Recorded between the iconic Abbey Road and Polish Radio studios, Hania Rani’s original music for Joachim Trier’s Cannes and Golden Globe winning, Oscar and Bafta nominated ‘Sentimental Value’ is a deeply intuitive collaboration, composed before a single frame was edited.

For Hania Rani composing for the most recent film by Joachim Trier was nothing less than a true joy and a real artistic adventure. As she explains: “It doesn’t happen often that I’m asked to work on a film by a director whose work I know so well and which resonates with me so naturally. What I understood while working with such an intriguing mind and intelligent artist as Joachim is that the role of a film composer is to wander along with the director, hand in hand, rather than follow one another. The collaboration should be a partnership - evenly balanced and able to invigorate people on both ends - otherwise it will always feel superficial, imposed, and timid”

Intriguingly Hania worked on the score for Sentimental Value without an edit in hand; instead, she was given a carefully written script and the freedom of her own substantial imagination. “This way of composing suits me perfectly, as I’m not the type of composer who works comfortably with particular scenes, slightly immune to functionality in music in general. I prefer to ponder sound in separation from the image. It enables me to fabricate more abstract sequences that are not yet expressed in the film and to bring a new context to the existing narrative. Music as an inherent counterpoint - this sounds more intriguing to me”.

For Hania the biggest challenge of the score was its gravity - or rather its visibly elusive nature. The story told in the film oscillates around three characters and the motionless presence of the house, yet the relationships between all these personalities are not fixed, but in progress. Those subtle qualities were at the center of her attention and became the core topic of numerous discussions with Joachim about the music, the film, and the philosophy behind Sentimental Value. “I wondered how to express such translucent virtues in this score; that’s why a great deal of the process was embedded in exercises of mediation and translation. In order to avoid directness, I decided to impure the sound with a succession of small sonic gestures - whether re-arranging, re-orchestrating, revisiting, stretching the duration, or simply recording in a new acoustic environment. The mediated sound and expression allowed me to model a soundscape that inhabits both the old and the new, much like the house, which holds within itself the past, present, and future”.

In September 2024, Hania went to Oslo and spent a couple of days in the main film (the family home in Oslo) with her sound engineer, Agata Dankowska. The film crew was away in France to shoot another scene for the project, so they were allowed to freely explore the space - both visually and sonically. They made field recordings in the building, capturing the sounds of objects and furniture found in the apartment, and they also managed to record a couple of piano pieces. The house plays a significant role in the story, silently witnessing the tangled trajectories of its residents. “To explore its interiors so closely inevitably reminded me of getting to know a real person, with all their vulnerable parts and secrets. And although most of the recordings were not supposed to become part of the final soundtrack, I felt that this visit gave me access to another, far more intimate layer of the film, which immensely informed my composing process afterwards and reshaped my relationship with the project. There was a real sense of immediacy that felt exciting, instinctive, and simply incredibly special.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Stunningly evocative modern classical soundscapes and soaring ambient swells, solemn contemplative stillness and the tentative unease and uplifting resolve Hania Rani has become known for. A wonderfully apt soundtrack, and a beautiful listen on its own merits.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sentimental Value
2. The House
3. Childlike
4. Lighter And Lighter
5. Riksarkivet
6. Agnes
7. Rachel
8. Speaking To The Past
9. Gustav
10. Nor

With her third album, composer and bandleader Jasmine Myra has stepped confidently into the next stage of her unique musical explorations. 'Where Light Settles' is a cohesive artistic statement from a distinctive and confident voice in UK music, and a significant evolution from the critically acclaimed 'Horizons' (2022) and 'Rising' (2024).

Nine beautiful and powerfully grounded compositions express an accumulation of the artist’s ruminations on life, growth, and progression, powered by her vision of duality. “It’s those bittersweet moments which are heart-breaking but so important. Looking forward and trying to make sense of life,” she says. “Pain is unavoidable, and you’ll have hardship no matter what, but you don’t grow or learn about yourself or the world around you without it. The duality is the growth and coming out the other side. I had the concept from the start.”

Jasmine Myra’s verdant musical vision and talent for instrumental storytelling came to life over five days, with her long-standing ensemble gathering in one room at The Nave studios in Leeds.

Myra had crossed paths with Ancient Infinity Orchestra bandleader Ozzy Moysey before she moved from Leeds to London, often attending and playing at the same jam sessions. This made him the perfect choice to conduct the 13-piece band, freeing her up to bring maximum tenderness and elegiac tones to the alto sax lines she’d written. Her own playing sits deliberately within each track, never flying above. Instead, it wraps gently around precision melodies she wrote for strings, piano, flute, guitar, vibraphone, and harp which themselves furl and unfurl gorgeously around tenor sax, double bass, drums, and percussion. It’s a huge undertaking, executed with resolute confidence, and melodies that sparkle like sunlight on water.

As well as writing all the music, 'Where Light Settles' is also her first self- produced record, with Gondwana label boss Matthew Halsall undertaking Contributing Producer duties. It’s a colourful sound world, shaped in both atmosphere and structure by Myra’s affinity with music for film.

Behind the notes and staves there’s also Myra’s love of nature, specifically regular trips to North Wales, the Lake District, and the South Downs. “I just love those landscapes. It’s the duality: nature can be brutal but beautiful and I love that juxtaposition.” And of course, existing musical influences that range from Fabiano do Nascimento to Arooj Aftab and Alabaster Deplume.

“'Where Light Settles' is a metaphor for hope, and for me, it’s the perfect title for this album, which we recorded together, in person. It communicates the energy and the meaning behind it – and it ties in with the theme of duality.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A wonderfully rich, soaringly melodic outing that sits perfectly in the middle ground between spiritual jazz, ambient and classical. Though the pieces here are sax-led, it is rarely the most dominating instrument throughout, with subtle shifting focal points swaying the feel and mood of the piece nicely and resulting in a beautifully languid journey.

