Polwechsel with Magda Mayas and John Butcher - Embrace 1: Jupiter Storm/Partial Intersect (NI VU NI CONNU)
Polwechsel is a musical group founded in Vienna, Austria in 1993. Their music has mostly straddled a line between contemporary music and free improvisation, and is characterized by quiet volume, sustained drones, and slowly developing structures. "I composed the piece using a computer, as I usually do these days, then arranged pre-recorded material (gongs, piano, complex modular oscillators) which was then spatialized and used for playback. The players then familiarised themselves with the material in individual rehearsals and, working with stopwatches, entered their material-solutions into the prefabricated, time-structured score. The cello and double bass parts are purely improvised." Werner Dafeldecker
V.A. - Radar Keroxen Vol.4 (KEROXEN/Discrepant)
With its first volume released in 2020 aiming to promote and divulge adventurous Island based music, the Keroxen imprint now presents Vol.4 with another showcase of the various insular musical scenes made in the outermost regions – in this case, a very rare incursion outside the Canary Archipelago by way of handpicking friends and colleagues working in the further most regions we can think of. A very special showcase then, featuring the Azores Islands, Reunion Island, Canary Islands and French Guiana.
Sam Dunscombe - Two Forests (Black Truffle)
Dunscombe has been active in recent years on multiple fronts, including as a key member of the Berlin community of Just Intonation researchers and practitioners; working with composers like Taku Sugimoto, Mary Jane Leach, and Anthony Pateras; and the release of Horatiu Radulescu - Plasmatic Music vol. 1 (the result of many years performance research into the thought and music of this seminal Romanian spectralist). In parallel with these activities, Dunscombe has been deeply involved in research on the role of music in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, prompting these two side long pieces, composed using field recordings and digital synthesis.
Sam Shalabi Trio - Trio (self-released)
This new release features Morgan Moore (on acoustic bass), Liam O Neil on drums and Sam Shalabi on electric guitars and electronics.
Shackleton - The Scandal of Time (Woe To The Septic Heart!)
The Scandal of Time' bookends a prolific period of experimentation for Sam Shackleton and follows a raft of collaborations (with Wacław Zimpel, Heather Leigh and Scotch Rolex this year alone) with what amounts to his first new solo album since 2021’s ‘Departing Like Rivers’. It might also be his most advanced, forward-facing work in years.
Sombat Simla - Master Of Bamboo Mouth Organ - Isan, Thailand (Black Truffle)
This is the first LP documenting master khene player Sombat Simla, the label’s first collaboration with Japanese sound artist, field recordist, and researcher Yasuhiro Morinaga. Simla is known in Thailand as one of the greatest living players of the khene, the ancient bamboo mouth organ particularly associated with Laos but found throughout East and Southeast Asia.
V.A. - The Egyptian Females Experimental Music Session (100COPIES)
Experimental noise and techno from a talented group of female musicians from Egypt. Their work draws inspiration from the sound artist Ahmed Basiony who tragically lost his life while protesting in Cairo during the January 2011 revolution.
Zen - Bakırköy Akıl Hastanesi'nde (Zel Zele)
Offering an entrancing blend of krautrock, psychedelic and free anatolian sounds, and being considered perhaps one of the most unusual albums of Turkey’s underground music history,
Bakırköy Akıl Hastanesi’nde is a testament to improvisation in its purest form. Originally released in 1999 on cassette and CD.
ZÖJ - FIL O FENJOON (Parenthèses Records)
"FIL O FENJOON has been in production since 2021. It represents a snapshot of work spanning a decade. It is not a conclusion. It is not a doctrine. It does not seek to define, distort, or determine in any way. Rather, it is a reflection - a shared communication where the listener's influence is as valued as that of the storyteller. " With Gelareh Pour on kamancheh, qheychak alto, voice and Brian O’Dwyer on drumkit.
