Fragile ambient beauty, inventive electronica, good old psychedelic folk, electroacoustic delights, dream pop & deep soul; all from lesser known independent artists. The new radio show for the excellent Music for Dreams station is here.

Hiroshi Ebina - Breath (Mystery Circles)
Cisser Mæhl - Klaverstemmeren (Sonic Pieces)
Ben McElroy & A Spot On The Hill - Journal in the Drawer (The Slow Music Movement)
Buck Curran - Winter Solstice 2 (for Steffen) [Obsolete]
Matt Rösner - Pulled Back Together (Room 40)
1k Flowers - Shield Siren (Unguarded)
Sluice - Fourth of July (Ruination)
Old Earth Nostalgia Cult - Field Study (Self Release)
Jim Nopédie - winter sun through train window (Infloresce)
Glinca - Contemplation n.1 (Shimmering Moods)
Genevieve Lacey - All Time Is Intertwined (Australian Broadcasting Corporatin)
Daniel Rotem - Wave Nature (Colorfield)
Pieta Brown, JT Bates - In This World (Righteous Babe)
Payfone & Kid Nereida - I Feel You (Leng)

Don't forget our Spotify playlists if you need a fix in between shows. They're also available on Youtube, Soundcloud, Deezer & Apple Music - search and you will find.

Fresh, cosmic, jazz not jazz vibes from Poland's wonderfully named Twoosty Mayonez via U Know Me. After crashing their spaceship into a field of magic mushrooms & releasing clouds of psilocybin into the atmosphere - affecting 70% of the native extraterrestrials, they then embark on a wild sci-fi soundtrack indebted, psychedelic jazz fusion ride as they surf the waves of altered consciousness trying to get their ship repaired & make it home for dinner. Thanks to Twisted Soul for the tip.

Things don't always go your way, especially when your plans involve space travel. In the case of Captain Harrison Focus's expedition, it started innocently, but no one was prepared for an emergency landing on the mysterious planet Carmin. Only then did the real fight for survival begin. This record tells the story of a dangerous expedition into space that began on February 6, 2023.

Twoosty Mayonez consists of Bartosz Wolert (drums) and Dominik Kaniewski (bass guitar and synthesizers). "Carmin" is their debut album, which is released primarily on vinyl by U Know Me Records.

Twoosty Mayonez is something your grandfather would listen to with your younger sister.
Non-standard-jazz approach combined with the search for strange sounds, resulted in the concept album "Carmin" created by Bartosz Wolert (drums), and Dominik Kaniewski (bass guitar).
The trio closes with the 80GN4 robot, which was programmed to play a synthesizer part.

-------------------------

Nie zawsze wszystko idzie po Twojej myśli, szczególnie gdy plany dotyczą podróży kosmicznej. W przypadku wyprawy kapitana Harrisona Focusa zaczęło się niewinnie, ale na awaryjne lądowanie na tajemniczej planecie Carmin nikt nie był przygotowany. Dopiero tam zaczęła się prawdziwa walka o przetrwanie. Ta płyta opowiada historię pewnej niebezpiecznej wyprawy w kosmos, która rozpoczęła się 6. lutego 2023 roku.

Twoosty Mayonez tworzą Bartosz Wolert (perkusja) i Dominik Kaniewski (gitara basowa i syntezatory). „Carmin” to ich debiutancki album, który ukazuje się przede wszystkim na płycie winylowej sumptem U Know Me Records.

Płyta wydana jest w dwóch wersjach (z klasycznym czarnym winylem lub w wersji limitowanej z kolorowym winylem niespodzianką, gdzie każda płyta jest inna). Cała oprawa graficzna to dzieło Kacpra Pieńka, który do każdego z utworów namalował dedykowany obraz, ich reprodukcje znaleźć można w dołączonym do każdej z płyt booklecie. Miks przygotował Maciej "Envee" Goliński, a mastering to dzieło Michała "Eproma" Baja.