TRACK LISTING

1. Opening
2. Reflections
3. Likeness & Shadow
4. Some Rain Must Fall
5. Echo
6. Breath
7. Fragments
8. In An Instant
9. Where Light Settles

Existing in a liminal space between genres, 'INTERLUDE', the second album from composer, pianist and now singer HANAKIV is as mysterious as it’s seductively unconventional, with piano, often prepared, only one of its elements, both analogue and electronic. First inspired by “those crystallised moments where time almost stands still, pain hasn’t yet fully set in, and happiness is still just a glimpse,” it provides, all the same, “a sense of hope that standing still is part of living.” In its making, HANAKIV has created a space that allows her to address feelings long buried, whether the grief behind the lead single ‘Sunbeams’, where staccato rhythms punctuate murmured vocals; the eerie apparitions obscuring the innocence of ‘Lastele’, originally intended as a lullaby for her nephews; or the poignant torpor behind ‘May Song’s brittle blur of harmony and percussive pizzicatos.

'INTERLUDE’s range is further intimated by its contributors, including Portico Quartet’s Milo Fitzpatrick, who, as well as playing double bass throughout, co-wrote the refreshed long-term live favourite, ‘Intro’, and the eloquent closer, Stillness’. Also present are saxophonist Pille-Rite Rei, cellist Joanna Gutowska, violinist Gabriel Green, and PIKE on drums, helping capture the instances HANAKIV calls “in- betweens”. Among these are two sunny mornings, years apart, during which the strangely forlorn yet haunting ‘Hommikud’ coalesced.

Another significant turning point came with the writing of ‘Numb’. “Before then,” she confesses, “I was under the impression I was making music about stillness. This made me realise it was about numbness instead, and how easy it is to mix them up.” Listening to it, one gets a sense of what she means: though built around cascading piano lines, its tranquillity is undercut by unsettling swathes of cello strings, leaving the listener dazed. “I’d thought I was fine and functional,” she elaborates, “but I realised I wasn’t feeling. I wasn’t really living my life.”

Back then, having completed a master’s degree in Electroacoustic Composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, she’d left behind her familiar instrument for internships in Malmö and Reykyavik.

After a while, albeit only appreciated in hindsight, it was as though a part of her had perished.

Finally able to play whenever she liked again, reignited her imagination, working on her own terms, all of it at home. “I could literally record at midnight,” she laughs. “There's a lot of felt on the piano due to neighbours and housemates, but I worked constantly, changing what I wanted. It was amazing, if I'm honest!”

This shift in emphasis empowered by the one instrument on which she could rely, lies at 'INTERLUDE’s heart. Nowhere is this illustrated more elegantly than in its final two pieces, which bring resolution and redemption in the insistent unfurling of ‘January Song’ and a crowning closure with ‘Stillness’.

Yet ultimately that’s exactly what HANAKIV does here, and in a world unlike any other. Unpredictable, unfathomable, candid and carefree, 'INTERLUDE' embodies flaws embraced as well as senses regained. After all, pianos come with a key. “That’s why,” she concludes, “'INTERLUDE' has so much life. It's not only about numbness. It’s about what’s on the other side.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. Sunbeams
3. Numb
4. Hommikud
5. Liikumatult
6. Ma Langen
7. May Song
8. Lõpulau
9. Lastele
10. January Song
11. Stillness

Based in the North of England. Ancient Infinity Orchestra is a joyous large ensemble that has communal music-making at the heart of everything they do. And that includes the melodies that flow out of their new album 'It’s Always About Love' which blossom with uplifting improvised contributions that circle around bandleader Ozzy Moysey’s beautiful songs; generous sonic gifts of healing and repair.

The 15-member ensemble has a distinctive line-up: two double basses, harp, saxophones, clarinets, violin, viola, cello, oboe, flutes, mandolin, congas, piano, drum kit, with bells, shakers and other percussion instruments scattered on the floor of live sets and recording sessions, ready for members to use whenever the spirit takes them. This orchestration, and the overlap between membership and friendship, gives Ancient Infinity Orchestra a sound that is at once expansive and intimate, earthy, and cosmic, constantly shifting yet grounded in shared intention. The attention to intention and their inviting sonic world connects the music to artists ranging from Alabaster dePlume to Gondwana label boss Matthew Halsall and draws on inspiration from the revered elders of so-called Spiritual jazz: Art Ensemble of Chicago, Pharoah Saunders, Coltrane (Alice and John), and Don Cherry.

The deep roots of Ancient Infinity Orchestra can be traced back to Ozzy’s childhood. After attending a Buddhist primary school in Brighton, where kids were encouraged to take part in improvised performances during assembly, Ozzy grew up in rural Lincolnshire. By the age of 11 he was teaching himself guitar and percussion and playing in his grandma’s church. At 17 he joined Boston Youth Jazz Orchestra, and then attended Leeds College of Music to study composition. It was here that in 2017 a group of musicians agreed to join seven-hour rehearsals, twice a week, in the shared house that became Ancient Infinity Orchestra’s first HQ. Gradually, the Orchestra became a grounding force in the emerging jazz scene in Leeds.

Their debut, 'River of Light', was a vibrant celebration of togetherness recorded in three days and released on Gondwana in 2023. A Maida Vale session for Jamie Cullum’s BBC Radio 2 show brought them to a broader audience, as did bookings at North Sea Jazz Festival and We Out Here. Their music can be described as melody-driven improvised music, made by people who are deep into different types of traditional music, including folk, jazz and classical. “The tunes are a vessel,” Lead Ozzy Moysey says, “with everyone doing their thing. It exists so that my friends can be musically fulfilled.”

On top of the musicality, communality, and expression, 'It’s Always About Love' is also a study in simplicity, stripping away excess to uncover something pure, warm, and human. Highlights include ‘Chant for Don Cherry’, which he describes as a ‘campfire style’ thank you to Cherry himself and which features high-colour piano lines and gently propellant guitars. “His beautiful, organic music-making deeply affected me. He had a direct link to the magic and he left so much music for us.” ‘The Seeker’ features intricate arrangements where a chorus of voices swoop around the instrumentalists before dropping into an irresistible groove – one for those who loved Floating Points’ collaboration with Pharoah Saunders. Penultimate tune ‘Old Friends’ is a celebration of communality and connection, with players and singers allowing joy to permeate every aspect of the song, with collective whoops and impromptu applause kept from the original recording for us to revel in.

