Ease your way into the week with Am Shhara's wonderful debut LP for Muzan Editions as she immediately cements herself into the world of Japanese ambient music with a soothing yet never insipid Gaudiesque ambient mosaic of becalmed synths & life's surface noise, peppered with healing crystalline tones.

一瞬で目の前の景色を180度変えるような出来事が、人生ではときどき起こる。それは絶望の淵に見た一本の美しい虹のように、または穏やかな朝に取った一本の電話のように、正弦波的ではなくのこぎり波的に、突然の急上昇や急降下を伴いながら、ストーリーを形作っていく。本作、名古屋を拠点とする作曲家Am Shharaによる「Shinsoko」には、そんなハッと胸をつく瞬間が溢れている。溢れているというか、その連続によってこの作品の世界観が作り上げられていると言った方が適切かもしれない。実家の布団に入ったときのようなぬくもりと、夜のジャングルを歩くときのような緊張が、一方が寄せては一方が引き、それをドラスティックに、不規則に繰り返す。一つの感情をはっきりと意識した瞬間に、その感情は別のなにかに変化していく、そういう音楽体験が得られる。砂袋のようにずっしりとしたドローンのトビに、針が落ちるかのごとく繊細な振動がエコーを伴い重なることで、まるで懐中電灯で照らされた洞穴のように、空間的な奥行きが姿を現す。そして自分とこの作品の位置関係も徐々に明らかになるような気がする。そんなことを感じながら聴いているうちに、気が付けばかなり長い時間が経っていたようだ。 
(言葉：Dotei Records @doteirecords ) 

Nagoya’s Am Shhara joins Muzan for the release of her debut album, Shinsoko, meaning “bottom of the heart” in Japanese. In Shinsoko, Am Shhara crafts a vibrant world, one that is teeming with life, light, and shadow. Pure FM sounds ring out in the darkness like blinking fireflies, ghostly samples dance across the stereo field, and low, textured drones swell in and out slowly, like the patient breathing of the world. Compositionally, the album feels like a collage of disparate parts that, when put together, form a cohesive whole, with amorphous sample-based textures, crystalline melodies, and plucky arpeggios all falling perfectly into place. 

​ Credits
Composed and recorded by 
Am Shhara in Nagoya, Japan. 
Equipment used: Digitone, Digitakt, 
Ableton Live, and modular synths. 

Mastering by Kris Keogh. 
Art and layout by Endurance.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube and Soundcloud

The music of Bugge Wesseltoft & his Jazzland Recordings label have been a constant in my listening over the last 25 years. Here he hits the Sunday sweetspot with this largely solo piano suite of reflective compositions musing on life's ups & downs, which sound like they come from a man at peace with himself & his place in the world.  

​In the 25 years since Bugge Wesseltoft founded Jazzland Recordings, he has engaged in numerous group projects and collaborations such as New Conception of Jazz, duos with the likes of Sidsel Endresen, Henning Kraggerud and Henrik Schwarz, one-off projects such as Trialogue, Bugge and Friends, and OKWorld! And of course, the super-trio RYMDEN. However, it is in his solo material that we can glimpse the true soul behind the effervescent and mercurial mind of one of the most influential and important Norwegian musicians of an entire generation. 

On "Be Am", his latest solo album, Wesseltoft has allowed his creative impulses to wander where they may - no preset rules to govern the composition and production, no obligations to (not) use electronics, not even a will to be totally alone. This is pure playing and composition, where the music speaks freely by whatever means it will. 

In the more meditative pieces, there is a sense of both natural calm and imposed calm, the difference between which should be apparent to anyone who has suffered the changes of the COVID lockdown periods - there are times when we naturally experience a mental peace, while there are others when we have to bring ourselves, often with great strength of will, to something approximating it. 