CREDITS
Graphic design: Kacper Pieniek
Mix: Eprom
Master: Envee

Great to see Hourloupe back with more avant-garde spoken word musings on "time, reality, and the natural world". Here they reflect on humanity's journey from a moment in 19th century natural history to staring transfixed at the anthropocene headlights. Fear not the poetic narration is as warm & reassuring as a first world lifestyle & the music it's own, frankly mesmerizing, complex electroacoustic ecosystem with only the occasionally unsettling hint of it's impending breakdown.

CASSETTE WILL BE AVAILABLE VIA TYMBAL TAPES IN APRIL. KEEP AN EYE OUT HERE: TYMBALTAPES.BANDCAMP.COM

***

"At the house party on Saturday night Miss Cole boasted of catching rabbits. A trek ensued and she and Mister Carter, still in formal attire, set off spending three nights in the Wawayanda."

From this late-nineteenth-century newspaper society column comes Three Nights in the Wawayanda, the final release in a triptych of Hourloupe records exploring time, reality, and the natural world. TNW isn’t a narrative of hapless, hungover merrymakers wandering a 19th-century wilderness but a reflection on nature at the historical moment it is being given over to the forces that lead us to our current situation: industry and violence.

Like its predecessors, TNW tells its story through doublings and mirroring. Mister Carter and Miss Cole cross-dress as each other. A parallel couple — a man of charcoal and a man of chalk — appear, and an unnamed pair makes their escape at the end to a mysterious “other state.” A luminous entry from Henry David Thoreau’s diary ("The Dance of No History") describes the daylight and moonlight in a beautiful, strange equilibrium. Male merges with female, female male; one carbonized being meets his chalk-dusted opposite. Everything strives toward existential balance at a moment when balance in nature is being obliterated forever.

Threading through the compositions are boxing tortoises ("Tortoise Boxing"), a postcard that grows to envelop the woods ("Postcard Found in the Woods"), a crew sailing the ship of a forest lost to a flood ("Green Navy/Rain"), and a frozen lake that becomes an outdoor club ("The Dancefloor/Beat Crush"). The temperature rises, the dance floor crumbles, and the contents of your pocket on the night you die — lint, a lone pearl, a piece of flint — seem to guide everyone’s action, even God’s.

***

A few years ago, explorers studying cenotes, the now submerged, underground ritual spaces of the Maya, concluded that, taken together, they represented a coordinated settlement — a kind of negative city — paralleling the spectacular urban centers they created above ground in daylight.

A hidden night city is this Hourloupe triptych, which "Three Nights in the Wawayanda" completes:
--"Future Deserts" with its digital paleography;
--"Sleepwalker" with its rambles through dark rooms of consciousness including Descartes's skull;
--"Three Nights in the Wawayanda" with its partygoers in soiled tuxes and algae-gummed gowns, wandering a 19th-century wilderness on the verge of the industrial age.

All three are concerned with time, how it stretches and bends the mind and how it binds and condemns the body. And all three explore the debt we owe one another as bodies cohabitating the planet in time.

CREDITS
Frank Menchaca & Anar Badalov
Painting on cover: Frank Menchaca

A sweet, charming & pleasantly chilled start to the week from Melbourne's Jim Nopédie via Infloresce. Here he artfully combines soft edged, misty eyed, vintage computer game sounds with a pre-glyphosate pastoral vibe that transports you back to a more innocent time when bills were for birds, your tea magically appeared on the dining table & pollinators still buzzed around the countryside.

Upon finishing his new mini-album Keep It Rolling, Jim Nopédie was interviewed by longtime friend and collaborator Margot Morales.

???

MM: What’s your favourite thing in your house?

JN: Besides my little music room, probably the shelf where I currently have a CD and cassette deck, box of Sina Ginger Candy, talking Billy Bass fish, and the golf ball I got when I bought the last Mario Golf game.

MM: What led you create to this album and how did you arrive at the need to "Keep It Rolling"?

JN: Keep It Rolling is a sort of mantra for a nicer, gentler version of life. I think everything’s been really heavy for a lot of people lately—even my last album was really solemn and dark. So I thought the most challenging thing I could do this time was to make a record about smallness and lightness and momentum.

???

