise. These exchanges created a thread to hold onto and a collective sense of purpose, as all else seemed to become untethered.

With returning melodic themes and vignettes weaving throughout the record, and a lyrical expression of times of transformation, this is an album created to accompany journeys when none could be made, in anticipation of the parting clouds.

Tracklist:
1. Root
2. Witness
3. You Came Into My Life
4. Everybody's Talking
5. Waiting
6. Midnight in Your Kitchen
7. Before I Saw the Sea
8. Border in Twilight
9. The Storm Shall Pass
10. Lover, Come Back to Me

VA - Infernal Sounds Presents: Future Forms

Infernal Sounds celebrates the next generation of 140 in their 17-track various artist LP, Future Forms. Global musicians from Bristol to Japan have contributed to the LP, which features returning Infernal Sounds family like Kodama and Khanum alongside brand-new signees such as Gnasha and Saraphim.

Each track on the Future Forms LP has been hand-picked to illuminate artists who Infernal Sounds feel are pushing 140 further with their unique productions. As well as paying homage to the scene’s newcomers and tenured alike, Future Forms presents a cross-section of contemporary 140 from the deep, haunting melodies of Conzi to the screw-face inducing basslines of Dayzero.

Tracklist:
1. Bisweed – By My Side
2. Saraphim – Cool Box
3. SWR – Continuum Transfunctioner
4. E S P – Open Mind
5. Conzi – Drift
6. Proove – Infraction
7. Khanum – Undiscovered
8. Gnasha – Somnipathy
9. Kodama – Boo'ya Moon
10. Substrada – Babiru
11. Blottarz – Executioner
12. Mistah – Brock
13. Dusty – Jinx
14. ?Z & EKSTR – Electricity
15. Dayzero – Obsidian
16. Rakjay – Half-Cut
17. Soukah – Ey! 

Nostalgia 77 - The Loneliest Flower in the Village

For the past 20 years Nostalgia 77 has become a catch all for the musical life of Benedic Lamdin. His schizophrenic offerings range from songwriting sessions, soundtracks, excursions into Soul and in this case Jazz. The Loneliest Flower in the Village is an album that sees Lamdin reunited with longtime collaborator and arranger Riaan Vosloo and experienced veterans from a host of Nostalgia 77 projects.

'It had been a long time since we'd gigged or recorded so the idea was as much a little reunion in the studio as any grand plan to record an album' says Lamdin. 'The idea wasn't to do anything new (the material is both a few originals and a few covers), more just hear these players and their easy familiarity with each other after the disruption of Covid'.

Playing a clutch of originals by Riaan Vosloo and James Allsopp and covers by long term influences from South Africa such as Chris MacGregor and Abdullah Ibrahim, the emphasis is on strong melodies and open reaches for the soloists. The title track draws upon the song written by South African bassist Johnny Dyani and the result is spectacular; British jazz at heart but awash with references to South Africa and its strong jazz heritage.

'I'm pleased to say that I think this record is the best account of how the band (playing in this lineup since about 2010 ) sounds live. Full of energy and ranging from serene to firing on all cylinders.'

Tracklist:
1. Dakar
2. Ishmael
3. The Sun Is Big
4. The Hooper
5. Flower
6. Love in Outer Space
7. Folk Tune
8. Foothills
9. The Loneliest Flower in the Village

Fred P - States of Bliss

‘States Of Bliss’ is the next album by Fred P, his third full length in the last year, following ‘Oasis’ and ‘Abstract Soul’ and the most expansive of the three. In the club or listening at home, Fred’s music makes perfect sense on either side, as 'States Of Bliss' beautifully exhibits.

Produced on the move in hotels and airports, as well as Fred's studio in Berlin, ‘States Of Bliss’ is described by Fred as “a collection of musical imaginations that truly inspire one to actions of positivity and balance, incorporating a range of emotive moods to create an environment for expansion within a sonic structure.” Expanding a little more on this subject, Fred says….

“Whatever music suits your fantasy, the pacing of it makes you feel better and it inspires you to some form of action. It could be dancing, working out, it could be doing your laundry, but it inspires you to some form of movement. With that movement, then your mind starts to open up, and maybe you were having a blue day, and now it’s a sunny day. With the music I play and especially with the music that I make, even if it might seem melancholic, it’s for the specific purpose of releasing that melancholy, and looking toward the possibility of the opposite.”

Within the two parts States Of Bliss becomes a musical landscape spanning dance floor grooves such as ‘In The Flow’ with a vocal sample by Cassy, to the psychedelic acid jazz of ‘Live Your way’ moving into the meditative ambient goodness of ‘Awakening Desire’. There’s also the jazz track ‘NY’ recorded in 2012 that was remixed for the legendary "Selected" compilation. Not leaving any realm unnoticed, ‘River’ is a sought after soundscape and ‘Elevated States’ see’s Fred delves into trippy electronica. 

