Musician, writer and filmmaker, Sunik Kim follows up ‘The Bent Bow Must Wait to Be Released’ (Takuroku 2021) with their second LP - a deadly serious dismantling of the limits of contemporary computer music, delivered with playful dexterity and a touch of slapstick humour, a la Henry Cow.

Enlisting General MIDI to create frenetic, vital patterns of dis-organisation made up of gleeful synthetic trumpets, wry orchestral sweeps and brutal key clusters, Sunik Kim explodes a kind of simplistic sound into complex, beautifully uncertain structures. Rather than attempting to overwhelm or stun the listener into subjectivity, ‘Potential’ is ever shifting; regularly breaking form and unfolding, discreetly nibbling at the concept of the Spectacle and un-doing fatally closed systems of cyclic music.

On first listens we recalled Cecil Taylor’s Unit Structures, Stockhausen’s Gruppen, and even those weirdo attempts at making music from inside the world of Animal Crossing, Lil Jürg Frey. The overflowing ideas of Henry Cow (to which Kim dedicated a fantastically blended mix for the Wire in 2021) never drift too far from view, but contemporary counterparts lay few except for Yorkshire's most eminent polyceleratrix, Gretchen Aury, who we asked to write the liners. Gretchen’s words are unsurprisingly as extraordinary as the record itself, so we’ll close out with their words:

“Potential reads as a rare honest response to the disaster capitalist era of the apparent nearing end of the anthropocene, a cyborg music which is not hopelessly psychotic like so much contemporary and especially computer-requiring music, but lucidly possessed with rapture, pain, madness, empathy, ecstasy, torment, fragility; all those vital feelings and incentives which our atrociously depressing times seem engineered to quash and bleed out of us. This sound is a blistering Electro Magnetic Pulse wave of revolutionary hope, exclaiming defiantly that History is not over, that the future is not ‘history,’ that there is still a vast multitude of ideas and identities burning brightly and resiliently, despite the fact that they are inconceivable to the tyrannical Hegemonic axis of global capitalist tech-culture. I ask of you, listener, if you truly wish to plunge beyond The Known, give yourself over in full to this record.”

When is a work of art finished? We know how it begins: Inspiration strikes, a brush hits the canvas, pen hits paper, or a finger plucks a string. When the paint congeals, the camera stops rolling, or the performance is over, is that the end of the process? What follows is usually a period of reflection, of self-critique, snip here and there, add or subtract. Perhaps then comes more dramatic editing, or even a drastic reworking, the end bearing little resemblance to the beginning.

The final steps of artistic creation can take many forms: Picasso painting over an incongruous lap dog in his 1900 dark canvas of Parisian socialites “Le Moulin de la Galette”; pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès creating a new visual language of jump cuts, superimpositions, and fantastical optical illusions; or Miles Davis taking the razor blade to magnetic tape to reshape a 1961 live recording into something more polished, more perfect, and just slightly artificial, “In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk”.

To Miles, one of the most discriminating taste-makers of the 20th century, the creative process didn’t end with the last set, but continued until he was satisfied. Not content to leave the tools of the studio as the purview of The Beach Boys or The Beatles, Miles and his producers continued to refine their command of constructive post-recording, reaching an apex in 1971 with “Jack Johnson”. The juxtapositions, cross fades, delay effects and overdubs were just as integral to the process as the rollocking jam session that began it.

Too often we think only of the beginning of the process. A work is made of continuous waves of inspiration and creation, strata of improvisations made permanent, each layer related to the one below, or not. Forget the “post” in post production - it’s all production.

-Jacob Garchik

„Talán” is the title of Raphael Rogiński’s new solo album that comes out on September 7th via Instant Classic label. Rogiński – Polish guitarist, composer and musicologist, received recognition not only as a member of the Shofar trio where he performs with saxophonist Mikołaj Trzaska and percussionist Macio Moretti but also thanks to his astounding takes on John Coltrane’s music released in 2015 „Plays John Coltrane And Langston Hughes African Mystic Music”.