This is just an excerpt—the full interview transcript can be found in the included liner notes.

Keep It Rolling!
-Jim NopédieAll music by James Gales
Artwork by Lolita Chiong

CREDITS
Liner notes interview by Margot Morales
Album mastered by aivi & surasshu

Special thanks: Dom, Geordie, Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio, everyone at Infloresce, Mum & Dad


✨?✨
Produced by
Infloresce Records
infloresce.com

If his gentle ambient ways can be a judge of such things, Hiroshi Ebina sounds like a man at peace. With his new LP for Mystery Circles he slowly sips his half full glass & patiently, with soft, reassuring sounds & succinct, measured tones ushers you away from the news headlines & towards life's simple joys; lifting you through the grey clouds to see the blue sky & sunshine the other side.

Hiroshi Ebina’s new album is a follow up to the previously released 'It Just Is', and is focused on finding the silver lining in life’s challenging situations. With a minimal approach using acoustic and electric instruments, the album evolves from simple collections of notes into quiet yet complex forms of music. It’s a gentle reminder that nothing unreal can harm us, whether it’s about past events or predictions for the future. All difficulties come with a seed of happiness, and the darkest time is always followed by the dawn. Hiroshi Ebina dedicates this album to his partner Miki, who gave him tremendous support when he was going through some difficulties in his own life.

CREDITS
Music by Hiroshi Ebina
Mastered by Joseph Branciforte

MC067
mysterycircles.com

Somewhere at the intersection of misreading the scales whilst microdosing, vaporwave, sun warped jazz cassettes, cosmic ambient, Sci-Fi B-movie soundtracks, lo-fi easy listening & New Age wellness videos from the early 70s you'll find the new Lionmilk transmission for Leaving Records. Don't be scared of the haze, come on in - it's a safe space.

Lionmilk, the primary solo project of Los Angeles musician/composer/producer, Moki Kawaguchi, for some time now, operates in an explicitly therapeutic mode. 2021’s I Hope You Are Well was originally self-released during the onset of the pandemic as a limited run of home-dubbed cassettes, which Kawaguchi hand-delivered to loved ones’ mailboxes in a sort of guerrilla care campaign—a modest attempt to mitigate the sudden, profound alienation that prevailed during those early lockdown months. When Lionmilk and Leaving Records later collaborated on an official release for I Hope You Are Well, this once humble project’s impact grew exponentially, with countless fans (old and new alike) granted access to the warmth and beauty of Lionmilk’s inner circle. Intergalactic Warp Terminal 222, out March 17, 2023 on Leaving, presents the listener with yet another opportunity for deep cosmic healing.

When discussing Lionmilk, Kawaguchi regularly foregrounds the absolute necessity of music-making as a form of self-care. First and foremost, he produces sounds and songs that provide him with some modicum of solace — “music to feel less whack to.” One gets the sense that he’d be doing exactly what he’s doing (exactly the way he’s doing it) even if he was the last man on earth. But he isn’t. And, in fact, one of Lionmilk’s primary concerns—evident across track titles, as well as the sung and spoken words that dot his releases—is community, or more specifically, what it means to exist and act in his community. Intergalactic Warp Terminal 222 ventures deeper into the paradoxes explored to great effect on I Hope You Are Well. How might we transmit our solitudes via music and to what extent? What does a shared solitude sound and feel like? And, in the context of this transaction, what novel relationships arise between the recording artist and the listener?

The record begins with a radio transmission from the depths of Lionmilk’s celestial innerspace— “Hello. Is anybody out there? This is Lionmilk speaking, and you are tuned into the Intergalactic Warp Terminal 222. Standby. We are commencing broadcast” — a retro sci-fi movie motif that recurs throughout Intergalactic Warp Terminal 222’s 26 tracks. But space travel here functions more-so as a metaphor for deep soul work, for journeying inward, through the vast unknowns of one’s own consciousness. What follows is an intimate, diaristic song suite, grounded in the struggle to keep our hearts alive and open amidst an onslaught of daily indignities.

