Le Volume Courbe's 'Planet Ping Pong' is a collection of sonic trips echoing fulgurances of beat poetry. Charlotte is a magician who can weave the directness of punk with the emotions of pop while staying in the realms of edgy experimentation. The bunny comes out of the hat smoking a cigarette and looks you in the eye. The single 'Two-Love' is a collaboration with Noel Gallagher on piano and bass and Lascelles Gordon on percussions. The album also includes a cover by Daniel Johnston 'Mind Contorted' which is presented as a duet with Terry Hall, and also features his son Theodore Hall and Noel Gallagher on guitars.

The originality of Charlotte’s music shares something with outsider art: naïve, primitive, primal, rather than following the standard rules. The new album self-produced and mixed by Brendan Lynch and Charlotte is no exception, It’s a unique and compelling listen laced with surprises, subversions and a refreshing candour which sets it apart from anything else.

Charlotte was born and raised in France and moved to London in 1995. She was first signed to Alan McGee Poptones label in 2001, and her debut 'I Killed My Best Friend' was released in 2005 on Honest Jon’s Records. She has also worked with a number of other bands and musicians including Kevin Shields, Mazzy Star, Noel Gallagher, The Television Personalities, Simon Raymonde, Grimm Grimm, Piano Magic etc.. Her song 'Born to Lie' was featured in Series 2 of Killing Eve and Spotify selected her song 'Rusty' for their “best of the decade 2010-2020” alternative compilation. Cillian Murphy selected the same song for his BBC6 compilation.

TRACK LISTING

1. Fourteen Years
2. The Moon Song
3. Two-Love
4. Rêve Réveiller
5. Bag Of Excuses [v3]
6. To Know Him Is To Love Him
7. Duffy And Mr Seagull [v3]
8. Mri Song
9. Mind Contorted [v4]
10. Alone On The Rope
11. Planet Ping Pong 

Over the course of her career, spanning three-plus decades, Laetitia Sadier has never shied away from the hard topics, or stopped advocating for the possibility of self determination and emancipation in the face of the powers that be, conscious or unconscious. This is an essential part of the foundation she co-built with Stereolab, showcasing her spiritual, scientific and sociopolitical inquiries. She’s continued this process with Monade and under her own name and as a writer/singer/and musician whose every album acts as a report on her journey of the self through time, space and the collective.

On Rooting For Love, the report is set alight by the heat of a turbulent world, collapsing institutions and Laetitia’s fully engaged process of expression as well as orchestration. The opening number, “Who + What” elucidates the central issue of the album: a call for a collective striving for Gnosis – an inquisitive outlook that will lend clues to the traumatized civilizations of Earth, allowing us to evolve away from millennia of alienation and suffering and towards the achievability of healing. The musical arrangements help to embody the layers of the issue, as with “Who + What”’s combination of organ, synths, guitar, bass, trombone, drum programming, vibraphone and zither, all working along intricate paths of chord and tempo changes. Leading from the inside is the implacable presence of Laetitia Sadier, herself interacting with a vocal assembly of men and women billed as The Choir. The regular reappearance of The Choir throughout Rooting For Love is a reminder of this music being one of a people in critical mass, in addition to an evolution that continues to deepen the rich harmonic fields in which Laetitia plays.

Past wounds are addressed again and again in the libretto, as the music provides a transformational balm to aid the healing process. The melodic funk of bassist Xavi Muñoz leads a Chic-adjacent slink to the occasional dance floor vibes and no-wave rockouts, while Hannes Plattemier and Emma Mario take turns in mixing the tracks and informing the far reaches of the material, with vibes, additional drum programming and synths alongside a talented cast of players and singers from Laetita’s Source Ensemble and beyond.

Whether drawing inspiration from Zen Shiastu training, or the lyrics of Véronique Vincent, (lyricist and singer for Aksak Maboul, and once upon a time, lead singer of the Honeymoon Killers), Laetitia faces the truth without flinching. The shadows, whatever stuff they are made of - individual and collective, present and ancestral - need to be recognized and acknowledged, because the more we heal within ourselves, the more undivided we become in the face of looming Neo-fascist/Neoliberal narratives polluting the inner and outer landscapes. As with the cover image of the winter tree mirrored by the word patterns of Rooting For Love, Laetitia maintains that how we heal the world that’s coming, and what we make of it, will be a co-creation. The quality of our imagination, the orientation we give our thoughts and the capacity to bring love to ourselves and the world are a first step.

Alongside of her collaboration with Modern Cosmology, last year’s incredible What Will You Grow Now?, as well as her continued tours with a reformed Stereolab, Rooting For Love finds Laetitia back in the world, once again urging all our grounded inner alignment and heart power to make us better equipped for creating what’s to come.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A deeply psychedelic journey through whimsical french psych-folk, airy downbeat and hazy funk-adjecent groove. It's got the spirit of early Stereolab (for good reason) but lightened with a majestic, excitable pop sensibility. A really beautiful journey.

TRACK LISTING

01 Who + What
02 Proteiformunite
03 Une Autre Attente
04 The Dash
05 Don’t Forget You’re Mine
06 Panser L’inacceptable
07 The Inner Smile
08 La Nageuse Nue
09 New Moon
10 Cloud 6

An edition of 620 copies in a generic card sleeve, with a hand stamped band name and Duophonic logo, plus each disk will be numbered.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Andrew Pekler composes with samples, field recordings, electronic and acoustic instruments and is the very definition of a DIY artist.

