The new Cole Pulice LP sounds more like the first care free day of summer rather than autumnal melancholy as ambient eccentricity holds hands with good natured jazz, playful New Age psychedelia and easy going electronica whilst they head to the Moon Glyph lake with some buds and a bag of beer.

Cole Pulice is a composer, saxophonist and electroacoustic musician from Oakland-via-Minneapolis. Following their debut album "Gloam" and two duo collaborations with Lynn Avery and Nat Harvie, Cole Pulice returns with their sophomore album "Scry". The sound is deeply contemporary, incorporating saxophone/wind synth with live signal processing and modern electronics/software. It drifts between electroacoustic experimentalism and more traditional forms of song-like beauty, casting a wide sonic net that highlights Pulice’s versatility and creativity as both an improviser and composer. 

From Cole: 

"Scry is a collection of musics exploring fragmentary or gradient states of liminality – recursive spirals of worlds hidden within worlds, dreams within dreams, sensations of time, and the notion of the past, present, and future all occupying a single point. 

It’s a record that, for me, resonates strongly with this sort of “between-ness:” it began in Minneapolis, and was finished in Oakland, bridging pre-pandemic life with the “new normal” of current times; being genderqueer and navigating the spaces between and outside of the masculine and feminine binary; wandering through a musical interchange station that is interconnects improvisation, “song,” and collage experiments . . . multidimensional yet woven together by similar aesthetic threads. 

Whereas my previous record, Gloam, was mostly a series of compositions for a very specific electroacoustic setup, Scry utilizes a series of different hardware/software frameworks and apparatus. Or, to think of it in another way: Gloam was like looking through a kaleidoscope (each turn of the handle giving a different abstract perspective of the same bits of gemstone); Scry is more like a stained-glass crystal ball (a singular sculpture, with each fragment somehow offering an ephemeral glimpse into another world or dimension). 

Scry is deeply indebted to the electroacoustic works of Pauline Oliveros, David Behrman, Marion Brown, Maggi Payne, Harold Budd, and Jon Hassell - all of whom explored, in their own ways, the interconnectivity between acoustic instruments, interactive electronic signal processing, and improvisation - the crux of ‘Scry’s DNA. To this end: virtually all of the signal processing on ‘Scry’ is done live as I play saxophone/wind synth, either through a hardware setup that I control with my feet as I play, or through software instruments I build which respond live to what I’m playing. Often, both software and hardware processes are being used simultaneously. 

"To scry" defines the practice of foretelling the future through gazing into a crystal ball or other reflective surfaces. There's a lot to say here regarding the mix of temporalities, timelines, states of being, and so forth, but I mostly just have to give a special thanks to glass artist, composer, and dear friend Sadie Robison. The arcane aesthetics of her technicolor stained glass sculptures were a major influence on the themes of Scry ?" 

—Cole Pulice

CREDITS
​Recorded between 2019—2022 in: 
Minneapolis, Minnesota 
Seward, Ventura Village, 8vB Studio 

Oakland, California 
West Oakland, Oakland Music Complex, 
Paul Dresher Ensemble Studios, 
Reinhardt Redwoods Regional Park 

Mixed by Lynn Avery & Cole Pulice 
Mastered by Angel Marcloid at Angel Hair Studios 
Art & Design by Steve Rosborough

I worry the low frequency joys of the upright bass pass a lot of modern - especially pop music listeners by unless they're jazz curious. Perhaps a taste of this occasionally augmented, warm & wonderfully expressive solo LP by Meslien for Heavenly Sweetness will win a few hearts and minds to the double bass cause.

A festival organizer asks for a solo, and it is for Kham Meslien the trigger as much as the revelation. Twenty years of loyal service in a band, and Kham left the artistic direction of his career to the strings of his double bass. From now on, this one should take the less codified road of music where freedom reigns. That of jazz and its improvisations dictated by the moment, that of purely instrumental compositions. Written and honed on stage, Kham's compositions have benefited from an imposed lock down to be refined and immortalized in "Fantômes...Futurs", his first solo album. 