Tracks like “daily i dream,” “lover’s theme,” and “hopeful i can change,” function as brief, instrumental meditations on those moments when hope suddenly, inexplicably eclipses despair. The soulful standout “treat yourself like a friend” contains perhaps the lyrical apotheosis of Lionmilk’s current iteration: “...I get up / to pee and drink water / treating myself a little bit softer / you do your best / today will be better / I’ll do my best / I’ll do my best / I promise.”

Composed of loops, sketches, improvizations, and voice memos recorded directly to a single cassette tape, Intergalactic Warp Terminal 222 flutters, warbles, and lilts along seamlessly — an hour-long, lo-fi and jazzy paean to compassion, while clearly indebted to the ambient idiom, nevertheless constitutes some of the most politically engaged and energizing music yet from Lionmilk.

CREDITS
Recorded, produced, and mixed by Lionmilk
Additional mixing on track 17 & 19 by Swarvy
Mastered by Daddy Kev
Portrait Photo by Sabrina Mansury Sharifi
Art by Lionmilk
Bio by Emmett Shoemaker

With the West seemingly locked in a dance music pastiche death spiral any meaningful rave innovation in the last 15 years has come from Africa and the Lisbon diaspora. So if you haven't taken a ride on the deep bouncing percussive Amapiano basslines yet then the new DJ Black Low LP on Awesome Tapes From Africa will get you up to speed & introduce you to some of the freshest new vocal stylings since grime ripped up the urban poetry rule book.

There’s more than a hint of ambition on the double LP sophomore effort from Sam Austin Rabede, the producer known as DJ Black Low. Pretoria, South Africa-born and based, the young man makes amapiano with new ways of expressing this local-turned-global style of dance music.
In DJ Black Low’s musical imagination, the songs manage to smoothly vacillate between dreamy and firmly-grounded. Adorned with vocalists across most of the twelve tracks, there’s a new dimension to Black Low’s now-signature approach to abstract, angular deconstruction of the rhythmic developments in his songs.

The album references influences and ambitions in its song titles and lyrics while the music itself is anthemic in its sonic and structural aspirations. On many of the songs a slow-burning tension transforms into something unexpected until you’re somewhere else as the track concludes. There is an emotional and compositional maturity that builds on his earlier work. Vocals and lyrics are in focus. Production collaborators among Black Low’s Gauteng Province circle add to the constantly churning array of ideas that populate this consistently surprising release. Despite being a relative newcomer, DJ Black Low is onto something here.

CREDITS
All songs composed and recorded in Pretoria, South Africa in 2021 by 
Sam Austin Radebe (except where otherwise noted).

Mastering by Jessica Thompson.

I'm going to back to my roots for today's tip, so say hello to Goldings, Rastegar & Rounds the funkiest trio that Daptone never signed, as they manage to put their own jazz juiced, soul soaked twist on those classic 20th grooves, ranging from sunny West coast smoothies, steamy organ menage a trois', reggae riddims & cinematic exotica for Ropeadope.

The Great Pandemic of 2020 will be remembered for any number of tragic occurrences; Millions of dead, hospitals overwhelmed to their limits, a catalyst for the already toxic polarization along political lines, the delightful discovery of online grocery shopping. For musicians, the real tragedy was that Covid-19 essentially restricted their ability to congregate in the same room for the express purpose of musical expression—in other words, their primary reason for living. “When things shut down in March of 2020 I remember feeling like life as I knew it was over–not to be too hyperbolic,” remembered bassist Kaveh Rastegar. “Lots of questions and uncertainty came in. Before, I never questioned why things mattered or didn’t, and I also took so much for granted in my musical life...opportunities to play, record and tour. The venues and studios to get together and record or perform in...they were all closed,” he remembered. One of those lost playing opportunities for Rastegar was with keyboardist Larry Goldings, who, just before the pandemic, had reached out to him to make some music together. They had gotten to record and perform together with singer Colin Hay (Men at Work), and, in Goldings’ words, “soon discovered that his musicianship extended throughout many genres and skills, including songwriting, production, and a gift for putting interesting people together.” Goldings hired Rastegar to play bass for a movie he scored (“Dealin’ With Idiots,” a 2013 comedy directed by and starring comedian Jeff Garlin), and they have since collaborated on many projects. “I’ve always loved Larry’s playing. He has played with everyone, and he is everyone’s favorite musician to work with,” said Rastegar. “He can play anything and has such a love and appetite for so much different music. As many people know,” he added, “he’s also a gifted comic who is so much fun to be around.”