Ancient Infinity Orchestra is a gathering of voices, traditions, and energies converging into something timeless. Their music is a journey inward and outward, always reaching toward the universal.

The final word, though, goes to Ozzy. “There is a need for love and connectedness. You pour the love you have into the music and people listening can feel it”

TRACK LISTING

1. All I Can Say Of The Blossoms
2. Golden Meadow
3. Chant For Don Cherry
4. Joy Of A Natural World
5. Nilgoon
6. The Seeker
7. Old Friends
8. At Yoshino Mountain

Saxophonist, flautist and producer Chip Wickham casts a formidable shadow across the worldwide jazz landscape. Originally from Brighton, but now dividing his time between the UK, Spain and the Middle-East, he has made a name for himself with a series of beautifully crafted solo albums that draw equally on the hard swinging spiritual jazz of Roland Kirk, Yusef Lateef and Sahih Shihab, alongside the music of British jazz legends such as Tubby Hayes and Harold McNair and the more contemporary sounds of Jazzanova, Kyoto Jazz Massive and Robert Glasper. His close working relationship with Matthew Halsall’s Gondwana Records has spanned close to two decades (since he played on Halsall’s 2008 debut ‘Sending My Love’) and has since released three standout releases on the label (the ‘Cloud 10’ LP, and the ‘Astral Travelling’ and ‘Love & Life’ EP’s). Once again returning to the heralded label, he now prepares to release his elegant fifth studio album ‘The Eternal Now’. Further exploring his penchant for hard-hitting soulful, spiritual jazz and modal hard-bop, it denotes an exciting new chapter in his much- revered discography, once which sees his unbridled artist flourish into new and fruitful pastures.

A beautifully crafted record, ‘The Eternal Now’ is a heartfelt ode to submitting oneself to the practice of creating art, and the freedom that’s derived from letting go. Speaking on his journey to bringing it into the world, Chip explains “'The Eternal Now' is a creative place where time has no purpose. A place where the past and the future don’t exist. A place where an artist can create something that is timeless and relevant. Writing this album has been a deliberate journey of exploration and drive into the furthest reaches of creativity. An attempt to push myself artistically into new spaces using new colours and new energy”. On how he approached this record in comparison to his previous offerings, he divulges ‘I had to be playful and take risks. It has taken longer than any other album to make and it has been so worth it. I have been drifting and taking the road less travelled as well as not looking back. I’ve enjoyed being on the outside and the freedom it has brought me to create something new and fresh and relevant and timeless.’

Opening with the rolling hand percussion and floating notes of ‘Drifting’, the record quickly finds its footing, and dives headfirst into a propulsive and splashy rhythm section. A tasteful drum fill ushers in the commencement of second single ‘Nara Black’, which features the sultry vocals of Peach, whose dreamlike lyrics intertwine with uplifting flute motifs and sweeping strings. The album’s title track is up next, channeling curious and alluring melodies through a swirling portal of sound. ‘Lost Souls’ is a restful and nourishing track, giving time for the spirit to breathe amidst rich woodwinds and soulful shakers. On ‘No Turning Back’ pensive atmospheres ease into torrents of melody, twisting like the banks of a great river. ‘The road less travelled’ sees wandering keys traverse vast undulating expanses of sound, before ‘Falling Deep’’s winding motifs beckon the listener to venture deeper within. Penultimate track ‘Ikigai’ (translating to ‘a reason for being’) harnesses a potent moment of beauty, as spectral flute dances amongst lush strings before the flourishes of ‘Outside’ bring the album to a poignant close.

A captivating and emotive listen, ‘The Eternal Now’ sees Chip at the top of his game, creating an other-worldly dreamscape with enchanting sound. He says ‘This album is about giving lost souls a home, falling deep in love with the spiritual joy of music and making something that will last like a Japanese tattoo made with Nara Black ink. Giving me balance and flow in life, my Ikigai.’

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Clattering, staggered percussion and soaring woodwind come together in a beautiful show of skill from one our favourite jazzers for UK heavyweights, Gondwana. Wonderfully rich, lysergic keys and treble-heavy rhodes stabs echo throughout, intensely skilled percussionists and silky smooth vocals. Honestly, what else could you want.

TRACK LISTING

1. Drifting
2. Nara Black
3. The Eternal Now
4. Lost Souls
5. No Turning Back
6. The Road Less Travelled
7. Falling Deep
8. Ikigai
9. Outside

Ambre Ciel is a composer, violinist, pianist and singer who hails from Montreal, Canada and is a purveyor of dreamy, expansive, spacious pop music that draws influence from the contemporary classical influenced artists such as Agnes Obel, Patrick Watson, Sufjan Stevens and Thom Yorke. As well as the impressionist world of Debussy and American minimalists such as Phillip Glass and Steve Reich and in addition mentions ‘music that breathes’ from such artists as Gyða Valtýsdóttir, JFDR, or the collaborative work of Jónsi and Alex Somers.

Ambre who sings in both her native French and English hails from a family of singers and artists, “I started my journey learning violin at six and began experimenting with pedal effects and looping melodies later on”. University followed with a focus on composition and recording. “That’s when I started exploring composing and songwriting more deeply—both the world of sounds in itself and songs built mostly with layers of violin and voice. It was also during this time that I returned to my ‘first’ instrument, the piano, which opened more harmonic possibilities.”

For Ambre, her debut album still, there is the sea, represents a beginning, a first and she says imperfect attempt to create this other world that was living in her mind. She has crafted a beautifully refined ‘pop album’ making a lot of space for strings arrangements and other acoustic instruments, as well as her own beautiful voice. “On a personal level, I was searching for silence. I had just finally moved to a quiet apartment in Montreal and for the first time, I had all the time and space to hear silence and create, being solitary and living in the intangible world of possibilities”.