Double bass player turned leader, Kham has placed his double bass, a fine mix of power and gravity, at the center of a virtual band in which he occupies all the positions. Percussions struck on the wood of his imposing instrument, discrete brooms or rhythmic double bass have handed over their spells to the printed circuits of a looper. Looped, cadenced, each one was then replayed on itself, the time of several measures. The time for Kham to install the deep tone and the warmth of strings that resonate on the wood to become storytellers. A music with images where the vibrations blacken the first lines, impulse melodies and themes, then leave the solos the freedom to speak to write the following. 

An intense, instinctive, emotional speech. 

To cross a melancholic storm before finding the immensity of a plain above which to glide. To follow the novel of an Andean charango playing oriental melodies, blurring both places and distances, mixing cultures to become one. Clinging to the suspense of the notes, following the sinuosities that lead to darkness as well as to light. Or go the other way around. To settle down near Anthony Joseph for the attentive listening of a poetry, only vocal title of the album. 

On the voluminous body of an instrument in balance on its foot, the climates follow one another, the lively and velocity fingers fade in favor of the bow which will go to seek in the strings dramaturgy and buried feelings. "Ta Confiance", "The Alarm" or "Le Saule Pleureur", each title tells Kham's story as much as it gives the indication of the track to follow. Each one is then free to go where he wants, the paths being different as the listening goes on and especially as the moment passes.

Phantom piano sounds float about the late night introspection encouraging sound stage at will, as instrumental bubbles float to the surface before bursting at the limits of their physical limitations to become one with the gently swirling ambient surrounds in this fine midweek decompression soundtrack from Scattered Light for Dust Archive.

On 31.12.2021 we found in the mailbox of our studio an eviction letter, for defaulting behavior, reporting the address of some place we never rented. Being the location just a couple of blocks from our studio, we immediately jumped on the car for on-the-spot investigation, to find a small white building we never noticed, even though we grew up in the neighborhood. Big windows covered from the inside with taped paper, a green metal door, firmly locked. As soon as one let the handle go, another slowly said: “I think we do have the key”. We ran to the studio to grab the key we found in a box, sent to us by someone unknown, exactly 2 years earlier. 
Jump cut, 

and the key clicks into the lock. 
Cellar smell, dust particles dancing in the light, there’s a table in the center of the room, on top of the table there are 4 cardboard boxes, on the top of each box, handwritten, with a black thick pencil: “A.D. 2022”. 

What follows is the content of the box 
Dust Archive protocol code: D.A. #017 - A.D. 2022 

∙ [SP#085] to [SP#092] spools of tape 
∙ [IT#047] abstract print* 
∙ [IT#048] VHS tape** 
∙ [IT#049] cyanotype portrait; on the back, handwritten: 

Scattered Light, Sydney, Australia, 1911*** 

∙ [IT#050] sheet of paper, containing notes handwritten with a black 
ballpen. Transcription follows: 

"1.2037 
A snowflake down 
a quite different line 
a position in time 
up toward a 3-sphere 
now there 
now here 
like a climber 
hanging on the fractures 
in an uncountable number 
of exotic smooth structures"

CREDITS
​D.A. #017 - A.D. 2022 

Aural findings level matching, internet streaming transmigration and cyanotypes investigation: BIAS 
www.bias.space 

Abstract prints digitization and graphic design supervision: Vita Tae Zorat 

VHSes digitization, poetry transcription, metaphor tracking: Arnoux 
fabioarnosti.com 


*The “abstract prints”, punctually present with each group of tapes, were chosen to become the cover art for the online music streaming platforms, superimposing subsequently the protocol code we generated for the boxes 

**Excerpts from the VHS tape can be seen at: www.instagram.com/dustarchive 

***Tracking down the personal details present in the back of the cyanotypes we got in touch with the unknown, getting to know there is an actual correspondence between names, locations and subjects of the portrait, even though the dates make no sense. The persons were totally unaware of the existence of these boxes and its content, denying that the portrait was ever taken, and although we are informed the persons are all musicians, they can not confirm they ever performed the music recorded in the spools, although recognizing it as “extremely familiar”, “absurdly typical”, “as own”. 
For completeness we had permission to disclose the identity of the subject to get a fully tackable thread on the facts surrounding Dust Archive: 

www.instagram.com/scattered____light/ 

The box and its content is in storage at our new facility.

