MJ Cole has announced a new album and dropped the first track, ‘Cathedral'.
'MJ Cole Presents Madrugada' will arrive on 3rd April via Decca Records, with a debut live performance of the work set for EartH Hackney, London, on 29th April.
Wu-Tang Clan's RZA has shared a new guided meditation EP, 'Guided Explorations', produced in collaboration with TAZO® Tea.
The celebrated rapper, producer, actor and filmmaker asks listeners to find a "chill environment" before immersing themselves in spiritual exercises designed to improve mental wellbeing, reduce stress, and dispel negative thoughts, explaining that "competitive pressure can stagnate you".
There are over 30 churches in Braga, a small historic city in northwest Portugal. Walking through its cobbled streets, their ringing bells are often heard from all angles, as if they’re talking, or singing, to one another. It makes for an appropriate backdrop for Semibreve, a festival that, in its ninth year, continues to set itself apart with adventurous programming, and a focus on rich, enveloping sounds.
London’s Edited Arts, an experimental music platform and event series, will share its third release, mutate3k’s ‘Static’, on 8th November.
Featuring six original tracks and a remix from Art Crime, ‘Static’ is a lush, sparkling collection of experimental ambience which makes intoxicating use of vocal alterations, towering synths and discreet beats.
The title track features PAN affiliate Kareem Lotfy, whose atmospheric expertise and sound design courses through its four minutes. Check it out below.
Irish experimental and ambient producer J Colleran has launched a new label, Oyae.
Kicking off the label with an EP of his own, the RBMA graduate and NTS regular follows his 2018 Because Music LP, ‘Gardenia’, with a five track feat of mind-boggling sound design and dazzling ambience.
A new website will create custom playlists based on the weather in your location.
The appropriately-titled Forecast app identifies where users are and then selects appropriate tracks to accompany the current climate.
Developed by Lee Martin and San Francisco-based ambient producer Tycho, whose new album 'Weather' just dropped, it's one of a number of apps that have caught our eye recently.
Sonically and stylistically too, Fofana explains, each place he has lived has informed the music he has loved and been influenced by and, subsequently, the art he has crafted himself, or released through his label, Sci Fi & Fantasy – on which Lotic released their phenomenal ‘Sankofa / Glittering’ in 2013.
“Most of my work has been around black noise,” Fofana says. “Music not merely about music, but music as a tool to explore ideas, open up possibilities, or rather portals to new possibilities or ways of seeing things. That is how I have approached my work for nearly a decade now. At the time I started working in this mode, I called it noir noir, but yeah it’s simply black noise. This concept of electronic music was handed to us by Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Jeff Mills, and Robert Hood.
“Both projects are reflections of me coming across new knowledge,” he says. “New bodies of thought compelling me to rethink things. Sylvia Wynter and Hortense Spillers produced works in the second half the 20th century and in 21st reflecting on the paradoxical conundrum of the black person in the Western world. Black Metamorphosis in particular is me attempting to transmute my interpretation of some of these ideas, which I find deeply inspiring and illuminating of my own experience.”
Last track that blew your mind?
“It’s between Freddie Gibbs & Madlib's “Flat Tummy Tea” or Moodymann’s “Got Me Coming Back Rite Now”
Last film you watched?
“Chernobyl series on HBO”
Last DJ that blew your mind?
“DJ Stingray”
Favourite album to relax to?
“Phil Cohran and Legacy - African Skies”
Shoegaze pioneer and RIDE guitarist Andrew Bell has announced a new seven-track album, ‘Dissident’, under his electronic moniker GLOK.
Most of the tracks from ‘Dissident’ were released anonymously in recent years with the full album set to land on 5th July via Ransom Note Records offshoot Bytes.