Abe Rounds was Goldings’ choice to be the third of this new trio. Rastegar first met Rounds through Meshell Ndegeocello, whom she had flown in from Boston to record drums on her album “Comet Come to Me” (Naïve 2014), and on which Rastegar had written a song, “Conviction.” Goldings came to know Rounds more recently, noting he seemed to be “showing up everywhere” in all walks of musical life. “One of Abe’s rare gifts is simply feel,” explained Goldings. “By bringing Abe into a session playing a tambourine, or some other single percussion instrument, any band seems to be lifted up and made more funky, more in the pocket, more joyous.” Goldings hired Rounds for the soundtrack to the 2019 Netflix limited series, “Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker.” Of Rounds’ work on that project, Goldings could not be more complimentary. “Abe’s contributions became crucial to the musical fabric of the series and made me fully aware of his production talents and overall musicianship,” he said, adding, “Abe is a quiet, and humble person who’s many rare gifts seem to keep unfolding in front of you.” Rounds had been a fan of Goldings long before they met, having listened to him on records with a variety of musicians: James Taylor, Bill Stewart, John Scofield to name a few. “I admire Larry’s ability to mix with the highest echelon of jazz musicians without sacrificing his ability to be a supportive sideman,” said Rounds. “His wealth of experience and musicianship is contagious and creates a musical elevator to lift me and others to their highest artistic selves.” Rastegar is similarly fond of Rounds for those things, saying “Abe is so well rounded and fully formed as a musician–He has such a maturity to his playing and such a sense of who he is and what is right for whatever situation he’s playing in.” The three of them had begun to trade text messages about getting together to play, with no agenda beyond trying to make some music together, when their plans, like so many other, were undone by Covid-19. It would be a full year before Goldings, making the assessment that it was possible to meet and play safely, reached out again to Rastegar and Rounds to follow through on their intentions. “Perhaps without realizing it,” mused Goldings, “I craved to be around some highly creative, positive people to offset the darkness that of the pandemic.” They booked a good number of days in a studio in the Northeast L.A. neighborhood of Eagle Rock, owned by engineer Pete Min. “Pete Min was such a huge part of this project. His studio is the perfect lab for a project like this,” said Rastegar, calling the gifted musician and engineer the “4th member of this band.” Goldings and Rounds concurred, with Goldings adding, “Pete’s studio is like a candy shop for me, with pristine analog gear everywhere, and I loved the thought of being in that environment with these great people.” It is not out of bounds to confuse the words “musician” and “magician,” for master musicians can indeed conjure something substantial out of thin air. For these three, many of the songs they created started from simply jamming together, falling into a chord progression that would become the bedrock for the many layers of sound all three players would add in ensuing overdubs. And this is where these pieces reveal their true brilliance, as super-funky vehicles for incredibly well-crafted organizations of sonic delight, a delicious display of infinite timbres and textures. Rastegar is teaching a clinic on how to play bass lines in every conceivable popular music style, from soul to funk to reggae to 60’s jazz-pop, drawing on the wealth of experience he has amassed playing with artists ranging from the progressive jazz group Kneebody and rock-immortal Ringo Starr to pop-icons John Legend and Sia. Rounds goes above and beyond basic beat-making to establish endless variations of groove, blending acoustic and electronic sounds in a meticulous gumbo of rhythmic texture, in addition to playing synths and guitar on a few tracks. But it is Goldings himself who puts forth a gushing geyser-fount of ideas in every possible way, from the references to what must be the entire world history of chordal harmony, to the multitude of distinct sounds he is able to coax out of the Hammond B-3, to the impressive (and somewhat surprising) array of electro-mechanical and analog synthesizer elements woven into the sonic fabric. Goldings utilized the many instruments in Min’s studio to the utmost. “The opportunity to really explore within the environment of analog keyboards is rare for me, especially in the context of a band,” he explained. “Playing synths and Rhodes, etc. were a big part of my childhood musical explorations and this opportunity brought me back to a very special place in my heart.” A special place that is now fully revealed for all to experience and benefit from. Larry Goldings in singular form is often more than enough, but to hear multiple versions of him simultaneously on every track here is a reward so lavish none on earth deserve, yet we greedily accept and devour.