As beat culture approaches the half century marker, Makaya McCraven takes times to glance in the rearview mirror and reflect on it's evolution and infiltration of modern music before hitting the gas to make some of the best new millennial, organic beat injected, orchestra graced, back to the future jazz fusion around for International Anthem.

​In These Times is the new album by Chicago-based percussionist, composer, producer, and pillar of our label family, Makaya McCraven. 

Although this album is “new," the truth it’s something that's been in process for a very long time, since shortly after he released his International Anthem debut In The Moment in 2015. Dedicated followers may note he’s had 6 other releases in the meantime (including 2018’s widely-popular Universal Beings and 2020’s We’re New Again, his rework of Gil Scott-Heron’s final album for XL Recordings); but none of which have been as definitive an expression of his artistic ethos as In These Times. This is the album McCraven’s been trying to make since he started making records. And his patience, ambition, and persistence have yielded an appropriately career-defining body of work. 

As epic and expansive as it is impressively potent and concise, the 11 song suite was created over 7+ years, as McCraven strived to design a highly personal but broadly communicable fusion of odd-meter original compositions from his working songbook with orchestral, large ensemble arrangements and the edit-heavy “organic beat music” that he’s honed over a growing body of production-craft. 

With contributions from over a dozen musicians and creative partners from his tight-knit circle of collaborators – including Jeff Parker, Junius Paul, Brandee Younger, Joel Ross, and Marquis Hill – the music was recorded in 5 different studios and 4 live performance spaces while McCraven engaged in extensive post-production work from home. The pure fact that he was able to so eloquently condense and articulate the immense human scale of the work into 41 fleeting minutes of emotive and engaging sound is a monumental achievement. It’s an evolution and a milestone for McCraven, the producer; but moreover it’s the strongest and clearest statement we’ve yet to hear from McCraven, the composer. 

In These Times is an almost unfathomable new peak for an already-soaring innovator who has been called "one of the best arguments for jazz's vitality" by The New York Times, as well as recently, and perhaps more aptly, a "cultural synthesizer." While challenging and pushing himself into uncharted territories, McCraven quintessentially expresses his unique gifts for collapsing space and transcending borders – blending past, present, and future into elegant, poly-textural arrangements of jazz-rooted, post-genre 21st century folk music.  creditsreleased September 23, 2022 

Makaya McCraven - drums, sampler, percussion, tambourine, baby sitar, synths, kalimba, handclaps, vibraphone, wurlitzer, organ 
Junius Paul - double bass, percussion, electric bass guitar, small instruments 
Jeff Parker - guitar 
Brandee Younger - harp 
Joel Ross - vibraphone, marimba 
Marta Sofia Honer - viola 
Lia Kohl - cello 
Macie Stewart - violin 
Zara Zaharieva - violin 
Greg Ward - alto sax 
Irvin Pierce - tenor sax 
Marquis Hill - trumpet, flugelhorn 
Greg Spero - piano 
Rob Clearfield - piano 
Matt Gold - guitar, percussion, baby sitar 
De’Sean Jones - flute 

All music composed by Makaya McCraven; except “Lullaby” composed by Makaya McCraven based off a song originally written by Péter Dabasi and Agnes Zsigmondi. All music published by Makaya McCraven Music (ASCAP) & International Anthem Publishing (ASCAP), administered by Domino Publishing Company USA (ASCAP). 

"In These Times" contains an excerpt of audio from the Studs Terkel Radio Archive, used with permission, courtesy of Chicago History Museum and WFMT. 

Recorded at Co-Prosperity Sphere Chicago; Symphony Center Chicago; JAMDEK Studios Chicago; Palisade Studios Chicago (fka Decade Music Studios); Shirk Studios Chicago; Makaya Music Studios; Walker Arts Center Minneapolis; Submerge Studios Detroit; Sholo Music Studios LA. 