The enigmatic title of the album, ‘still, there is the sea’, came to Ambre when she realised that water was a subconscious but recurring theme throughout the album in terms of melodies and lyrics: ‘eau miroir’ refers to how the water can be some kind of mirror, ‘cycle’ embodies a cyclical, perpetual movement, ‘atlantis’ refers to this inward looking quest and distancing from the world, ‘sometimes’ has sounds from rain and storm, and refers to a storm happening inside someone’s thoughts. The water element can be very thin, fragile, but it’s always in movement and can resemble a larger and massive current, expansive, and I wanted to move between instrumental and song with this fluidity and was interested in finding ways to create something that could still feel cohesive. It also reflects this entire season of solitude and silence, how to me creating music represents this access to an underworld closer to the realm of dreams, that can be deep, surreal, rich and very grounding too”.

While ‘still, there is the sea’ is very much Ambre’s own personal statement and artistic vision as a composer, arranger and producer, Pietro Amato, a member of Bell Orchestre and The Luyas and a french horn player for Patrick Watson and Arcade Fire, offered support and experience (and an extra pair of ears) as co-producer and Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy, Arcade Fire) gave assistance with the orchestral arrangements Ambre wrote for the FAMES Skopje Studio Orchestra conducted by Sasho Tatarchevski. And deeply sensitive musicians such as percussionist Stefan Schneider (Bell Orchestre, The Luyas), clarinettist Guillaume Bourque and a string trio made of Marilou Lepage, Sebastian Gonzalez Mora and Julien Siino all brought their unique voices to the record.

This then is ‘still, there is the sea’ the debut album from Canadian composer and singer Ambre Ciel, at once dreamy, spacious, self-contained, fragile, mysterious but open and honest and we’re delighted to share this gift with the world and invite you to join this wonderful artist on the first steps of her artistic journey.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Evocative, folky modern classical that falls comfortably in neither camps but slowly moves between worlds, bringing with it a draft of Ciel's haunting, beautifully pitched vocal. Wonderfully warm in parts, but painted with the mysterious chill of winter. A superbly transformative, gloriously enjoyable listen.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Sun, The Sky
2. Eau Miroir
3. Cycle
4. Atlantis
5. Dream / Mirage
6. Sometimes
7. Pièce No.8
8. Fragment Of

“Phi-Psonics is a spiritual exploration of being together and connecting,” says acoustic bassist Seth Ford-Young of the immersive project he initiated in East Los Angeles in 2016. “From the beginning, I wanted to explore a contemplative sound, to create music that can be useful to listen to when you’re in a place of being more meditative, and maybe needing a break from the cacophony of the world.”

For his third long-player under the Phi-Psonics banner, Ford-Young marshalled a series of live recordings at the Healing Force Of The Universe record store in Pasadena, sculpting fourteen tracks, largely composed in the moment with a fluctuating cast of players, which wonderfully transmit his ideals of community and inner peace.

Called ‘Expanding To One’, it features exquisitely calming yet searching pieces like ‘There’s Still Hope’, where Seth’s softly undulating bassline underpins beatific explorations from core Phi-Psonics members, Sylvain Carton and Randal Fisher (both on saxophone), and Josh Collazo (drums), alongside guests Zach Tenorio (Wurlitzer piano) and Mathias Künzli (percussion). Equally sublime, ‘Healing Time’ ripples like a mountain stream, with Ford-Young, Carton, Fisher and Tenorio joined by Minta Spencer (harp), Dylan Day (guitar) and, on drums/percussion, Jay Bellerose, a revered LA stickman most recently under the spotlight in Jeff Parker ETA IVtet.

These exquisite recordings were captured at six fortnightly ticketed sessions at Healing Force in February-April 2024, with sixty-odd fans and locals sitting in rapt attention as the players improvised together. For Seth, the venture was partially a reaction to the brutality of COVID lockdown.

“That experience of being isolated really brought into focus how important being together is,” he says. “That’s really what we have. We have all these other ways of connecting, like via the internet, but actually being together in person, there’s no substitute for it. So, I was like, ‘Alright, I want to do something that brings people together, and builds communities.’”

As much a performance space as a record store, the room at Healing Force Of The Universe (named after the Albert Ayler album from 1970) allowed for studio-quality recording of rare warmth and definition, and Ford-Young wisely chose to present the material as a studio album, benefitting from the energy of the moment shared by all those in attendance across those six sessions, but editing out the crowd noise to let the music stand timelessly – the best of both worlds.

As the world opened up again, and social boundaries became less distanced once more, Seth very consciously took his creativity back towards the spontaneous, and opened up Phi-Psonics to broaden his community, and to improvise music collectively without too much prescribed in advance.

“I thought, ‘Let’s involve some more musicians, different instruments, people that I've played with on other things… Some of them had even sat in with the band at different gigs and stuff, so let's bring them in and really involve them in the recording, and just expand things.’ That's why I called the album ‘Expanding to One’.”

“I feel like the whole record is a document of a time and a place,” he goes on by way of summary. “There's a music community in Los Angeles right now which is doing special things, and that's part of why I chose the various people, because they’re doing beautiful work, and are of a similar mind. So, it’s all about capturing that moment”.

The audiences on each night, he says, were “an intentional listening crowd”, seated on beanbags, eyes closed, drifting with the gentle tides of the music. Experiencing ‘Expanding To One’ in the comfort of their own home, listeners can now share in that moment, and immerse themselves in the gentle beauty of Phi-Psonics musical world.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Deeply restorative droplets, chimes and syncopated tuned percussion below swimming woodwind and jazzy trills break into loungey staggered rhythm and slow grooves.

TRACK LISTING

1. Prelude: Expansion
2. There's Still Hope
3. Healing Time
4. Many Paths
5. Sunrise
6. Love Theme From Your Life
7. We're All One
8. Nature Signs
9. Discovery
10. It Finds A Way
11. Sounds Of The Universe
12. Before The Pyramids
13. New Pyramid
14. Mysteries Of The Dark

Inspired by the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains north-west of Madrid, his home since August 2022, Milo Fitzpatrick presents 'Sierra Tracks' the new album from his expansive, cinematic, chamber-jazz project Vega Trails.