„Talán” is a very old (probably Scythian) word that can be translated as „maybe” and that’s where my musical approach comes from – I take something in order to lose something else, Rogiński explains. It’s a constant process of achieving goals by getting rid of others and I’m fixated on this idea. It’s also a meditation upon a process, a calm observation, he adds.

„Talán” is also a result of Rogiński’s fascination with the Black Sea. All of the tracks are somehow connected to it and some were composed in Odessa – a city often thought of as a gateway to Asia. This is where my some of my ancestors arrived to Europe, says Raphael. When working on these tunes I came to know the Black Sea both physically and spiritually. What’s interesting, it’s been once called Inhospitable Sea only to later turn into Hospitable Sea. A myth was tamed and when the mystery disappeared and different civilizations met, a new myth came into life.

You may notice an unorthodox sound of this album and please be aware that this is intended. It came straight from my heart. I wanted this music to sound as if played right next to the listener and that’s why you may notice strange background noises recorded when I was playing – explains Raphael.

The album was composed over a couple of years and took many attempts at the recording. My patience is usually very limited so this has been a strange experience for me. But traveling the region of the Black Sea and discovering its nature within myself required time. Our world is full of wonders and awes and traveling (both physically as well as emotionally) remains one of the most important aspects of living, Rogiński admits.

Recorded at Teatr Pinokio and W Dobrym Tonie Studio by Paweł Maciak, Jacek Trzeszczyński. Mastered by Werner Dafeldecker. Graphic design by Agnieszka Zwara.

In the wake of their acclaimed comeback album 'Figures' (2020), Aksak Maboul took a playful sideways step to create this total work, a 63-minute, continuous suite of fifteen pieces, which could be described as an experimental audio play.

The thread running through 'Une aventure de VV (Songspiel)' is Véronique Vincent’s text, an enigmatic philosophical-poetical tale unfolding through monologues and dialogues, spoken and sung by a series of characters, played by Alig Fodder, Laetitia Sadier, Audrey & Benjamin from Aquaserge, Don The Tiger, Blaine L. Reininger, and the members of Aksak Maboul’s current live band: Faustine Hollander, Lucien Fraipont & Erik Heestermans.

The music was written & arranged by Marc Hollander and features his characteristic genre-hopping tendencies: strands of electronica, pop, jazz, collage, techno, ambient, improv, krautrock, contemporary classical & systems music are merrily woven together, in the inimitable Aksak Maboul style.

The album’s subtitle, 'Songspiel', highlights its theatrical/musical aspect: the work pays oblique homage to the those experimental radio plays that once emerged from the creative workshops of the BBC, the RTF and the RAI, and especially to those German Hörspiels which, at their best, might combine spoken word, instrumental or electronic music, songs and sonic research.

Une aventure de VV also modestly alludes to certain stage works written by adventurous composers during the first half of the 20th century, which embraced singing, spoken dialogues and elements inspired by popular music. Those composers sometimes invented genre names to describe their pieces: fantaisie lyrique, mimodrama, or... songspiel).

Black Truffle is pleased to announce its first release from celebrated London-based Canadian composer Cassandra Miller. Though her body of mature work stretches back almost twenty years, many listeners were introduced to Miller through the success of her astonishing 2015 Duet for Cello and Orchestra, which sets an imperturbable two-note cello part against a series of increasingly dense orchestrations of an Italian folk melody; in 2019, it was selected by The Guardian as one of the ‘best classical music works of the 21st century’. Traveller Song / Thanksong, the first release of her music on vinyl, presents a pair of compositions for voice and ensemble that exemplify Miller’s gently absurd, strikingly beautiful, and utterly unique work.