Many of the pieces here have the feeling of being wordless songs - indeed, no words are needed when the notes convey all that is needed on tracks like "Tide" or "State". The arrival of Håkon Kornstad on the track pairing of "Emergence" and "Roads" shifts the mood from one of peace within solitude to peace within company, the latter track being an understated dialogue, a musical soundtrack for watching the world hustling and bustling, or sleeping its way towards a new day. Tracks such as "Messenger", "Green" and "Be Am" throw more angular shapes, musical shadow-play where unexpected progressions shift to moments of gospel uplift before taking unanticipated shifts towards unexpected harmony. With "Life", kalimba accompanied by birdsong loops, carrying us into a piece that takes tentative but exact steps between positions, like tai chi in musical form. "Gonna Be OK", returns to the moods established at the beginning of the album in more optimistic colouring, while "Deeper" transports us across a unusual exploration of the lower reaches of the piano, uncertain, yet familiar, transforming itself with each new chord. "Sunbeams through leaves softly rustling" closes the album with that beautiful Satie-like melodic simplicity that Bugge has made his own. 

The music of "Be Am" carries ghosts of uncertainty, whispers of resignation, and faint echoes of frustration. But throughout there are rays of hope, a warm clear light of peace and tranquility, and growing flames of an unquenchable fire of determination. It is music of, and for, the human soul. ​

Check the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube & Soundcloud

*** Full disclosure *** I do have a soft spot for Test Card as his Super 8 Sunset EP launched The Slow Music Movement's label, so it's great to hear the verdant, guitar enriched, hot off the vinyl press, psilocybin abundant synthscapes from his new LP vibrating, heartening, inspiring & calming their way around the world. 

You can check the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube & Soundcloud

Choosing The Slow Music Movement's recommendation of the day over my morning coffee is usually an impulsive & visceral decision. Waking up & being reminded of the horrors in Ukraine & of war returning to Europe has sent me to the soothing, contemplative, though perhaps unfortunately titled new release from Lynn Avery & Cole Pulice on Moon Glyph. It's a wonderfully gentle & palliative slice of spiritual jazz & neoclassical graced ambient music, that is really hitting the spot today. 

Lynn Avery and Cole Pulice return with a new album of piano, synthesizers, tenor sax, wind synths and electronics. Following their excellent previous albums (Iceblink’s "Carpet Cocoon" and Cole Pulice’s "Gloam") the duo moves into otherworldly ambience that straddles acoustic and digital spaces, evoking an uncanny world both strange and familiar. 

“To Live & Die In Space & Time” began with an improvised set at the 2020 Drone Not Drones festival in Minneapolis that unveiled new worlds of sonic possibilities the duo wanted to reapproach. Lynn and Cole continued exploring this palette of sounds and ideas in the months that followed, a practice that continued as they relocated across the country and settled in their now home of Oakland, California. Lynn and Cole were not initially intending to create an "album" - instead, they were just committed to a regular practice of improvising, recording, forgetting, reapproaching, alchemizing old & new ideas, and allowing material to shapeshift. Eventually, something like an album revealed itself, which Lynn and Cole honed into “To Live & Die in Space & Time.” 

The sounds of TL&DIS&T are elegant, transportive and vast, like being wrapped in a blanket of stars, finding warmth andcomfort in the unknown spaces of transition that don't immediately reveal meaning or purpose. In other words, the constellation of sounds on TL&DIS&T approach floating in "the void" as something less than ominous, perhaps even enchanting.  

Credits
​Music by Lynn Avery & Cole Pulice 

Lynn: Grand Piano, Synthesizer, Electronics 
Cole: Tenor Saxophone, Wind Synthesizer, Electronics 

Tracks 1, 2, & 4 recorded Jan 2020 at 8vB Studios Minneapolis, MN 
—Engineering help from Charlie Bruber 
Track 3 recorded Sept 2020 in Seward Minneapolis, MN 
Mixing and additional recording done in Oakland, CA Sept 2021 

Mastered by Angel Marcloid at Angel Hair Audio 

Art & Design by Steve Rosborough

Listen to the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube or Soundcloud

Jazz juiced blue eyed soul flirts with psychedelic singer songwriting on this yacht rock fusion ride steered by genial host Guma and a fine selection of feathered musical friends from the Austin area. A most agreeable listen via Big Ego Records.