Produced by Makaya McCraven. 
Engineered and Mixed by Dave Vettraino, David Allen, and Makaya McCraven, with recording assistance from Najee-Zaid Searcy. 
Mastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Mastering. 
Executive Production by Scott McNiece. 

Cover Image & Insert Photos by Sulyiman. 
Art Direction by Caroline Waxse. 
Designed by Jake Simmonds.

Dust off the kaftan, pop a flower in your hair and the Psilocybin of choice in your morning brew,  adopt the lotus position and float into the office on a magic carpet of New Age psychedelia as Nimbudala lays down 4 epic, third eye opening, one man band,  peace and love promoting jams for Inner Islands.

“Peace Rock” is Steve Targo’s second outing as Nimbudala, following last year’s “Universal Compassion”. He carries on with the intentions that inspired the Nimbudala project: looking less towards the natural world and more toward the human experience, widening the instrumental palette, and embracing a more diverse array of sonic influences. This work comes from a love and appreciation of Jazz, Kosmiche, Psychedelic, and New Age musics. And while one can hear those touchstones, these pieces still manage to sound like no other work besides the endeavors of Steve Targo. 

These tracks diverge from those on “Universal Compassion” in that they are much looser and less cyclical. They have a meandering and dynamic quality that is enhanced by their duration, allowing the listener to settle in and become absorbed in these meditations and freak outs. The album opens with the relatively mellow ebbs and flows of “Radical Expansions of Love”, setting the scene and inviting us into the space: an ever-growing fanfare of percussion playing call and response with spaced out synth melodies. “Peace Rock I” takes us to the other end of the spectrum with an insistent groove, layers of weaving synths, and a constant shimmer of bells, which all cohere into an ecstatic blend. “Peace Rock II” finds itself resting upon more relaxed rhythms with adventurous interpretations of repeating melodic figures, bending and warping around the beat for a hazy ride. “Nan Midol” closes the album with fiery drumming that steadily calms into a more sedate rhythm against an assemblage of interlocking synth lines to gently guide us to the conclusion of the journey.

CREDITS
​All music by Steve Targo. 
Artwork by Sean Conrad. 
Special thanks to: Stefan Beck, Sean Conrad, & Matt LaJoie.

Seasonally distressed tones and chlorophyll deprived keys are encouraged to depart their elevated summer residencies  by parky electronic breezes in Thme's impressively detailed new ambient LP for Vaknar that is more about autumnal beauty than  summer lament.

Sensory bliss laced in time, woven in particles 
and suspended in thin air. 

Produced by Théo Martin in 2022creditsMastered by Ian Hawgood

A keen, self aware observer who details  her journey through the present day U.S. condition via persuasive alt-folk guitar Marisa Anderson says a lot without words preferring to lay down a series of forgiving emotional trails far away from the shouting for us to contemplate as we see fit. One thing is for certain though, with the help of Thrill Jockey she's making Americana great again.

​Marisa Anderson is one of the most eminent guitarists working today. Her lucid, eloquent approach to guitar music and composition has established her as an unparalleled artist and an insightful, coveted collaborator. Anderson’s work draws on a mosaic of folk music and lives in conversation with myriad musical traditions. Her music is inviting and candid, beckoning the listener into sprawling ecosystems and intimate corners alike, from barren landscapes to verdant thickets, impassioned communal experiences to pensive reclusions. As a master of her instrument, Anderson translates abstractions into undeniably moving music, tracing through traditional folk tunes, imagined Sci-Fi films, and foggy sanctuaries of sound. Still, Here is Anderson at her most direct, laying bare her practice of processing and understanding the world through music and distilling that practice into pieces as expressive as they are transfixing. 

