WHAT YOUR EARS SAY & WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

WHAT WE SAY

​Your summer road trip soundtrack has just arrived courtesy of Leo Almunia and Claremont 56. Sunny sounds abound, aided by an easy riding stoner rock tailwind and a funky Balearic bump to keep your head nodding and hands glued to the wheel - it's all about the journey not the destination. Now all I need is a car.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY

Leo Ceccanti should be a familiar name to all followers of the Claremont 56 label. Alongside sometime studio partner Gianluca Salvadori, he was responsible for two delightfully distinctive Almunia albums released on the label, 2011’s New Moon and 2013’s Pulsar. Both sets were filled with golden, sun-kissed sounds, psychedelic grooves and immersive, life-affirming soundscapes. 

Now he’s decided to go it alone as Leo Almunia, delivering a debut album for Claremont 56 that’s every bit as alluring, wide-eyed and evocative as those he made with Salvadori. In keeping with his previous work, the album blends layered acoustic and electric guitars with toasty bass, dreamy synthesizers and grooves that variously touch on hypnotic house, chugging mid-tempo disco, sunset-ready Balearic beats and, on the glistening, life-affirming album highlight ‘Wishing Star’, loose-limbed jazz breaks. 

What’s most significant about Ceccanti’s personal musical style is not the blend of stylistic influences he draws on – think psychedelic rock, progressive rock, jazz-rock, new age ambient and slow-motion disco – but rather the way he uses it to paint vivid aural images that genuinely linger long in the memory. 

After opening with the duelling guitars and chunky dub disco grooves of ‘Sinking Fields’, Ceccanti sashays between magical moments of rush-inducing positivity, heart-tugging poignance and heady nostalgia. 

Along the way, you’ll find numerous sonic highlights. On the intoxicating 21st century psychedelia of ‘Panerea’, jangling chords and eyes-closed psych-rock guitar solos ride a chugging, thickset electronic bassline, while ‘Instant Love’ is a metronomic, flash-fried workout rich in fuzz-tone guitar motifs, bluesy riffs and echoing instrumental touches. 

He cannily joins the dots between Mid-West Americana and throbbing, psychedelic disco-chug on ‘Loveblind’, while ‘Minor Circle’ sits somewhere between Santana, the Pat Metheny Band and sunrise-ready Balearic blues. Arguably even better is the saucer-eyed brilliance of ‘Brillo De Luna’. A dubbed-out electronic beat becomes enveloped in life-affirming acoustic guitar chords, exotic slide guitar motifs and string-bending solos with additional drums by Leo's friend Andrea Pelosini. If John Lennon had ingested MDMA rather than LSD before writing ‘Across The Universe’, it would probably sound like this. 

Then there’s the album’s crowning moment, closer ‘Can’t Hold a Lover’. A heart-aching, largely ambient instrumental that channels the loneliness and anguish felt by many of those separated from their nearest and dearest during the pandemic, it sees Ceccanti brilliantly wrap a variety of sun-bright guitar textures and solos around some of the loveliest synthesizer chords you’re every likely to hear. On an album packed with effervescent, mood-enhancing musical highs, it’s a rare moment of bittersweet bliss. ​

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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY & WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

WHAT WE SAY

The succinct jazz from new boys with a long history Bunn DeBrett Quintet, is a masterclass in precision playing, with the room the sounds have to breathe making every note from these London jazz luminaries count double. A really lovely, laid back listen.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY

This eponymous album, Bunn Debrett Quintet, owes much to London Transport's 94 Night Bus. Drummer and percussionist Stephen Bunn (Bunny) and guitarist and keys player Jon deBrett first collaborated as founding members of 90's Acid Jazz Records signed act Mother Earth. With further partnerships as remixers, producers and DJs the pair called it quits on the music industry sometime around the turn of the millennium. Then in 2019 they bumped into each other at the world famous 100 Club in London's Oxford Street at a gig featuring a new incarnation of Mother Earth with Matt Deighton from the original line-up. The BDQ album came from the conversations that Stephen and Jon had that night. Indeed it was on the 94 Bus back to Acton (West London) the Bunny decided that he and Jon DeBrett should make music again. As little as a few weeks later they were back in the studio and here is the result. With spoken word vocals from Oakland's poet extraordinaire Tenesha the Wordsmith (Peacocks and Other Savage Beasts) and a line-up (see full list below) that includes Tamar Osborn (Collocutor), Alan Barnes (The Tommy Chase Quartet), Roger Beaujolais (Vibraphonic), Matt Deighton and Neil Corcoran (both Mother Earth) this album will be considered a modern classic that bridges the Jazz scenes of the 80s and 90s to London's innovative, contemporary movement of the present. BDQ is a double album pressed onto 180 gramme, deep groove, heavy vinyl, fully mastered at the Carvery. 