The second collaborative album from Laetitia Sadier [Stereolab & solo] and Brazil's Mombojó. Release via Stereolab's Duophonic Super 45s imprint.

Modern Cosmology is a musical ensemble composed of six individuals of the human race, none of which are cosmologists or astronomers, although Felipe S. - who sings and plays the guitar - knows quite a bit about reading astrological charts. He shares his frontperson duties with one Laetitia Sadier who, by virtue of her singer-songwriter career both as a solo artist and as part of the Stereolab ‘groop’, happens to be one of the key figures of her bandmates’ musical formation.

Their paths first crossed when Marcelo - also on guitars - lent his amp for some of Laetitia’s solo concerts in Brazil under the condition that he got to meet his musical idol, and along came his brother Vicente - who plays the drums - and keyboardist Chiquinho. The four lads, plus Missionário José on bass, are collectively called Mombojó, an established band on the Brazilian alternative scene. 

“What will you grow now?” started in late 2016 on a recording session Mombojó did on a motorboat up the Capibaribe river in their Recife hometown. The title track was recorded there and then during this fluvial jam session, and the other backing tracks were recorded about a year later at a recording studio at the local University, after which Laetitia had a bunch of new material to add words and melodies to, from her Brazilian friends and bandmates with love. Life happened, COVID happened, new albums by Laetitia and Mombojó also happened, and between this and that Modern Cosmology managed to get six new tracks ready for release.

In current times we tend to feel so disconnected that a lot is said everywhere about connection, but this album is not about connections per se, or at least not about first connections. As the title teases, this album is about growth, deepening connections and strengthening bonds, about delving into the next chapter, about realising that now that we have drawn attention to a number of important issues, how do we avoid addressing them without falling in the same pits we have before? 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Saier and Mombojó return for another endlessly inventive selection of Latin-leaning electronic soul and easy-listening pop nuggets. Funky, but while remaining distinctly laid-back, it's a perfectly honed and wonderfully rich sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Making Something
2. Le Train Ne Passera Pas
3. Consent For Life
4. What Will You Grow Now?
5. Trauma Release Makes Free
6. A Time To Blossom 

Astrel K is Rhys Edwards of Ulrika Spacek.

Astrel K's debut single ‘You Could If You Can’ was released via Duophonic Super 45s - a label which has a history of releasing limited edition abstract releases from Stereolab, Broadcast & Yo La Tengo. 500 copies of the 7” were made, hand stamped and numbered, quickly selling out in selected record shops.

Following the loss of KEN, a shared house in which Ulrika Spacek band members lived and worked from, Edwards relocated to Stockholm, Sweden where he began making music on his own:

“At this time, I didn’t really know anyone in Stockholm so kinda retreated into making music just by myself. The album title definitely reflects this period; I was on my own making music and sometimes nothing would be happening and sometimes there would be little sparks of ideas that could keep me going”

Edwards would spend nights writing and recording in a shared rehearsal space producing music rich with layers and texture, synonymous with the work of Ulrika Spacek but with perhaps a greater focus on the art of ‘song writing’. Tracks with verse’s and chorus’s are surrounded by instrumental interludes; inspired by old library music and compositions for film as well as being reminiscent of bands such as Broadcast.

The album doesn’t sound like one made in either London or Stockholm, rather somewhere in the nether region. Written pre pandemic but mixed in the past year, the music led Edwards to finding like minded musicians from the Stockholm music scene:

“Though I’m now glad I can say I wrote an album by myself, I was definitely confronted with my own musical strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes when you have an A/B decision you want some perspective and you’d be in the studio, turn around and no one is there. It really made me curious to bring in more people into the fold, not to compromise any original vision or anything, but to have other energy in the room, to exorcise out any lazy tricks I may fall into”.

Stockholm musicians (including Lili Holényi, Milton Öhrström, Niklas Mellberg, Tomas Hellberg) played on the album and join Edwards in the live version of the project.

TRACK LISTING

1 Is It It Or Is It I?
2 You Could If You Can
3 Imperial Phase
4 9V
5 Clicktivism
6 Clean Coal
7 Forwardmomentum
8 Flickering I
9 Morbid Clinging
10 Maybe It All Comes At Once

Ghost Power are Jeremy Novak [Dymaxion] and Timothy Gane [Stereolab, Cavern of Anti-Matter and Turn On].

Duophonic Super 45s have previously released music by both artists - Novak via a Dymaxion compilation album and 7", Gane via various Stereolab, Cavern of Anti-Matter and Turn On releases.

Having previously released a limited edition 7" in 2020, Ghost Power by Ghost Power brings the two musicians together for a full length album.

The tracks were recorded in Berlin and New York, both remotely and with Novak and Gane working together in each city.

TRACK LISTING

1. Asteroid Witch
2. Panic In The Isles Of Splendor
3. Lithic Fragment
4. Inchwork
5. Zome Primer
6. Grimalkin
7. Heavy Bubbles
8. Vertical Section
9. Opsimath
10. Astral Melancholy Suite