Like many of Miller’s compositions, these pieces originate in existing music. Traveller Song (2016/2018) begins from a 1950s song of an anonymous Sicilian cart driver recorded by Alan Lomax and Diego Carpitella, which Miller recorded herself singing along to, going on to then record herself singing to her own layered voices. Miller’s untutored voice is an unsteady, wavering wail that has, in her words, ‘more in common with a quasi-shamanistic keening than anything Sicilian’. Heard sometimes alone, sometimes layered, her pre-recorded voice is accompanied by a chamber sextet drawn from London’s Plus-Minus Ensemble. In the first section, Miller’s exposed warble is set to a spare piano accompaniment, somehow both faintly preposterous and magisterial. Following the voice note for note, the piano part often makes use of almost mechanical sequences of parallel chords, reminiscent both of Satie’s Rosicrucian period and the abrupt harmonic movements of a chord organ. The orchestration then opens up to guitar, clarinet, and sliding strings, a delicate environment for Miller’s voice, which, especially when it begins to be layered, generates a powerful sense of intimacy. In its concluding minutes, the folk roots of the original melody return in the form of a glorious full ensemble setting dominated by accordion, clarinet, and strummed guitar.

Thanksong begins from recordings of Miller singing along to the third movement of Beethoven’s late quartet in A minor (Op. 132), the ‘holy song of thanks’ the composer wrote to express his gratitude for (temporarily) recovering from illness. Recording herself singing along repeatedly to each of the individual parts of the quartet, Miller created an aural score where each member of the string quartet listens to their own part on headphones, playing by ear. Performed on this recording by Montreal's Quatuor Bozzini, with whom Miller has a decades-long relationship, they are joined by the British soprano Juliet Fraser, who sings material from the Beethoven quartet ‘as slowly and quietly as possible’. The atmosphere of the opening of Beethoven’s Dankgesang, of hushed reawakening and thoughtful reflection, is sustained throughout the fourteen minutes of Miller’s piece, building at points almost to sentimentality before the five individual parts again fall back into a gentle burble of unsynchronised melodic gestures. Like Traveller Song, here the use of the voice is a long way from the mannered performance of much contemporary music, reaching for a human and bodily presence more connected to the reality of the everyday, albeit suffused with wonder. Presented in a stylish sleeve adorned with photography by Lasse Marhaug and liner notes by Cassandra Miller, this is a key release from a major contemporary composer whose work challenges and dazzles in equal measure.

[AUM117]

Ava Mendoza: electric guitar, compositions
Devin Hoff: electric bass, compositions
James Brandon Lewis: tenor saxophone
Ches Smith: drums

'Echolocation' is the astonishing debut album from Mendoza Hoff Revels, a formidable new unit led by Ava Mendoza & Devin Hoff and featuring James Brandon Lewis & Ches Smith.

While Mendoza and Hoff have floated around each other's musical orbits for decades, and have been friends for some time, this is their first work together on record. It is an electric & holy harmonic fusion of highly estimable musical forces; wholly rendered. The original impetus of this group was Mendoza’s, based on the love she and Hoff shared for aggressive and polyglot electric avant-garde ensembles – artists like mid-80's Black Flag (w/ Roessler & Stevenson) and Ornette Coleman's Prime Time bands revolutionized the way they heard music. As stated in their liner notes, "we shared the writing of these pieces, though without the sizable stamps of both James and Ches, they would sound nothing like they do here.”

The result – 21st Century progressive rock played by punk rockers with serious improv skills and a deep jazz feel. And vitally – non-stop wicked catchy tunes, riffs & grooves.

Strong sonic references on our initial hearing at AUM Fidelity were The Stooges’ Funhouse, rendered by an entire band readily adept at rapidly swinging rhythmic & harmonic shifts (plus tenor sax on every track!) -&- minutemen, both their entire body of music & their fundamental egalitarian punk ethos. A higher combo accolade to any "rock-adjacent" band playing with electricity we at AUM cannot bestow.