Recorded 2020 during lockdown with the help of our friends from around the World. 
Limited to 300 copies on 180gm Vinyl 
 CreditsStephen Bunn (Bunny) - Drums - Percussion 
Jon deBrett - Guitar - Rhodes - Piano 
Neil Corcoran - Bass 
Tenesha the Wordsmith - Spoken Word 
Nathan Haines - Flute 
Dan Shafran - Trumpet 
Tamar Osborn - Baritone Saxophone 
Roger Beaujolais - Vibraphone 
Alan Barnes - Saxophones - Clarinets 
Crispin Taylor - Drums 
Matt Deighton - Electric Guitar 

Produced by Bunn - Debrett 
Mastered and Cut by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, London

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​Imbued with a restless spirit, driven by a thirst for connection, surrounded by willing collaborators in her locked down artistic commune, assisted by Tin Angel Records & with an access all areas pass to Mexico city's improvisational music scene, Mabe Fratti lights the way to experimental yet listenable realms with the soft light of her voice, steady synth tones & sure handed cello.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY

Será que ahora podremos entendernos is the second album to come from Guatemalan cellist Mabe Fratti. Using voice, cello, synthesizers and field recordings, her newest record which translates in English to ‘Will we be able to understand each other now?” is an exploration of communication, not only with others but also ourselves. 

Now based in Mexico city, Mabe has been heavily involved in the Mexican improvisation scene. Immersing herself in collaborations with fellow musicians operating amongst the scene. The impact of the pandemic meant many of these musicians fled to an old juice factory in Veracruz called La Orduña to quarantine together, where the album came to be created. Mabe’s involvement with the Mexican improvisation scene and her time quarantining with fellow musicians invites many collaborators onto this record. Whilst living in Veracruz, Mabe was able to collaborate with members of drone rock band Tajak, Pedro Tirado and worked remotely with Texan experimentalist Claire Rousay. Mabe’s return to the city, meant further collaborations with the likes of Sebastián Rojas (Sei Still, The Americo Jones Experience) and Hugo Quezada (Robota, Exploded View). 

Será que ahora podremos entendernos is birthed from the idea that we as people are a funnel that simplify how wecommunicate with each other and ourselves. Through omission and clumsiness, we often make the process of understanding incredibly complicated. Mabe 
says “I focused on the idea of “diagramation”. The act of putting something in a room and the process of how you arrange it and applying this to how we arrange words. It’s about how do you move from one place in the room to the other there are objects in the way? There’s always on option to make a route hard and long or short and easy. Looking at it this way and applying it to communication, I couldn’t separate the idea of simplification and optimization. It’s a matter of purpose.” Throughout the record, Mabe uses the questioning to frame how to link the start and the end of a song. Creating objects for the listener to find as the album progresses from layers of cello, synthesizers, guitars, plates, clappings and field recordings such as the birds of La Orduña. Playing between moments of chaosity and experimentation on tracks such as ‘Que Me Hace Saber Esto’ to elements of serene, etherealism created by repetitiveness and simpler arrangements on tracks such as ‘Nadie Sabe’.​

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Ambient has more varieties than you think. The new LP from Simone Gatto & guests for Pregnant Void is of the round edged, fluffy to the touch, probiotic, multi-vitamin, binaural beat, monaural/isochronic tone enriched, mindfulness enhancing, New Age leaning & gently propulsive type. Ambient easy listening if you will, & perfect for a lazy Sunday.

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Mindful Life is the fourth full-length album by Italian composer and music therapist, Simone Gatto. It focuses entirely on the relationship between electronic music and emotional / bodily awareness, lending itself to meditative use at home or in storytelling DJ sets. 

Combining reflective electronics with acoustic patterns and healing vocals, Simone invites the listener on an ethereal journey which removes the boundaries between mindfulness and electronic music, unearthing internal dialogue. The 11-track journey features intriguing collaborations with other music therapists and composers like Massimo Amato, Cristina Rosati, Angelo Molino and Flora Paär. 

In the enveloping synthesized pads, specific compositional techniques (such as binaural beats and monaural, isochronic tones), the use of the voice, melodic scales played with acoustic instruments and unpredictable rhythmic arrangements, Mindful Life evokes the listener's imagination and accompanies them towards a profound emotional transformation; a greater expansion of consciousness. 

This album is also an invitation to DJs and selectors to rediscover awareness of their place in history and society. Through these pieces it is possible to promote storytelling and conscious dance, a way to channel one's emotions and energies through physical expression, sonic response and free movement.

CreditsWritten & Produced by Simone Gatto 
Mastered at Out-ER Studios​

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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY & WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

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Ease your way into the weekend with this gently playful suite of jazz soaked, folk fringed, head healing ambient recordings by Rich Ruth as part of his 2020 lockdown coping strategy & which are now here to help us all through life's ups and downs. Once you're fully awake hit play on Calming Signals, his LP from 2019 which I only discovered (along with the artist) last week, but which is a Kosmische masterpiece.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY

Where There’s Life is a collection of meditative pieces written in the 
early months of the pandemic. These songs helped me cope with 
the collective sense of uncertainty and solitude of the time.

CreditsMichael Rich Ruth - Synthesizers, Guitar, Production, Mixing 
Caleb Hickman - Saxophone on tracks 2 & 6 
Michael Hix - Additional synthesizers on track 4 

Mastered by Drew Carrol 

Art Layout by Nathan Morrow 

Special thanks to Jay Steele, Ben Swank, Katie Aeschliman, Bob & Rosa​

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