The pieces of Still, Here center around Anderson’s present. The album is a compendium of living moments captured by her preternatural ability to mold human realities into enduring, lyrical compositions. Away from the road for the longest stretch of her career, the making of Still, Here affirmed for Anderson the role of the guitar as an essential tool in processing external and internal realities. “I don’t get ideas and then turn to the guitar, rather I turn to the guitar to find out what my ideas are. I turn towards it for meaning.” The discordance of protest and upheaval emanates from a propulsive acoustic ostinato and mournful dueling pedal steel guitars on “The Fire This Time,” pausing only to allow space for the blare of sirens on the Portland street near Anderson’s studio. “The Crack Where the Light Gets In” rapturously revels in the glimmers of hope that peek through a pall of darkness. Across Still, Here, Anderson’s playing transmutes the tributaries of fluctuating emotions into a unified flow, stirring and sublime. 

Anderson’s compositional process is flexible and wide ranging, resulting in a collection of pieces that are varied in tone and timbre. Still, Here’s improvisational pieces like the seething “The Fire This Time” and the achingly beautiful “Waking” showcase Anderson’s immediate and sheer elemental capacity to speak through her instrument. Anderson transforms the traditional tune of personal tragedy “La Llorona” by deftly pairing the intimate, physical sound of a nylon string acoustic guitar with a hazy, otherworldly electric guitar. “In Dark Water” propels kinetic fingerpicked figures across a weightless droning synthesizer and scattered electric piano. A hypnotic requinto on “Night Air,” which was sampled on Matmos’ 2020 album The Consuming Flame, steadily oscillates a repeated riff as emphatic piano chords trade chordal melodies. 

Still, Here emphatically makes the case for Anderson’s profound artistry, each piece intimately revealing a new aspect of Anderson as a player and as a human being navigating the path laid before her. Marisa Anderson’s Still, Here is for the listener an alchemical salve, the work of a gifted player with an exceptional ability to convey the complexities of the human experience through composition.  creditsreleased September 23, 2022 

All music written, performed and produced by Marisa Anderson, except La Llorona (traditional, arranged by Marisa Anderson) and Beat the Drum Slowly (traditional, arranged by Marisa Anderson). 

Recorded by Marisa Anderson, Mixed by Jesse Munro Johnson, mastered by Amy Dragon at Telegraph Mastering. Photos by Dante Korinto. Design by Daniel Castrejon. 

Heartfelt thanks to Pati, Jodi, Dwayne, Gen, Tim, Vir, Laura, Ben, Sylvie, Coen, Jesse, Dante, and everyone at Thrill Jockey.

Imagining humanity's near future through an ambient post-dubstep lens, Action Sports (Matthew Peptone & Dylan Howe) foresee smart drug ridden inner cities, Fourth World utopian communes whose time has come, climate ravaged wildernesses & micro-climate situated smart-spa regeneration centres, as inequality is seemingly eternal.

"The number 3 has always held powerful symbolism. Think about good things coming in 3s, the birth-life-death cycle, the mind-body-soul connection, the 3 acts of a typical story." - Kerry Ward 

PP015 

"III" finds the duo behind Julius Theory and Portland Compressor revisiting their Action Sports moniker for the third and final time, completing a trilogy which began with "I" (released on Angoisse in 2017) and "II" (released on Gin&Platonic in 2020). 

"III" continues a tripped-out tradition of genre-morphing surrealism, pushing experimentalism through all possible angles. From the deconstructed baroque dub of "Cubivored" to the rompler funk jam of "Smoker's Alcove," Action Sports' "III" is expansively zany and ultra moody in equal measure.

All music, mixing and mastering by Dylan Howe and Matthew Pepitone

By cosmic coincidence another Tarotplane album has materialised from the Baltimore interdimensional corridor. On this latest LP for Constellation Tatsu he wears his influences on his sleeve with a suitably sprawling cosmic homage, aided by correspondence & diligent research, to major influence, distant guide & Kosmische deity Manuel Göttsching.

Based on many years of research and correspondence, Tarotplane sought to accurately emulate the style and sound of Manuel Gottsching. "Aeonium" is a psychedelic treasure, capturing moments from Krautrock favorites but moving into new realms and spaces unexplored in the genre. 

The cover image is “DENKENDER EMBRYO72” (1972), a silkscreen by Gernot Bubenik photographed by the artist specifically for this release.  www.bubenikgernot.com/index-e.html