Having cut 2022’s beautifully resonant debut album ‘Tremors in the Static’ as a duo, alongside saxophonist Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands and Sunda Arc), Milo now substantially expands upon that blueprint with his follow-up, ‘Sierra Tracks’, which, as the title suggests,was conceived at his new home in central Spain and adds piano, vibraphone and strings to the mix. The beautiful Spanish countryside offered inspiration too.

However while 'Sierra Tracks' features an expanded line-up including pianist Taz Modi (a colleague alongside Milo in Portico Quartet’s live band) providing “some rhythmic movement behind us, to free up the bass and sax from being so busy” and vibraphone specialist Harriet Riley, multi-reedist Jordan Smart remains a key voice in Vega Trails. “Jordan has a really direct and exciting way that he connects with his instrument, and the audience,” Milo reflects. “He's into jazz, but also folk of many traditions, and he can play different wind instruments – soprano and tenor sax, bass clarinet, the dadouk, and the Ney flute from Turkey and Armenia. Knowing his phrasing, Iwrote very much with him in mind.”

Milo also re-engaged with the cello, an instrument he hadn’t played since school days, adding an extra dimension to his own sound,but it was a conversation with Gondwana Records label mate, Hania Rania, about recording orchestral arrangements that helped bring 'Sierra Tracks' fully into focus.

A shaping influence on Milo’s vision for the record was David Toop’s seminal book, ‘Oceans of Sound’, and he perceived each track asan aural story. “I wanted to make sounds that felt equal to where I’ve been roaming in the mountains and forests out here, that reflect the incredible scale of the place. You get these huge views and skylines, which it’s hard to find words for.” The curious sounds thatopen the album, at the beginning of ‘Largo’, are an approximation, by Milo on cello, of a harmonic series that is often heard in the Sierra region: when the local knife-sharpeners travel around the neighbouring villages, plying their trade, they play a similar riff on panpipes to proclaim their arrival. “You get all these announcements, from people collecting scrap iron and steel, or delivering fruit and bread, and I thought that kind of thing would make a good opening for the record.” With that colourful reference as an overture, ‘Sierra Tracks’ shapes up as a love letter to the rocky landscape within which its creator now resides. It is also, he says, about his mental-health journey out of the pandemic years, which have been so testing for us all.

“I had been thinking about Time, and how history repeats itself, but also how one can become trapped in thoughts, especially on difficult personal subjects, and how these become cyclical in our minds. But I also wanted to talk about how walking or running canhelp release oneself from these cycles and find clarity and order from tangled emotional thinking patterns. It’s like discovering a newpath from your usual running route, and how that can change your perspective and help find a type of peace and acceptance.”

Through the album there are motifs and melodies that repeat from one tune to another, which of course resemble cyclical thoughts and memories.

“So, to me,” Milo concludes, “this record is an exploration of the relationship between the complex, tangled world of one’s mentalprocesses and how moving through the tangible world, especially through nature, can help find definition and clarity.”

As such, ‘Sierra Tracks’ really is medicine for the mind, body and soul.

TRACK LISTING

1. Largo
2. Els
3. Murmuration
4. Dream House
5. Clarifantasia
6. Reverie
7. Murmur
8. Old Friend; The Sea
9. When This Is Over
10. Sleepwalk Toky

Halsall who has been hailed as one of the leading figures of the UK jazz renaissance has never seen himself as part of any one sound or scene: he builds his own sonic universe instead. An Ever Changing View finds him at his most experimental yet, once again expanding his sound and production techniques to create his unique brand of deeply meditative music.

During the album's creation, he was staying in both a beautiful architect’s house with breath-taking sea views and a striking modernist house, where he composed what he saw “like a landscape painting”. In these new environments, Halsall wanted to capture “the feeling of openness and escapism” and to approach making music again from scratch. “I hit the reset button and wanted to have complete musical freedom,” he says. “It was a real exploration of sound.”

It was hearing jazz on the dancefloor as a teenager that first opened up new possibilities in Halsall’s mind and his music has long drawn on his love for the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders and contemporary electronica from the likes of Warp Records and Ninja Tune. An Ever Changing View melds those forms in a way that feels heady and, at times, even otherworldly. One of the album’s starting points was Halsall’s ever-expanding box of percussion, from congas and kalimba to various clusters of seeds, bells and chimes, which he sampled and looped to use as a foundation for the songs – a first for him and his band. Elevating, charming, totally modern jazz tracks jostle with deft warm magic realism; and laid back grooves with hand percussion, deep bass and the gorgeous glisten of the Fender Rhodes meet hip-hop beats. Halsall himself sparkles, illuminating his beautiful tapestries of sound with lithe, glistening elegiac trumpet.

An Ever Changing View comes in a package as striking as the music, with handmade fonts designed by Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic and the specially commissioned tapestry by artist Sara Kelly is a stunning and harmonious complement to the record's sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tracing Nature
2. Water Street
3. An Ever Changing View
4. Calder Shapes
5. Mountains, Trees And Seas
6. Field Of Vision
7. Jewels
8. Sunlight Reflection
9. Natural Movement
10. Triangles In The Sky

This album is about memories. About a feeling of nostalgia and longing, both beautifully comforting and devastating. It is an attempt to transform an unspoken sensation of the past to a solid object serving the future, an urge to remember and hold onto moments that we can't keep forever. On the 6th of October 2023, the release date of her third solo album ‘Ghosts’, Hania performed a very special album release concert with a string ensemble in a uniquely special location - Witold Lutosławski's Concert Studio at the Polish Radio in Warsaw. Over the years, the spaces of Polish Radio have become an important part of Hania’s life - both privately and professionally.