Ava Mendoza [ ] is a singular guitarist–composer–songwriter best known for her solo guitar/voice performances & as leader of experimental rock band Unnatural Ways. Over the past decade, her prodigious & long-honed six-string skills have illuminated numerous projects, very recently w/ Bill Orcutt's Guitar Quartet & William Parker's Mayan Space Station [ ]. Fellow master guitarist Marc Ribot wrote of Ava’s work, “beautiful, powerful and highly original - a new sound, a new voice".

Devin Hoff [ ] is a bassist–composer–arranger who has worked extensively with creative musicians & bands spanning genres & generations, incl. Sharon Van Etten, Julia Holter, Nels Cline, Yoko Ono. Hoff has appeared on over 100 records and performed at major rock and jazz rock festivals across 5 continents. Devin's 'Solo Bass' is on record as being one of Laurie Anderson's Top 5 Albums of All Time.

James Brandon Lewis is a tremendously gifted tenor saxophonist–composer, with a wide-open mind to the cosmos of Music and the ability to give powerful new voice to same. His Red Lily Quintet's 'Jesup Wagon' swept the #1 slot in all major U.S. Jazz critics polls in 2022. Its follow-up, 'For Mahalia, With Love', released in September 2023.

Ches Smith's exceptionally deep & distinctive gifts on all manner of percussion have led to great work together with Tim Berne, John Zorn, Darius Jones, and, among his own creations as a leader is the remarkably beautiful, 'Path of Seven Colors', a bountiful fruit of his devout study of Haiti's Vodou musical traditions.

'Echolocation' was recorded by Jim Clouse at Park West Studios (as was Mayan Space Station) & then masterfully mixed by John Dieterich (of Deerhoof).

Award-winning composer, turntablist and performer Mariam Rezaei approaches turntablism with an openness that's not just progressive, it's surprisingly optimistic. On 'BOWN', the central part of a triptych alongside 'BLUD' and 'SKEEN' (both released on Graham Dunning's Fractal Meat Cuts imprint), Rezaei reconsiders the established logic of turntable-based music, blurring expectations and persistently reaching into the unknown. In her capable hands the decks become chameleonic, imitating an arsenal of instruments that she subsequently bends into uncanny forms. Rezaei sees turntablism as a continuum rather than a fixed style, and she invites a carefully picked crew of collaborators - Theresa Winter, Luka Koenig, Alya Al-Sultani, Bobby Glue and Gwily Edmondez - to help distort genre hallmarks until they're completely unrecognizable; vocals become sputtering oscillators, drums are turned into walls of sheet noise and acidic electronics mutate into unstable, foggy drones.

Rezaei started DJing when she was just 15 years old, developing her skills in the competitive and male-dominated hip-hop battle arena. She began to realize that even in this fast-paced environment, the turntable was too often used as a vehicle to exercise a sequence of customary tropes. Inspired by art from across the genre spectrum, she developed her own unique language with the instrument, bringing in ideas from free improv and extreme noise to extend her palette. So she doesn't ask a question on 'it COULD be jazz', but makes a statement, replying tersely to a colleague's barbed comment after a performance at London Jazz Festival last year. Transforming wild horn squeaks into time-stretched gasps and scrubbed, chattering voices, and garbling drums from Guttersnipe's Bobby Glue into ratcheting whirrs, she assures listeners that jazz too is far more than a predetermined set of aphorisms. "How can I make the turntable sound as extreme as Roscoe Mitchell or Peter Brötzmann?" she wondered during an interview with Wire magazine in April.