​Tabor Allen - drumset 
Ana Barreiro - drumset 
Danny Frankel - percussion 
Anna Glenn - flute 
Gary Calhoun James - double bass on "The Greatest Fear" 
Ryan Jewell - drumset 
Steuart Liebig - electric bass 
T.J. Masters - acoustic and electric guitars, vocals 
Isaiah Morfin - Moog Grandmother, Wurlitzer electric piano 
Tony Rinaldi - piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, Hammond organ, Yamaha DX7, Prophet 6, Oberheim OB-6 
Alex Sadnik - alto saxophone 
Chris Schlarb - Korg DW8000 on "Butternut" 
Heather Sommerhauser - vocals, Prophet 600 on "Mud Doctor" 
Chad Taylor - drumset 
Brian Walsh - bass clarinet 

Produced by Chris Schlarb 
Mixed by Chris Schlarb and T.J. Masters 
Engineered by Devin O’Brien 

Woodwind arrangements by Alex Sadnik 

Cover photography by Bridgette Miller 
Studio photography by Devin O’Brien 
Layout and design by Stephen Rockwood 

Mastered by JJ Golden 

All songs written by T.J. Masters 
Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) 
except “House Analogue” written by T.J. Masters and Chris Schlarb 
Published by Guma University Publishing (BMI) & 
Interstellar Music Holdings of the Psychic Temple (ASCAP)

Listen to the Balearic playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube & Soundcloud

A man of many aliases & even more synthesizers, Legowelt dusts off his Smackos disguise to help calm global tensions with this peace & love promoting masterclass in synthesized soundscaping & tonal hypnosis.

Most of this album was recorded around 2017 at the North Sea Institute for the Overmind This month I finally had some energy to get the artwork, tracks and "mastering" etc. together. As usual heavy tripped out raw melodic Smackos synth compositions for all your deep listening hobbies 

Nightwind Records NW032 ©2022 NIGHTWIND RECORDS 
​
All tracks written and produced by Danny Wolfers 
Instruments used: Novation Supernova, Akai S900, Waldorf Blofeld, Waldorf Pulse 2, Roland JP08 & JV2080 and probably lots more. 
Vocals on Volons Près des Vagues by Cassiopeia Blumenthal

You can stream the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube or Soundcloud

Sometimes you've just got to get funky, it's certainly how I spent a lot of my time during my London years. So if you've having trouble getting started today then hit play on this double shot of Brisbane sunshine fueled instrumental grooviness from Kerbside Collection on Légère Recordings, do a sideway shuffle at the bus stop & pop a 360 spin as you walk in the office.  

Australian ‘down-under’ dusty jazzfunk and gritty rare grooves ensemble return on their 4th studio album (written and constructed during the last 12-18 months of the cv-19 climate) 

Kerbside Collection’s 4th studio album of dusty, gritty jazzfunk grooves ‘Round the Corner’ is wrapped up in a story from start to finish and their most ambitious output to date. Opening with the slightly pointy, gritty-brass-lead, swung ballad ‘Ortigas’(Spanish botanical name of a highly irritating plant species) referring to when the global pandemic initially struck back in February-March 2020, followed by a classic dusty Kerbside funky instrumental groove prelude. Before the album kicks in proper, with a sizzling rendition of a Banda Black Rio rarity (from their now legendary 1977 debut album) giving hints at what’s to come from the rest of the album with its jazz-rock-funk-fusion inflections, strutting grooves and super tight brass section. 

Things stay funky with a tribute to one of Australia’s finest funk combos - Cookin’ on 3 Burners (the leader of which - Jake Mason - recorded their first album - Mind The Curb, and guested on their previous record Smoke Signals and the warmly received funky reggae single ‘Cajun Jollof’). A fun lovin’, home-cooked-style, garage-funk number with scratchin’ guitars and organ bubbling away underneath the funky flute and brass section, complete with bongo, b-boy, drum break workout. 