The songs themselves are also an object lesson in variety and diversity. “Better,” the title track, is a funky, feel-good proclamation of what these gentlemen experienced as they played again for the first time. “Yeah Yeah Yeah” is a reggae-type vamp named after an utterance by composer Abe Rounds, which found its way into the arrangement. “Stockwell” is a kind of western tango, something that made Rastegar think of Dean Stockwell’s character in the David Lynch film “Blue Velvet.” 84 beats per minute is the tempo and the original working title for “Mary Lou,” an homage to the gymnast who won the gold medal in 1984. It’s a soul-inspired throwback that features some outstanding synth work by Goldings. “But Wait, There’s Les” is a funky boogaloo that reminded Rastegar of a Les McCann song. “Bob James” is a mellow soft-rock tribute to the legendary fusion keyboardist, but Goldings’ piano work on the track could have just as easily been dedicated to his one-time mentor, Keith Jarrett. “Temple Bar” features a couple of bassline grooves that originated from Rastegar’s early days in Los Angeles, when he said he played at that erstwhile club “at least four nights out of the week for at least four years.” “Reprise,” a reprise of the first track, “Better,” was ironically the Very first thing the trio did when they first got together to play, setting the tone for the entire session. The final track, “I Want to be Happy,” is the only non-original tune, the standard given a tongue-in-cheek 60s-era treatment, as if performed on an old consumer-model Lowery Organ, complete with auto-drums (but that’s certainly no amateur musician on the piano!).

The experience of making this music carries quite a bit of meaning for these three musicians. “We quickly realized how much BETTER this experience made us all feel, amidst the uncertainty and darkness of Covid,” said Goldings, “and Abe, Kaveh and Pete were my musical, creative and psychological salvation during the early days. I’m really indebted to them.” “This record was special,” said Rounds, “because it was my first in-person human musical interaction for at least a year.” Rastegar added, “Again, not to be too dramatic, but getting together with Larry and Abe and playing music reminded me that I could still play the bass–music was still a thing I could do.” These sentiments mirrored those that were near-universal among all musicians, many of whom have professed to feeling profound relief and joy at the resumption of a social artistic life.

What we all realized was getting together to make music made us feel...well, better.

-Gary Fukushima

CREDITS
Recorded July and September of 2020 at Lucy’s Meat Market, Eagle Rock, CA
Recorded, Mixed, Mastered and closely collaborated with by Pete Min
Produced by Larry Goldings, Kaveh Rastegar, Abe Rounds and Pete Min

Larry Goldings: Piano, Organ, Clavinet, Arp 2600, Arp String Ensemble, Prophet, Pocket Piano

Kaveh Rastegar: Fender Precision Bass, Fender Musicmaster Bass, Guitar on “Temple Bar”

Abe Rounds: Drums, Percussion, Oberheim RD-8 and Vermona DM-1 Drum Machines, Guitar on “Yeah Yeah Yeah” and “Les”, Arp 2600 on “Mary Lou”

Additional Musician:
Bob Magnuson: Woodwinds on “Reprise” with parts arranged by John Sneider

Special thanks to Pete Min, John Sneider, Christine Kim, Sara Shirazi and Kirra Bennett

“I want to be happy, but I won’t be happy till I make you happy too”

WAAN are a Dutch keys & sax duo with more chemistry than Breakin' Bad, exploring all sorts of tempo fluctuating, stylistic avenues in the way only restless minded, top drawer, improvisatory kinds can. From hip hop & Afrofuturism, psychedelic cinematic to cosmic ballads strap in for some of 2023s freshest so far, via Sonar Kollektiv.