Tracklist:
1. In The Flow
2. Art Life Music Tribal Dub
3. Elevated States
4. Live Your Way
5. River
6. NY
7. Awakening Desire
8. High Fusion 

Foehn Trio - ELEMENTS

Tracklist:
1. Same Horizon
2. Grand F(r)errand
3. Rainbows
4. Romy (And the World After)
5. Belle étoile
6. Around the World
7. Saison des pluies
8. Moon

José James - On & On

On & On: José James Sings Badu

When José James released No Beginning No End 2 (2020), a collaborative effort that paired the forward-looking vocalist with a global all-star cast including Ledisi, Aloe Blacc and Laura Mvula, it was apparent that the genre-defying artist was back to stake his claim as the jazz singer for the hip-hop generation. In that light his new project, On & On, finds James throwing down the gauntlet on the past 100 years of jazz singing while charting a path forward for the culture.

“It’s simple” James explains. “Jazz singing has always been about interpreting the highest level of standards of your time. And for my generation Erykah Badu has been one of the most innovative and incisive songwriters. Her work has proven to be groundbreaking in a social, musical and artistic sense.”

The album, produced by James with contributions from like-minded musicians Big Yuki (A Tribe Called Quest), Ben Williams (Kamasi Washington) and Jharis Yokley (My Brightest Diamond) investigates the breadth of Badu’s iconic catalog, from her groundbreaking debut album Baduizm to her contemporary masterpieces New Amerykah Pt. 1 and 2.

But make no mistake: This is thoroughly a jazz album. Conceived in the spirit of Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters, James artfully draws upon his experiences with modern masters McCoy Tyner, Robert Glasper and Flying Lotus to create a new sonic landscape through an improvisatory lens.

James also builds on his reputation as a modern jazz tastemaker by introducing featured horn players Ebban Dorsey and Diana Dzhabbar. “As an artist and performer Badu has consistently created opportunities for young artists both on and off her stage,” James explains. “It only made sense to include the next generation.” 

Tracklist:
1. On & On
2. Didn't Cha Know
3. Green Eyes
4. The Healer
5. Gone Baby, Don't Be Long
6. Out My Mind, Just In Time
7. Bag Lady

Aedon - Musical Memory Garden

It's by listening to his parents' records during car trips that he fell into it.

Starting with Boards of Canada, Röyksopp or Tokimonsta, Adone discovered techno, electronica, break and trip-hop at the age of 9. Since then, he feeds his mind with unstructured rhythms, nostalgic melodies and basically, an abstract universe.

Since 2018, he describes this universe in his musical productions as an inner dialogue, an introspective quest, a journey through his mind.

Music reflects souls and gathers hearts, it is with this idea in mind that in 2021, the young producer gives birth to the project Noise Workers. An audiovisual experience mixing arts and provoking meetings between artists of all horizons through podcasts, interviews, multidisciplinary shows etc.

Today, Aedon proposes his second EP for Matière. Called Musical Memory Garden, it's 7 tracks that perfectly illustrate his influences. The EP also contains a remix of the Parisian founder of Hard Love Motor Love, Trois Quarts Taxi System who released last year his first album on the label.

Tracklist:
1. Strange Ambiance
2. Flower Smell Through The Window
3. Novelty
4. Flanage
5. Faster Days
6. Signius
7. Neighbor's Balcony
8. Novelty (Trois-Quarts Taxi System remix)

Barney McAll - Precious Energy ReUp (Precious Energy Remix Album)

“Precious Energy ReUp” is a 12-track REMIX ALBUM
of the 2022 release “Precious Energy” nominated for an:
ARIA
THE AUSTRALIAN MUSIC PRIZE
MUSIC VICTORIA AWARD

The new 12-track album features contributions from luminaries; Steve Spacek, Sampology and Toshio Matsuura as well as Setwun, Surana, Mike Gurrieri, Moses Carr, Kuzich, Dan West Audible Artefacts, The Lords Garden and Pat Telfer.

Tracklist::
1. Gary Bartz - John Coltrane (Sampology Remix)
2. Stevland (Setwun Remix)
3. Sun Rays (Steve Spacek Remix)
4. Wild Horses In the Morning Sky (Surana Remix)
5. Sweet Water (Moses Carr Remix)
6. John Coltrane (Toshio Matsuura Remix)
7. Sweet Water (Dan West Audible Artefacts Remix)
8. Stevland (Kuzich Street Mix)
9. Precious Energy (Lords Garden Remix)
10. John Coltrane (Sampology Instrumental Remix)
11. Precious Energy (Mike Gurrieri Remix)
12. Sweet Sweet Spirit (Pat Telfer Remix)

Emanuel Harrold - We da People

Tracklist:
1. I Think
2. We da People
3. See
4. Brighter Day
5. Fight Harder
6. Good Word
7. Shine Light
8. Mr. Brew