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Drummer/producer Teppo Mäkynen's 3TM returns with a new album, "Lake", on 29 November on Helsinki's We Jazz Records. The album is the much awaited follow up to 2017's successful 3TM debut "Form", which was awarded as the "Jazz Album of the Year" in Mäkynen's native Finland. "Lake" was preceded by the ambient electronic album"Abyss" in August, which set the mood for what's to come next: A compact yet far-reaching body of work bringing together the trio's acoustic jazz sound and ideas rooted in abstract electronic music in a remarkably boundless way.

"LAKE" LINER NOTES BY TEPPO MÄKYNEN:
I used to go swimming almost every day in my early youth. Usually in an indoor swimming pool, where I felt safe because the water was warm and I could see through to the bottom. In the summer I swam and went fishing at lakes Piiljärvi, Hirvijärvi and Kuhajärvi. Their chlorine-free waters and living ecosystems provided me with experiences of untamed nature. The water in each of these lakes was pretty murky, and what they hid inside them was mostly represented by the fish I sometimes caught. I didn’t do much diving, at least not too deep, because I was afraid of what I might find below the surface. But I still loved the feeling of being able to move about the water by my own efforts.

“Lake” doesn’t refer to a particular lake or location. It can be a metaphor for humanity, or the world. A metaphor for concrete living things. “Lake” reflects the things on the outside, the things we see. It’s peculiar how we often give those an extra layer of meaning by presuming and by seeing in them reflections of our own experiences. It’s hard not to make judgements about what you see, although often it would be better to just observe.

“Abyss” is the subconscious and the soul. The deeper plain that all living things possess. “Abyss” is what we can’t really see. We can just try and guess what lies beyond the surface. But we can and should try to reach that deeper plain, even if we might find things there we don’t like. It’s the only way to become whole and to learn about ourselves and others.

The music on these two albums tells a story about its creator. About things having multiple sides to them. About the need to look for the new. About sensitivity and the quest for beauty. About the intersection of old and new, neither being aware they existed at the same time. About possibility. About finiteness. About a lake. About humanity. About acceptance. About...

All of this music was created to praise nature. Nature, which we human beings are one with, even if that often seems to be hard for us to understand, regrettably. These albums are dedicated to everything living and dying.

Credits
Teppo Mäkynen, drums & sounds / Jussi Kannaste, tenor sax / Antti Lötjönen, bass
Composed and produced by Teppo Mäkynen
Another Rok Solid production
Recorded and mixed by Abdissa Assefa
Mastered by Pauli Saastamoinen
Lake photos by Tero Ahonen
Design by Matti Nives

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I visited Taiwan in the spring of 2019. Over the span of 10 days, and from the back seat of a bus that slowly rumbled around the island, I recorded the sounds that shaped this album: sonic traces of the endless mountains, gorges, beaches, and forests visible from the windows; ancient and imposing geological forms, immune to the human forces at play there. The island of Taiwan has been repeatedly subjected to cultural whiplash and regime change at the hands of various nations since its settlement by indigenous groups over 6,000 years ago, including the Chinese, Japanese, and Dutch, but it was the colonial Portuguese term “Ilha Formosa” - meaning “beautiful island,” and coined at their first sighting of the island in 1542 - that seemed most capable of describing the place, and most capable of transcending all those manmade barriers, borders, and governing articles.

Credits:
Music by Andrew Tasselmyer
Mastered by Ian Hawgood
Cover photo by Yong Chuan
Cassette j-card layout by Steven Kemner
Shimmering Moods Records 2019

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Exploring the gradient between acoustic realism and synthetic reality, real landscapes and fantasy, and creating fantastic re-imaginings of these landscapes. There is also a process of creating scenes to play out these fantasies: extrapolating from the gestures of the landscape and its indigenous nature to create musical scenes of parallel and sympathetic resonance. Gesture responding to gesture, widening the circle until completion. Magical realism as a piece of the dreaming state, the vision state, projected onto the canvas of ordinary perceived reality.

Field recordings, keyboards, dulcimer, and Irish low whistle.

Art and music by Sean Conrad. Recorded in March 2019.
Mastered at The Gentle Ways.
Thanks to Rosa, Lawrence, Ian, and yourself. Much love to all.

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North London’s Lazy H will release his new EP “Where’s Bill?” via respected technicolour beats imprint Stereoptico on the 27th of November 2019.

Deftly balancing melody, harmony, sweetly swung drums and bass weight, Lazy’s widescreen electronics are a breath of fresh air. Happiest exploring the grey areas between genres, he follows in the footsteps of respected elders Natureboy Flako, Photay and Chrome Sparks, displaying the same flair for conjuring highly idiosyncratic and addictive grooves and effortlessly spanning tempos and moods. It was this spark that earned him a coveted spot in Gilles Peterson and Brownswood’s grassroots talent discovery and development program in 2018-19: Future Bubblers.

The producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has previously worked with L-Vis 1990 (Night Slugs), Reflec (Clergy, Lobster Theramin), and singer songwriters Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Collard and Ronika.

Alongside the release of “Where’s Bill?” Lazy H has also built a new live show combining the freedom of real instrumentalists and improvisation with live sampling, synthesizers and drum machines.

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Noita Official Soundtrack vol. 1 Contains select tracks from the first areas of Noita, along with some sweet out takes!

The soundtrack is split into multiple adventures, two longer ones: Side A & Side B for a longer thought out venture into the musical depths of the magical caves and separate tracks for convenient shorter trips into the kosmos!

Get the game here store.steampowered.com/app/881100/Noita/

Listen to more From Grotto: fromgrotto.bandcamp.com
Credits
Niilo Takalainen - guitar, music direction and mixing
Joonas Turner - keyboards, percussion and weird noises
Pekka Takalainen - drums, percussion
Riku Hyötyläinen - bass, flute, percussion
Antti Pasonen - guitar, percussion

Petri Majuri - Recording, Mixing and Mastering

Recorded mixed and mastered at E-studio.
Cover art by Arvi Teikari and Olli Harjola.