Title track ‘Round The Corner’ refers to some of the ‘unknowns’ and ‘uncertainties’ around the corner post cv-19, but also an uplifting acid-jazz funk groove affirmation looking forward to the positive things, and seasons to come round these kinds of unknown bends, featuring the rubbery, pulsating bass playing of Lachlan ‘Swampdog’ Symons and acoustic piano solo from Andrew Fincher, sharp drum grooves wrapped up into a dancefloor-friendly, contemporary live jazzfunk tune with the core rhythm section in raw, upfront trio mode.The track embodies some of the current resurgence of live jazz-house-crossover sounds coming out of Australia (Horatio Luna/First Biege) whilst also reminding us of acid-jazz music from people like Incognito, The Rebirth, and Herbie Hancock's 70's jazz-fusion years. 

‘Curaidh’ conjures up some slightly Vulfpeck stripped back style grooves, lead by the funky 1970’s electric Yamaha piano and a delta-blues guitar solo workout to finish. The track title takes its name from a Gaelic/Celtic dialect word reference to ‘warrior’, penned by the collection’s long time Scottish keys collaborator Euan Gardiner, responsible for one of the groups classic soul-jazz ballads ‘41 Bernhard’ (from 1st album 2011). 

Things then begin to simmer down with the golden, rustic, slightly Stevie Wonder-ish grooves of ‘Glaze’ featuring new additions and instruments never heard on a Kerbside Collection record yet – including Clavinet, Bass Clarinet and a string section, accompanied by lush fender Rhodes, jazzy guitar flourishes and some silky flute work throughout for fans of vintage 4hero, early Jamiroquai, and Mizell Brothers cinematic funk moments. 

Before things cool down proper, with a mesmerising version of a Joe Sample coastal, soul-jazz classic, featuring Brazilian flautist Ney Oliveira and the breathtaking, breezy, strings section arranged by Brisbane composer Cam Bower, (and featuring the drummer’s mum on violin). 
‘New Day, New Year’ is an organic, stripped back, calming, contemplative piano lead, soul-jazz, head-nod piece; featuring again the lush string ensemble and the band’s tight rhythm section trio foundation, holding things down in the groove. 

The album finishes with 2 stylistically different, but also complimentary works. First up a sizzling piano-trio style lead, latin-jazz number (for fans of some classic Blue Note, Horace Silver vibes) with 2 tasty solos from the virtuosos on the album - Papa Joe on baritone sax and Andrew Fincher on acoustic baby grand piano – one for the jazz dancers! 
Closing with a sublime, summery, soul-reggae outro, referring to some of the song’s origins (on the coasts of Portugal), but also emanating some coastal South Pacific sounding flavours from the band’s home town surrounds - a pleasant way to end the record and the story of things ‘Round the Corner’. 

Guitars / Fender Rhodes / Organs / Clavinet / Piano: Andrew ‘manny’ Fincher. 
Drums / Congas / Tambourine / Casio keys / Percussion + Effects: Jason ‘Paprika’ Bell. 
Electric Bass: Lachlan ‘swampdog’ Symons. 
Double Bass on ‘Cairo Green’ : Elliot Parker. 
Yamaha CP70 Electric Piano: Euan Gardiner. 
Brass arrangements / Tenor Sax / Baritone Sax / Flute: Papa Joe Roberts. 
Trombone: Ben Young. Trumpet: Zac Chambers. 
Violin: Mimi Versace / Luke Neale / Jenni Bell. Viola: Frances Hyu. Cello: Kathryn McKee. 
Strings conducted by Cam Bower - Strings written and arranged by Cam Bower & Jason Bell. 
*Flute on ‘It Happens Everyday’ : Ney Oliveira (only appears on Digi album version). 

Recorded and Engineered by: 
Marly Lüske @ Alchemix Studios/Brisbane/Australia Jan - April 2021. 
Mixed by Marly Lüske & J Bell. 
Mastered by Tom Meyer @ Master&Servant Hamburg. 
Légère Recordings A&R: Helmut Heuer. 
Cover Photo: Dominic Xavier. 
Studio Photos by Marly Lüske & J Bell. 
Design: JB  

I kept hearing about this LP for ages so expectations were high, especially as Ian Hawgood, Brad Deschamps & their respective labels Home Normal & Polar Seas Recordings are ambient heavy hitters, so I'm happy to report it lives up all my heightened horizontal expections. Your Sunday soundtrack is here.