Visiting for the first time as a student of Chopin University of Music and returning to make her first recordings in late 2018, just before the release of the debut album ‘Esja’. It was also in these studios that Hania recorded her Live from Studio 2 video and EP. But whereas that featured a much-loved solo performance, for this very special recording from the larger Studio 1, Hania is joined by her regular collaborator Ziemowit Klimek on double bass and moog as well as a luxurious eight-piece string ensemble featuring Karolina Gutowska violin Jan Pietkiewicz violin Marta Piórkowska violin, Paweł Czarny viola, Tomasz Rosiński viola, Dobrawa Czocher cello, Marianna Sikorska cello, Mateusz Błaszczak cello.

Beautifully mixed by Greg Freeman in Berlin the music takes on a new life as Hania’s ethereal vocals, beautiful playing and exhilarating compositions are brought fully to life by the beautiful sweeping strings of the expanded ensemble. The concert is included here in its entirety with the addition of one beautiful extra performance – the title track ‘Nostalgia’ a beautiful interpretation of a much-loved piece from the Ghosts album taken from her concert at the Roundhouse in London.

TRACK LISTING

A1. 24.03
A2. Thin Line
A3. Dancing With Ghosts

B1. The Boat
B2. It Comes In Waves

C1. Don't Break My Heart
C2. Komeda

D1. Utrata
B2. Nostalgia 

Art In The Age Of Automation finds the band building on the sound world they first explored with their eponymous 2012 release Portico Quartet, mixing the cinematic minimalism, that first made their name, with electronic and ambient textures alongside a welcome return for Jack’s ethereal saxophone and Duncan’s unique mixture of live and electronic drums as well of course as the band’s signature sound, the chiming other worldy tones of the hang drum. It’s hard music to define, as Jack acknowledges. “Our sound falls between many genres, jazz, electronic music even minimalism in places, but naturally it’s an amalgamation of everything we’ve listened to”. And as you would expect from a band that have evolved with each recording, this is no barren retread of the past, instead it represents another step forward sonically and musically in the band’s ongoing evolution.

TRACK LISTING

1. Endless
2. Objects To Place In A Tomb
3. Rushing
4. Art In The Age Of Automation
5. S/20005S
6. A Luminous Beam
7. Beyond Dialogue
8. RGB
9. Current History
10. Mercury Eyes
11. Lines Glow

Monument is one of Portico Quartet’s most accessible, direct records to date. If Terrain addressed the darker side of how Duncan Bellamy and Jack Wyllie made sense of the pandemic, then Monument resonates as an ode to better times. If not quite a dance record, it nonetheless pulses with an energy, radiance and a scalpel sharp focus. Jack Wyllie explains: “It’s possibly our most direct album to date. It’s melodic, structured and there’s an economy to it that is very efficient. There’s not much searching or wastage within the music itself, it is all finalised ideas, precisely sculpted and presented as a polished artefact.” Bellamy expands “Monument sits somewhere between our albums Portico Quartet and Art in the Age of Automation. It has perhaps a more overtly electronic edge to its sound – there are more synthesisers and electronic elements than we have used before and the music is often streamlined and rhythmic”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Opening
2. Impressions
3. Ultraviolet
4. Ever Present
5. Gateway
6. Monument
7. A.O.E
8. Warm Data
9. Portal
10. On The Light

The now iconic ‘Live from Studio S2’ memorizing performance gets a sought after limited BioVinyl Edition and features all four tracks from the session. First premiered on the Gondwana Records YouTube channel on Sunday March 28th 2021, it has since become a global success reaching a near 7 million views and counting and has earned Rani many more devoted fans.

"At the beginning of February 2021, I was invited by the Berlinale Film Festival to record a live set as a part of the EFM sessions which became the motivation to document this live performance.

I thought that bringing back my piano and equipment to the hall where I first recorded my live session videos for my debut album 'Esja' would be a nice idea and the right cinematic choice. This time, I wanted to use not only an upright piano, but also a grand piano and some other keyboards including a Prophet 08 synthesizer and a Roland stage piano.

Studio S2 is one of the recording studios inside the Polish Radio building in Warsaw and used primarily for recording classical and film music. The hall is fully covered with light wood, which reminds me of other Radio Studios all around the world – like Funkhaus in Berlin. It felt very special to be in the hall again where we recorded the music video for "Glass", one of my most liked videos. There is a kind of intimacy when playing the little piano in this huge and also very high venue.

I decided to rearrange some of my favourite songs, which I have been performing live for years. The set starts with 'Hawaii Oslo', which is built on a piano loop, followed by 'Glass' with a new intro and outro and closing with 'Leaving' and 'Buka' – this time accompanied with new layers which change the mood and rhythmic pattern of both songs".

TRACK LISTING

A1. Hawaii Oslo
A2. Glass
B1. Leaving
B2. Buka

Ghosts is the sound of an ever-evolving artist and, just as the album’s title suggests she passes repeatedly and gracefully between musical worlds: as composer, singer, songwriter, and producer. This album builds on Rani’s earlier successes Esja and Home with an expanded yet still minimal setup of piano, keyboards, synths (most importantly her Prophet) and features more of her mysterious, bewitching voice. Its spirit is warm, beckoning one into an ambitious double album that unfolds at an exquisite pace, informed by her revelatory, exploratory live performances.

Ghosts is also an album of collaborations as Rani is joined by Patrick Watson, who breathes unearthly life into the ethereal ‘Dancing with Ghosts’. ‘Whispering House’is written and recorded with her friend, Ólafur Arnalds and casts a peaceful, ineluctable spell; and Portico Quartet’s Duncan Bellamy contributes vital loops to ‘Don’t Break My Heart’ and ‘Thin Line’.

Rani’s lyrics are partially inspired by a two-month residency in a small studio in Switzerland’s mountains, where Rani was working on the soundtrack On Giacometti for a documentary about the renowned Swiss artist. “Where I stayed was once an old sanatorium in an area which used to be very popular, but now there are huge abandoned hotels where the locals say ghosts live. I mean, it's kind of a local belief system – these ghosts even have names! – but once you're deep into nature or some abandoned place, your imagination starts working on a different level.”