YEAH YOU's Gwily Edmondez throws his self-styled "wild pop" vocalizations into Rezaei's continuum on 'GEORDIE SPICE', so she replies by juxtaposing his insectoid rasps with garbled West Asian chants and microscopic radio pop bleeps and beats. And traces of Grouper's vaporous articulations hang gently over unstable dancefloor vibrations on 'BURNING LIKE FUCK', situating the track a few steps from the club, outside in the smoking area or a nearby restroom. On 'I WANT U 2' meanwhile, Rezaei taps London-based soprano Alya Al-Sultani, scratching her operatic cries until they become chirps and cutting them into an abstracted conversation about the role of women in civilization. 'BOWN' is a confident, fervid statement from Rezaei that doesn't just burn up turntablism's presumed rulebook, it points a weary finger at an avant-garde landscape that still ignores the work countless women have put in to guide its progress. This is never more evident than on the tongue-in-cheek 'IDIOTIC MUSIC PEOPLE CUNTS', one-and-a-half minutes of garbled noise that throws a middle finger up to the industry, extending a warm embrace to the real ones.

Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is the latest instalment in composer, improviser, saxophonist, and visual artist Matana Roberts’ visionary project exploring African-American history through ancestry, archive and place. Weaving together elements of jazz, avant-garde composition, folk and spoken word, Roberts tells the story of a woman in their ancestral line, who died following complications from an illegal abortion. At a time when reproductive rights are under attack, her story takes on new resonance. “I wanted to talk about this issue, but in a way where she gets some sense of liberation,” Roberts explains. By unpacking family stories and conducting extensive research in US public archives, Roberts has created a rounded portrait of a woman who is, as their lyrics put it, “electric, alive, spirited, fire and free.”

Each part of Coin Coin explores radically different musical settings, from the free jazz and post-rock eruptions of Chapter One to the solo noise collage of Chapter Three. Featuring a new ensemble steeped in jazz, improvisation, new music and avant-rock, helping to expand the project’s existing sonic palette, Chapter Five is no exception. Roberts is joined by fellow alto saxophonist Darius Jones, violinist Mazz Swift (Silkroad Ensemble, D’Angelo), bass clarinettist Stuart Bogie (TV On The Radio, Antibalas), alto clarinettist Matt Lavelle (Eye Contact, Sumari), pianist Cory Smythe (Ingrid Laubrock, Anthony Braxton), vocalist/actor Gitanjali Jain and percussionists Ryan Sawyer (Thurston Moore, Nate Wooley) and Mike Pride (Pulverize The Sound, MDC). The late, great trumpeter jaimie branch, who was due to play on the album, receives a credit for “courage”. The album is produced by TV On The Radio’s Kyp Malone, who also contributes synths.

As a composer, Roberts draws upon strategies associated with the post-war avant-garde, including John Cage and Fluxus member Benjamin Patterson’s conceptual approaches to scoring and performance. The immersive work of Maryanne Amacher, in which “sound and the body almost collaborate” is another key influence. “That is the foundation for me of the Coin Coin work,” they explain. “It’s not just the alto saxophone as an instrument placed in the jazz canon, it's the alto saxophone as an instrument that can be utilised to affect the body.”

Listeners will be struck by Roberts’ ability to mould diverse sounds into a cohesive whole. The spoken word passages are accompanied by driving modal jazz on “how prophetic”, minimalist synth loops on “enthralled not by her curious blend” and cantering folk forms on “(a)way is not an option”. These are interspersed with instrumental pieces that range from avant-garde abstraction and squalling free jazz, to solo saxophone reflections and Mississippi fife and drums blues. There’s a further evocation of American roots music in the powerful group vocal arrangement of “but I never heard a sound so long”, adapted by Roberts from the plantation lullaby “All The Pretty Horses.”

While this new chapter of Coin Coin focusses on a female-identified protagonist, others haven’t (Chapter Three being from the perspective of a male ancestor) and Roberts intends for future chapters to continue to cover the breadth of the gender spectrum, as well as their Native American heritage. “I'm proud that people say that the Coin Coin work speaks of a woman's story. But I want to make sure that it retains its inclusivity, because what we look like is not always what you see.” This reflects Roberts’ own experiences as a queer person of colour. For the remaining chapters of Coin Coin, Roberts will continue exploring identity and ancestry. “Expect it to keep heading towards a liberation of the human spirit.”

