The Błoto we knew until now briefly ceased to exist in September 2025, somewhere in the backstreets of Bucharest’s Floreasca district. This was not an ending, though, but a new beginning and a conscious transformation. With their core left intact, the band expanded its lineup to include a pillar of the Romanian alternative scene, Ion D. That move became the catalyst for the most groundbreaking project in their career, this album 'Atmosfera'.
 
Błoto together with Ion D is no longer just the pavement of Wrocław, but also the concrete of Bucharest, psychedelia, and a shared Emerging Eastern Europe experience of transformation, translated into synthesizer-driven sound and inspired by local folklore. Within the textures of "Atmosfera", these elements resonate with full post-capitalist force, like an auteur film by Radu Jude. This is a record that parts ways with the jazz label without regret, or rather becomes 'jazz on the ruins of jazz', replacing it with a trance-like, unclassifiable sound that Ion loosely refers to as 'Eastern-Oriental'.

The musical foundation of "Atmosfera"is a genre-blending melting pot unlike anything in Błoto’s catalogue. Raw elements of bass, techno, house, and dark dub intersect with a hip-hop pulse. This machine-driven framework is enriched by global influences ranging from trance-inflected afrobeats and ethereal ambient textures to bold references to Romanian manele and sunlit balearic sounds.

TRACK LISTING

A1.Władza / Puterea
A2.System / Sistem
A3.Swawola / Dezmă
A4.Mobbing (feat. DJ Eprom)
A5.Korupcja / Corupție
A6.Wyzysk / Exploatare
A7.Bieda / Sărăcie (feat. Plevna)

B1.Aura
B2.Komfort / Confort
B3.Ekstaza / Extaz
B4.Euforia / Euforie (feat. Plevna)
B5.Pojednanie / Reconciliere (feat. Plevna)
B6.Wolność / Libertate

After a three-year hiatus from releasing new music, Błoto knew they had to make up for the long wait with a flood of fresh material. Their fruitful recording sessions at Studio Pasterka produced a wave of new tracks—like mushrooms springing up after the rain. These sessions have already brought us two 7" singles, the Grzybnia LP, and now, rounding off this chapter, comes the final piece: the album Grzyby (eng. Mushrooms).

Anticipation for new Błoto releases reached a fever pitch. Vinyl collectors quickly snapped up all copies of the singles Szlam / Ścieki and Bakteria, the latter featuring a guest appearance by DāM-FunK. In less than six months, nearly all copies of Grzybnia were sold out—setting a record pace for Astigmatic Records. In the meantime, the album was nominated for a Fryderyk Award in the Alternative Music category. Though Grzybnia didn’t take home the prize, Błoto did win a Fryderyk for their track “Godzina W”, featured on the WAWA album dedicated to the Warsaw Uprising. It’s been an electrifying time for the band, filled with shows across Poland and abroad.

Grzybnia laid the foundation. It emphasized the importance of collaboration and the collective spirit—just as mycelium builds connections between plants in the forest. Since its release, not much has changed around us. Societies still fall short of functioning like mycelium. If anything, the global situation has worsened. The idea behind Grzybnia was to present an alternative to egoism and individualism. Yet today, it seems even harder to find common ground. We build more and more walls—first within our own families, then in increasingly polarized social bubbles, and ultimately at political levels. Perhaps those political forces are what trickle down and rupture our social bonds? This is where Grzyby comes in. What can the fruiting bodies of fungi teach us? They are in constant communication, using the mycelium’s vast underground network—the “internet of the forest.” Dialogue, negotiation, and communication should be the antidotes to polarization. In uncertain times, we must learn to connect beyond our divisions.

The album Grzyby features fungi with medicinal properties on Side A—and one parasite on Side B. These aren’t your typical mushrooms you’d throw in a culinary basket. “Wrośniak” helps fight autoimmune diseases, “Maczużnik” has antibacterial properties, “Chaga” eases digestive issues, and “Soplówka” stimulates the immune system. Side B brings “Pleśniak”—a toxic mold. Poisoning from this fungus can be dangerous, causing damage to the liver, skin, and mucous membranes. Yet even “Pleśniak” has a silver lining. It played a key role in the development of penicillin—the antibiotic used to treat tonsillitis, pneumonia, and more. Under controlled conditions, it's even used in cheese production.

For optimal listening experience, Grzyby has been pressed onto 12-inch vinyl at 45 RPM—enhancing the low frequencies that are abundant on this album full of broken beats and club energy.

The record will be released in a limited edition: 1,000 vinyl copies and 500 CDs, with the CDs including bonus tracks from the earlier 7-inch singles. Pre-orders go live on May 2, 2025, exclusively via Bandcamp. Mixing and mastering were once again handled by Kwazar, with visual artist Sainer bringing his graphic concept full circle. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Wrosniak
A2. Maczużnik
A3. Chaga
A4. Soplówka
B1. Pleśniak

Every 20 years or so, certain musical movements come full circle. Young musicians are inspired by genres dating back two decades, channelling them through their modern sensibility. The legendary J Dilla’s Donuts album was released in 2006 and instantly marked a starting point for the work of musicians worldwide, laying the foundations especially for the beat scene in Los Angeles. A whole young generation of musicians brought up on the new, instrumental and abstract hip-hop has carried jazz into a new era. The four London-based musicians who make up Uniri have gone one step further by abandoning the idea of a jazz band and "bedroom production" in favour of collective composing, creating a new look at the new-beat aesthetics, framing it as a road novel set in an unspecified time and space.

Uniri translates as ‘one unified dream’ and is the key driving motto of the project conceived by Chiminyo (Cykada, Maisha), the band's founder and head honcho. The project materialised in his private studio, where he invited fellow jazz musicians Amane Tsuganami (Jorja Smith, Maisha), Al Macsween (Nubya Garcia, Gary Bartz, Kefaya) and Luke Wynter (Nubyan Twist, Golden Mean) to spontaneously compose together. Hence, despite this being the band's first album, it wouldn't be right to call them rookies. The result of Uniri's collaborative work is the psychedelic, rhythmic album Infinite Reflections, packed with cosmic and warm synths, which neatly balances hip-hop beat and jazz composition. It's safe to say this music is even more appealing when played live, although it's equally suited to the club dancefloor.

UK Jazz has become a permanent fixture in the London landscape, but also across Europe and the US. Today, the musicians who shape the new wave of jazz are drawing on more and more genres, reducing solo improvisation for the benefit of composition and increasingly drawing on influences from the beat scene. Among such formations are the British NOK Cultural Ensemble, the Polish Błoto, the Belgian ECHT!, and the Dutch Comité Hypnotisé. Uniri is part of this emerging yet already international trend, creating an entirely fresh aesthetic that echoes artists such as Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Dorian Concept, Ras G and Nosaj Things oriented around the Californian 'new beats generation' scene.

The title Infinite Reflections alludes to a phenomenon observable on the open sea or during intercontinental flights. Gazing at the horizon blurs the boundary between the ocean and the sky, forming an infinite palette of blue shades. This inspiration sparked an elusive musical narrative, navigating between a sea voyage and an astral journey, destination unknown. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Skittering percussive blasts and funky pitch-bent 80's synths run through a jazzy future beats aesthetics and spiritual jazzy flourishes. A startlingly varied and incredibly complex compositional feat and most importantly, loads of fun.

TRACK LISTING

1. Soar
2. Oneiric Voyage
3. Oumuamua
4. Outer Sea
5. Solaris Ocean
6. Neptune's Arck
7. Cetus
8. Celestial Waves
9. Astra's Charge
10. Earth-Diver
11. Asteroidea