“The edge of life and death,” Rani summarises, “and what actually happens in between: this was what really interested me. Even singing the word ‘death’ was quite a shock. It’s such a weird word to say out loud, and people are afraid of it, which I found extremely interesting. Most of the songs probably still talk about love and things like that, but Ghosts is more me thinking about having to face some kind of end.”

If Rani’s debut Esja was about exploiting her principal instrument, and Home saw her take steps towards a fuller expression of her art, Ghosts is where she unites her varied interests on what might even be considered her first ‘real’ album. Drawing upon a fondness for diverse artists like Enya, The Smile, James Blake and Pink Floyd – not to mention her admiration for her guests – and evoking Stina Nordenstam’s delicacy, Keith Jarrett’s flair, Kate Bush’s artistry and Pink Floyd’s probing inclinations, it combines a lifetime’s musical experience in one miraculous, cosmic world. Say hello, then, to something quite unlike anything you’ve ever heard. It’s the sound of HANIA RANI.

For fans of Nils Frahm, Melanie de Basio, Björk, Kate Bush, Ólafur Arnalds and Portico Quartet

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Hania Rani's music has up until this point been very much in the ambient / modern classical vein, with beautiful instrumental textures and Rani's voice perfectly merging together into a blissful bath. It's on 'Ghosts' however that we really hear how dynamic and inventive her sound is, with synthesised textures and beautifully produced turns.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Oltre Terra
A2. Hello
A3. Don’t Break My Heart Feat. Duncan Bellamy
A4. 24.03
B1. Dancing With Ghosts Feat. Patrick Watson
B2. A Day In Never
B3. Whispering House Feat. Olafur Arnalds
C1. The Boat
C2. Moans
C3. Thin Line Feat. Duncan Bellamy
D1. Komeda
D2. Utrata
D3. Nostalgia

Manchester based trumpeter, composer, arranger and band-leader Matthew Halsall is one of the rising stars of the UK jazz scene. His unique sound was brilliantly described as "Rain-streaked spiritual jazz from Manchester" by the Independent On Sunday and previous albums have found Halsall exploring the modal jazz of John and Alice Coltrane or paying heartfelt tribute to the hard bop of the late 50s and early 60s, but on 'Fletcher Moss Park' he offers his most personal statement yet.

Written and recorded over the last couple of years, 'Fletcher Moss Park' is inspired by one of Manchester's most beautiful places. A rambling, multi-tiered park of walkways and dreamy gardens that offers the contemplative Halsall a place of peace and respite from the city, a meditative space to think and write in. The stillness and beauty of the surroundings have steeped into his beautiful compositions for this album. Elegant and sincere, Halsall's compositions draw on his love of spiritual jazz, modern dance music and even his work with the award-winning Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band earlier this year. Halsall who has recently been exploring his music in a stripped-back, electronica influenced, trio (featuring Taz Modi and Luke Flowers who also appear here) as well as the 12 piece Gondwana Orchestra has always favoured an earthy honestly and direct communication over tricksy arrangements and it is this deceptively simple openness that gives his music such a unique flavour as the young composer and producer seeks to express his feelings and thoughts with his music.

'Fletcher Moss Park' opens with three tracks featuring saxophonist Nat Birchall, harpist Rachael Gladwin and pianist Adam Fairhall alongside bassist Gavin Barras and drummer Gaz Hughes all long running members of Halsall's sextet. The beautiful 'Cherry Blossom' opens with a nod to Alice Coltrane before exploring it's own contemplative trajectory, the title track features a gorgeous opening from harpist Gladwin and one of Halsall's trademark slow but foot tappingly catchy grooves, Mary Emma Louise is an elegant tribute to someone special and features some beautifully wistful playing from the composer. 'Sailing Out To Sea' and 'Wee Lan' offer a change in mood, two short interludes for violin (Holly Simpson and Davinder Singh), cello (Adrianne Wininsky) and double bass (Barras), Halsall chose not to play here feeling that the brief musical sketches caught his intentions perfectly. Finally the album closes with the two most recent compositions, the reposeful 'Sun In September' which features fine work from flautist Lisa Mallett, alongside pianist Taz Modi and drummer Luke Flowers and the uplifting 'Finding My Way', which with its compelling groove and fine drumming from Flowers (best known for his work with Cinematic Orchestra) offers a nod towards Halsall's love of contemporary electronic music as well as a hint of future projects. But as with the writing here you can be sure that wherever Halsall's muse takes him his music will remain heartfelt and life affirming in its elegant directness as he explores his own unique musical terrain that stretches from the bucolic stillness of 'Fletcher Moss Park' to a world far beyond!

TRACK LISTING

1. Cherry Blossom
2. Fletcher Moss Park
3. Mary Emma Louise
4. Sailing Out To Sea
5. Wee Lan (Little Orchid)
6. The Sun In September
7. Finding My Way

Composer, trumpeter, producer, DJ and founder of Gondwana Records, Matthew Halsall has always worn many hats. But at the heart of everything that he does Halsall is first and foremost an artist and a musician. A trumpeter whose unflashy, soulful playing radiates a thoughtful beauty and a composer and band-leader who has created his own rich sound world. A sound that draws on the heritage of British jazz, the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, as well as world music and electronica influences, and even modern art and architecture, to create something uniquely his own. A music that is rooted in Northern England but draws on global inspirations.

Salute to the Sun is his first album as a leader since Into Forever (2015) and marks the debut of his new band. A hand-picked ensemble featuring some of Manchester’s finest young musicians: Matt Cliffe flute & saxophone, Maddie Herbert harp, Liviu Gheorghe piano, Alan Taylor drums and Jack McCarthy percussion as well as long-time Halsall collaborator, bassist, Gavin Barras who has been at the heart of Halsall’s bands for over a decade. For Matthew it was important to have a band based locally and able, pre-Covid, to meet and play each week, and who also performed a sold-out monthly basement session at Yes in Manchester. The album draws energy from these sessions and inspiration from themes and ideas that have inspired Halsall through the years (on albums such as Oneness, Fletcher Moss Park and When the World Was One) ideas of ecology, the environment and harmony with nature.