WAAN represents the musical marriage of seasoned saxophonist Bart Wirtz and keyboard wiz Emiel van Rijthoven. As a pair of self-confessed tech nerds hailing from The Netherlands, their bromance was a slow burning one, but nevertheless their eventual collaboration fulfilled a dream that they’d both held close since first working together back in 2010.
The symphonic soul mates formed WAAN - a Dutch word literally meaning “delusion” but in the more positive sense of “living in the moment” - originally as a collaborative live band but eventually came to the conclusion that the creative process was best kept between the two of them. Any other instrumentalists were used as guest session musicians and the pair found themselves running the project in a way more akin to dance music producers. This of course had an influence on the music itself, which the duo wanted to be more crossover and have a more experimental edge to its sound.

By 2018 much of the album you hear today had been recorded, with many tracks being born out of the freestyle jams that Bart and Emiel had engaged in. One great example of that is Chivat, originally recorded as a jam with Bart leading the way on the saxophone and Emiel adding edgy keys with arpeggiators on top. Once the basic sketch of the song had been worked out, the band recorded the final version, as well as a more mellow alternative take that also appears on the album. Singles Omi and KinK sprang to life in a similar way, with the former emerging from a sombre Ethiopique bass & drum groove and the latter out of a Dr. John style voodoo beat conjured up during one of the final recording sessions the band made.

Elsewhere, certain tracks had more complicated and convoluted journeys. Lost was born out of Emiel’s confusion about what WAAN’s identity actually was, and it wasn’t until the addition of Bart’s Harmoniser saxophone, and several versions down the line, that it became the track you hear today; Frequence started as an irregular drum and bass pattern, still in time, but randomly played, and was eventually brought to life with detuned Gamelan drums, harmonised clarinet and saxophone plus a heavy synth solo that takes it from daunting and earthy to ethereal and heavenly; elsewhere 1974 is named after its musical structure, and grew from Emiel’s minimal piano, with something of a Philip Glass feel, to something way more epic and orchestral thanks to Bart’s layers of counter-rhythmic sax, flugelhorn, French horn, trumpet and a colossal wall of synths that give it an immense, symphonious finale; Hard Cane Bone started with a bass line and an unusual melody that doesn’t really fit the key, giving it a more sinister Dirty Harry type of soundtrack feel; and The Cricketer (a track named after the duo’s favourite pub in Manchester, England) only found its feet when a guiro - a Mexican percussive instrument made from an animal’s jaw - was added to give it a more foot friendly feel; and finally in contrast, Open, the last piece of music to be recorded on the album, was written in one session and was more of a collaboration between Bart and Oscar de Jong (Kraak & Smaak) with Emiel adding synths and new session players in the shape of drummer Mark Schilders and Rik Kraak providing bass and “noise” - perhaps the shape of things to come?

The album’s title reflects the relationship between WAAN’s two members. They are the echo of each other’s echo - a symbiotic and never ending musical relationship. The appellation also suggests that you’ll definitely need to listen to this collection of songs at least twice to discover the myriad of subtle details and influences that are on show. Influences as disparate as Floating Points, Belgian band Stuff, BadBadNotGood and Eddie Harris. Echo Echo is far more complex than just being a dance music influenced jazz record. Co-producer Oscar de Jong encouraged the pair to play freely as part of a jazz group and then add the electronic elements. As a result the album owes as much to Duke Ellington and Lalo Schiffrin as it does NERD and The Eurythmics! We hope you return to it again and again.

CREDITS
Bart Wirtz plays D’Addario reeds

Produced by Oscar de Jong & WAAN

Recorded by Lucas Meijers at The Eminent Studios, Leiden

Additional recordings at Longtrack Studio, Utrecht, The Eminent Studios and Kraak & Smaak Studios, Leiden

Mixed by Oscar de Jong at Kraak & Smaak Studios, Leiden Mastered by Darius van Helfteren at Amsterdam Mastering

Artwork by Bráulio Amado

Product management by Oliver Glage

Management and Bookings:
Adore Management info@adoremanagement.com
www.instagram.com/waan_music