Rosales follow-up their debut for the Archives label 'Still, Tomorrow' with 'Woven Songs'. Written between 2019 and 2020 (prior to their debut album) this collaboration between Ian Hawgood and Brad Deschamps is a joint release on Home Normal and Polar Seas Recordings, featuring stunning artwork by Laura Kay Keeling. 

This new long-form work was sourced from guitar and synth loops and processed by Space Echo, cassette and reel-to-reel for decayed textures. The result is music that develops carefully, only to slowly fragment in the whir of the analog machines, all culminating in the dynamic penultimate piece 'matter'. 'Woven Songs' is available on limited LP and digital.

CreditsWritten and recorded by Ian Hawgood and Brad Deschamps 2019 & 2020 

Mastered by Ian Hawgood 

Artwork by Laura Kay Keeling 
www.laurakaykeeling.com 

NOTE: This is a collaboration between Home Normal (UK) and Polar Seas Recordings (Canada). Please note for cheaper postage costs if you are based in North America we recommend buying directly from Polar Seas Recordings

You can check the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube & Soundcloud

The Future Times label head honcho Max D, Matt Papich & an A-list of leftfield  peers band together to distil all their esoteric leanings into one woozy, whimsical wander through jazz fusion, back to the future electronica & ether misted New Age lands. Weird up your weekend. You deserve it.  

Lifted return with album 3 following the incremental ‘countdown’ eps released during 2020 and 2021. 

3 sees the core Lifted duo of Max D & Matt Papich unravel their visions of excess into their most divergent and wide-eyed collection yet. In its physical form It is beautifully illustrated with a suite of gently surreal and nuanced paintings by Jordan Kasey (yes, related to Martin Kasey, saxophonist on 2019’s LP 2) and packaged for a seamless listen. 

First scene ‘Chefs’ places us squarely off-center, landing in a cinematic environment that feels a bit like steadycam Luis Bunuel , wine bottle whoo-ing and horn fanfare. Its music without a hard surface, defined more by its fluidity and characters, found sounds and performed dialogue. “Cymbecko” shifts gears into blissful ambient dub, and paves the way for a Luke Stewart led excursion into the uncanny that is ‘Trip Tongue’. Stewart’s upright bass never stops seeking, while Jordan GCZs Rhodes barely touches down before lifting back up into and out of Jacob Long’s (Earthen Sea, Esau) liquid tone sheets. An outside world of percussion accompanies. 

The mood morphs and the scene cuts in hard with “Born in the Roof”, slacker techno that grows shimmering parts, Perlon for potheads. Voiceover slacks right with it, a half-convo caught in the billowing chorus of fx. “Macarena” snaps things into focus, working almost like an open window to airing out the heady fog. Simplicity in the vignette. 

After “Mecha Perfume & Variety”, “Snow Dancing” reignites the drama, with burning guitar by Jonny Nash taking a plucky and sliding lead over wildly fused drums by Max D, we get a test of new depths for Lifted with the somber and exuberant “Whipped Cream”. Crackling like a radio but with modern propulsion in the form of richly evocative pads courtesy of Motion Graphics, it sounds like a dinner, a space trip, a storyboard, a scene, threaded together in bouncing, oblique ways. 

"Bobby V" drops refreshingly, timed like a credit roll and leaving an afterglow that feels more tuned-in than ever. 

Players on this album include: Luke Stewart (Irreversible Entanglements, Blacks Myths), Jeremy Hyman, Jonny Nash (Melody As Truth), Jordan GCZ, Matt Papich, Josh Levi, Mezey, Hirama, Dawit Eklund (1432 R), Motion Graphics, Max D, Jacob Long (Earthen Sea, Esau) 

Cover painting, "Double Moon" by Jordan Kasey 
CD layout by Olivia Tucker ​