“I feel Salute to the Sun is a positive earthy album. I wanted to create something playful but also quite primitive, earthy and organic that connected to the sounds in nature. I was listening to lush ambient field recordings of tropical environments such as jungles and rainforests and found myself drawn to percussive atmospheric sounds which replicated what I was hearing (bells / shakers / chimes / rain sticks) and I started to experiment with more wooden percussive instruments such as kalimba and marimba”.

TRACK LISTING

Harmony With Nature
Joyful Spirits Of The Universe
Canopy & Stars
Mindfulness Meditations
Tropical Landscapes
Salute To The Sun
The Energy Of Life

Mercury Prize-nominated Portico Quartet have always been an impossible band to pin down. Sending out echoes of jazz, electronica, ambient music and minimalism, the group created their own singular, cinematic sound over the course of three studio albums, from their 2007 breakthrough 'Knee-Deep in the North Sea', and 2010 John Leckie produced 'Isla', to the self titled record 'Portico Quartet' in 2012. Now rebooted as Portico Quartet after a brief spell as the three-piece Portico, the group's fourth album is on shop favourite, Matthew Halsall's, Gondwana records. Heralding a return to their mesmeric signature sound but also featuring fresh new sonic departures, the band's comeback was so eagerly anticipated that their four-night run at London's Archspace in June, sold out in less than an hour.

STAFF COMMENTS

David says: Released on shop favourite, Matthew Halsall’s Gondwana label, Portico Quartet’s fourth album ‘Art In The Age Of Automation’ is a mesmeric, neo classical masterpiece. Sometimes the neo classical tag can be more of an insult than a compliment, bringing to mind Debenhams at dinner time piano, or the soundtrack to a documentary about the retreat from Stalingrad. Portico Quartet however, sidestep these comparisons by looking towards their contemporaries, visionaries like Floating Points and the more electronic moments of Radiohead, are as much of an influence as classic ambient artists such as Steve Reich and Brian Eno. ‘Art In The Age Of Automation’ is a genuinely beautiful listening experience. A languid journey through the full spectrum of sound, bookended by the rise and fall of the sun, melodies reflecting in its rays as the world, for these brief moments at least, let’s us drift away together in some kind of hard won harmony.

TRACK LISTING

Endless
Objects To Place In A Tomb
Rushing
Art In The Age Of Automation
S/2000S5
A Luminous Beam
Beyond Dialogue
RGB
Current History
Mercury Eyes
Lines Glow 

Over the course of five albums, Manchester based trumpeter, composer, arranger and band-leader Matthew Halsall has carved out a niche for himself on the UK music scene as one of it's brightest talents. His languid, soulful music has won friends from Jamie Cullum and Gilles Peterson to Jazz FM and Mojo as well as an ever-growing international following. His new album 'Into Forever', puts the spotlight on Halsall the composer, arranger and producer. Halsall draws on a diverse range of influences from Alice Coltrane, Dorothy Ashby, Phil Cohran and Leon Thomas to the more contemporary sounds of The Cinematic Orchestra, Max Richter and Nils Frahm to deliver his most complete recording to date. 'Into Forever' features renowned Manchester based soul poet Josephine Oniyama and rising star vocalist Bryony Jarman-Pinto (Werkha) as well as regular collaborators, flautist Lisa Mallett, harpist Rachael Gladwin, koto player Keiko Kitamura, pianist Taz Modi, bassist Gavin Barras and drummer Luke Flowers (The Cinematic Orchestra) and two percussionists Sam Bell and Chris Cruiks. The result is arguably Halsall's finest record, asublime melding of stripped back soulful funk and deep, minimalist, spiritual jazz, that will take you on a journey deep into forever!

Over the course of four albums, Manchester based trumpeter, composer, arranger and band-leader Matthew Halsall has carved out a niche for himself on the UK music scene as one of its brightest talents. His languid, soulful music has won friends from Jamie Cullum and Gilles Peterson to Jazz FM and Mojo as well as an ever-growing international following. His label Gondwana Records is home to GoGo Penguin and his own albums have found Halsall exploring the modal jazz of John and Alice Coltrane, paying tribute to the hard bop of the late '50s and early '60s or most recently on 'Fletcher Moss Park' drawing on Eastern influences in his most personal statement yet. His latest album 'When The World Was One' is something of a companion piece to 'Fletcher Moss Park' (much of the music was written at the same time) but draws more explicitly on Halsall's love of spiritual jazz and Eastern music as well as his own studies in meditation and travels in Japan. Beautifully recorded at Hasall's favourite studio, 80 Hertz in Manchester, and engineered by Brendan Williams and George Atkins it features the recording debut of Halsall's large ensemble, The Gondwana Orchestra, which utilises the exotic flavours of harp, koto and bansuri flute and Eastern scales to create a global palate for Halsall's life-affirming sounds.

The Gondwana Orchestra features long time collaborators Nat Birchall, saxophone, Gavin Barras, bass and Rachael Gladwin, harp as well as Taz Modi on piano. Modi who also plays with Halsall in their more electronic trio shares his passion for spiritual jazz and plays the music with real feeling while the role of the harp here is to bring a touch of 'magical reality' a floating dreaminess that is a vital part of Halsall's elegiac and beautiful music. The drummer Luke Flowers is perhaps best known as part of Cinematic Orchestra, and Halsall describes him as 'one of the best drummers in the world' and hails him for 'playing the music exactly as I heard it in my head', Keiko Kitamura is a Japanese Koto player who is becoming an increasingly important part of the Gondwana Orchestra, her role is similar to Gladwin's in that the koto helps free up the music while also bringing a real sound of the East. Finally, flautist Lisa Mallett brings a love of Indian music to the orchestra, much travelled on the continent she brings all of her knowledge and experience to play offering a unique texture to Halsall's dreamy melodies.

TRACK LISTING

1. When The World Was One
2. A Far Away Place
3. Falling Water
4. Patterns
5. Kiyomizu-Dera
6. Sagano Bamboo Forest
7. Tribute To Alice Coltrane