Darius Jones has created a recognizable voice as a critically acclaimed saxophonist and composer by embracing individuality and innovation in the tradition of Black music.

“Jones makes his point by showing, not just telling. His compositions are so intensely honed and performed they seem to talk, moan, and cry about intimate experience in ways we might expect to find in novels, not instrumental records.” – Daniel Felsenthal, Pitchfork

Commissioned by Western Front, an artist-run centre in Vancouver, Canada, with a legacy of continuing support for multidisciplinary exchange, experimentation, and the avant-garde. This project was developed by Darius Jones across a succession of residencies at Western Front in 2019 and 2022.

Recorded in June 2022 at Western Front’s Grand Luxe Hall in Vancouver, Canada, fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s̶ suite but sacred) is the first collaborative release with Brooklyn-based Northern Spy and Helsinki-based We Jazz Records.

As Harmony Holiday writes in her liner notes, included with this release: “The playing here is gorgeous, but what stands out most is the rigor of the compositions, which feel like tributes to Sun Ra’s call that ‘only the impossible happens.’ Their mood is expansive, gleeful, wistful, sometimes frantic, but so coherent and poised at every turn that all you can do while listening is marvel at this fluency in the language of will and won’t that lives here alone.”

The Quietus Album of the Week 15th June 2023

Philip’s laugh was infectious. Our conversations would usually begin with exchanges around the enthusiasm we had for each other’s work and the respect we shared for other Touch artists. However, as we were most likely to have met over drinks at the Philharmonic Dining Rooms in Liverpool the evening would gradually dissolve into convivial disarray. What did emerge from these soirées over recent years was a desire to find ways and means for us to collaborate at a place where our ideas converged.

In 2017 I was recording along the north bank of the Humber estuary and one morning driving back from Faxfleet I was stopped at the Oxmardyke rail crossing. The gates were down. After setting up a microphone array by the tracks for a passing freight train the signalman shouted an invitation to climb up into the gate box to make some more recordings.

Over the following weeks I made several return trips to Oxmardyke and gathered a broad palette of recordings. I discussed the sounds, stories and history of the site with Philip after a show and we were both excited by the potential of making a work together.

Philip was drawn to the ancient history of the area from 6th century Anglo Saxon times to the Knights Templar and how the sounds, rhythms and textures from those periods may still inhabit the contemporary landscape. My thoughts took inspiration from ‘The Signalman’ by Charles Dickens and the painting ‘Rain, Steam and Speed’ by Joseph Turner. We agreed to share ideas and exchange tracks.

Oxmardyke gate box has now passed into history

It was only when Mike Harding at Touch informed me of Philip’s condition that we began a final exchange of pieces and I sincerely hope that my contributions may frame Philip’s exceptional work.

Chris Watson August 2022


At the end of January 2022 Philip was taken to A&E at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital suffering from severe back pain and was admitted for investigations. In the hospital ward, with some strong pain relief, he could more comfortably rest, mostly horizontally. During the day he could be angled slightly toward a sitting position.

Over the following days, aiming to make sense of his current predicament, Philip regained a tiny level of normality. With his laptop in place he tapped into familiar territory and, when finding the most favourable times, listened to and worked with the sound files that Chris had sent him.

During these brief, intense spells Philip gave all to his ear and heart to guide and shape the music forming at his fingertips.

Mary Prestidge November 2022

Coming February 10: the most live-sounding Yo La Tengo album in years, This Stupid World. Times have changed for Yo La Tengo as much as they have for everyone else. In the past, the band has often worked with outside producers and mixers. In their latest effort, the first full-length in five years, This Stupid World was created all by themselves. And their time-tested judgment is both sturdy enough to keep things to the band’s high standards, and nimble enough to make things new. At the base of nearly every track is the trio playing all at once, giving everything a right-now feel. There’s an immediacy to the music, as if the distance between the first pass and the final product has become more direct. Available on standard black vinyl, CD and on limited blue vinyl.

藝名“EPO”的由來是童年時代的外號。
東京出生。東京女子大學在校期間，為竹內瑪莉亞單曲“SEPTEMBER”擔當合唱及合唱編寫，又在大瀧詠一為三得利檸檬廣告作曲的“大きいのが好き”擔任主唱。
1980年3月21日翻唱SUGAR BABE作品“DOWN TOWN”出道。20世紀80年代中期，與竹內瑪利亞、大貫妙子並稱為“RCA（唱片公司）三個女兒”，創作了許多熱門歌曲及電視廣告、節目主題歌。
1983年2月，為資生堂化妝品春季宣傳廣告創作演唱的歌曲“う、ふ、ふ、ふ”一經發表即大熱，成為EPO代表作。
90年代與英國維京唱片簽約，發行專輯“FIRE & SNOW”及兩支單曲，而後回國。與“Choro Club”樂隊結緣，吸收了他們巴西風格的音樂精髓，推出了更具獨創性的藝術作品。
後期取得心理治療資格證，以音樂為基礎，為殘障人士、老人、兒童進行心理諮詢，積極拓展音樂的多樣性和可能性。
2008年12月，在演唱會宣佈與演員兼治療師的宮川雅彥結婚。

Multi-faceted Scottish artist Barry Can’t Swim releases his debut album ‘When Will We Land?’ on Ninja Tune, out October 20th. His broadest and most diverse project yet, the 11-track project moves from deep house to jazz, from ambience to the percussive charge of afrobeat. It’s all held together by his singular sense of purpose and that trademark vivacity; deftly finessed, it’s an album that works as a form of musical autobiography.

The debut album is led by new single ‘Woman’, a fantastic blend of digital production and organic musicianship. A warm bed of notes pirouettes around an emphatic vocal from Låpsley, resulting in a song that moves between the cavernous house of Moodymann, say, and the neo-psychedelic tones of shoegaze. “I sent it out,” he recalls, “Lapsley came back immediately with this unreal vocal. I chopped it up, re-arranged it… it’s one of those things that fell into place.”

‘Woman’ follows the emphatic success of recent single ‘Sunsleeper’, which landed in the opening weeks of 2023. A dextrous and ambitious talent, Barry Can’t Swim embraces the energy of club music while also blending this with organic elements. “For me, I want it to have musicality to it,” he says of his debut album. “I wanted it to have the energy of electronic music but also with a more organic live element. I feel like I’m more of a musician than anything else. I’m a producer but I like writing music on instruments.”

Expanding on this early promise, Barry Can’t Swim doubles down for his debut album, producing a work that feels complex but intricately unified. Utilising afrobeat drum loops for the title track, he works with choral harmonies on ‘Always Get Through To You’, and samples seminal Brazilian group Trio Ternura on joyous album highlight ‘Dance Of The Crab’.

“You only get to make your debut album once,” he points out. “So I want to showcase all the elements of the things I enjoy and love in music up to this point.”

The Nigerian singer-songwriter’s second album is in constant search of innovation, fusing traditional and contemporary African music into a celebration of success and community.

2023年デビュー15周年を迎えるBLU-SWINGが、約8年ぶりとなるフルアルバムをリリース。ヴォーカル田中裕梨の歌声を軸に構成された収録曲は、ストリングスやホーンが絡み合う極上のアンサンブルに。また、国内外での幅広い活動の中、ジャズ・ロック・ソウルを独自のスタイルで消化。洗練されたアーティスト性を惜しみなく発揮したアルバムになっている。wonderiumとの映像コラボ作品「クラゲ」も収録。

The south London raised producer, composer and drummer Yussef Dayes is a tour-de force behind the drums.
In 2018, Yussef launched his own imprint Cashmere Thoughts Recordings and released a string of solo releases including Love is The Message, a collab with Alfa Mist, Mansur Brown & Rocco Palladino, followed by What Kinda Music in 2020, a collab with Tom Misch.