‘Laini Tani’ conveys a heady, exhilarating rush of excess, evoking a sultry haze of balmy nights that stretch effortlessly into dawn while clubs continue unphased. Each track serves as a vignette, capturing fleeting yet vivid moments of introspection, defiance, or unrestrained euphoria. Through intricate wordplay, layered metaphors, and personal symbols, El Shazly crafts an aural and lyrical tapestry vibrant with meaning, where every note and phrase hints at a more intimate narrative. The album is one of contrasts - between indulgence and contemplation, spontaneity and observation - inviting the listener to lose themselves in its enchanting rhythms while deciphering the deeper truths woven into its fabric.

The soundscape of the album is a rich balance that forges a dynamic interplay between classical Egyptian improvisation, voice manipulation and electronic beats. Nadah teams up with 3Phaz as co-producer, and her long-term collaborator, Sarah Pagé on harp and electronics. It captures not only the chaos and beauty of urban life but also the private battles and triumphs within it that define the human experience. Together, the tracks create a compelling portrait of an artist unafraid to embrace vulnerability and honour the power of music as a salve for the soul, as well as one immersed in a creative community that encourages this.

TRACK LISTING

1. Elnadaha
2. Kaabi Aali
3. Banit
4. Eid
5. Enti Fi Neama
6. Dafaa Robaai
7. Labkha
8. Laini Tani
9. Ghorzetein

Brighton-based Australian vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Penelope Trappes releases her new full-length album ‘A Requiem’. ‘A Requiem’ collects ten haunting, ambient soundscapes - incantations of dreams and nightmares, of death and grief, as well as power and autonomy. Carnal, transcendent cello drones are used to exorcise historical and generational traumas in an evocative and macabre piece of gothic experimentalism.

“Trappes has centered herself in the narrative while solidifying a sound that was already spellbinding to begin with” Pitchfork

“A striking work of evolution and deconstruction… meticulous with fine detail, and trusting of the supernatural forces that elevate it.” The Wire

Seeking solitude for what she knew would be an intense and cathartic writing experience, Trappes travelled to Scotland and isolated completely. Amidst meditative and psychedelic states, she channeled demons and accessed parts of herself she’d long desired to cleanse. During candle-lit recording sessions she found herself drawn to cello, an instrument she has no formal training in, she explains, “I always felt an affinity toward the cello, I embraced it, held it, and became one with it as a way to accompany my voice. The nerve-like strings of the cello became external chords of my vocal folds… I scratched on them, leaned into them, and conjured all of the textures I could muster”.

‘A Requiem’ is a raw, spiritual journey. Astonishingly vulnerable, and a compelling examination of loss - the threat of it, the meaning of it, the coming to terms with it. Across an album of breathtaking compositions, we are asked to bear witness to a sacred personal experience like no other.

Despite formal vocal training in opera and jazz when she was younger, it wasn’t until after her daughter was born that Penelope began writing her own music. She says coming into music later has been eye opening, and she laments the fact that women past 30 are too often discarded by the music industry; “Creativity doesn’t go away when you get older, it flourishes, changes, grows like all of life,” she says, “it amazes me that this is still something for society to wrap their heads around.”

TRACK LISTING

Bandorai
Platinum
Second Spring
Sleep
Anchor Us To Seabed Floor
Red Dove
Caro
A Requiem
Torc
Thou Art Mortal

Following two revered albums, ‘Dissolve’ in 2017 and ‘Avalanche’ in 2019, London-based electronic songwriter and producer Tusks, aka Emily Underhill, has returned with her third. ‘Gold’ is released via One Little Independent.

“Hugely satisfying” - DIY

“A force to be reckoned with” - Wonderland

“Atmospheric and reflective” - The Line of Best Fit

Synth-heavy and fuelled by emotionally charged layers of heavenly vocal harmonies, the album is densely constructed, meticulously produced and cathartic. Across ten tracks of deeply resonant electronic pop, the soundscapes crafted here sway from the blissful, ambient and thought-provoking, to slow-building ragers. Through pressure and release, ‘Gold’ explores dynamics, nuances and emotions using an array of atmospheric and kinetic textures as well as Tusks’ singular, powerful voice.

Anyone familiar with her career to date will note that Tusks’ relationship with music as a means to communicate vulnerability is well documented. There’s a raw, exposed nature to her writing that feels authentic and intimate. She often describes the complications and subtleties of relationships in a way that’s reflective and relatable. ‘Gold’ maps various stages in the breakdown of a romance, but it also stops to consider the impact of isolation, individually and socially, as well as anxiety, mental health and the wider effects of austerity.

TRACK LISTING

Wake
Adore
Artificial Flame
Tainted Plates
The Way
Read The Room
Strangers
Gold
Body Ache
Cold Storm

London noise-rock quartet USA Nails have announced their upcoming album, ‘Feel Worse’.

‘Feel Worse’

TRACK LISTING

Cathartic Entertainment
Feel Worse
The Sun In The Sands
Pack Of Dogs
Networking Opportunity
Holiday Sea
On Computer Screen
Beautiful Eyes!
An Audience Of Love
I Love It When You Succeed

Like the water that runs like a current through ‘Snow From Yesterday’, the album is fluid, versatile, and powerful. Represented in all its forms, from glacial mountains, to rivers, and even the smallest drop into watercolour, the album is about journeys and the stages of life that may change you, but also links you to others, in other times and other places. A flowing, tangible energy connects each track to its subject matter, and each track to one another. What’s important on ‘Snow From Yesterday’ is how the highs are grounded in very real, personal moments. It can at once tackle mammoth climate issues, while conveying moments of incredible intimacy. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Modern People
2. Little Heritage
3. Polar Bear
4. Paintings On The Wall
5. Ode To Earth
6. Stay Afloat
7. Immersion
8. Slow-Mo Moving River
9. Oxygen
10. Docklands
11. Snow From Yesterday 

Kazakh-British artist Galya Bisengalieva returns with her second studio album for One Little Independent, ‘Polygon’.

Like Galya’s 2020 debut album, ‘Aralkum’, the composer, producer and musician returns to stories from her home country of Kazakhstan.

While ‘Aralkum’ was about the shrinking of the Aral Sea, ‘Polygon’ tells the tale of one of the darkest episodes in Kazakh history. Though it created more nuclear fallout than Chernobyl, the story of the Semipalatinsk Test Site located on the steppe in Northeast Kazakhstan (known as The Polygon) is little known internationally, even though it was the Soviet Union’s primary testing zone for nuclear weapons.

TRACK LISTING

Alash-Kala
Saryzhal
Polygon
Sary-Uzen
Chagan
Balapan
Degelen

Glasser, the elevated electronic project from Cameron Mesirow, releases her anticipated third album, ‘crux’, via One Little Independent Records.

‘crux’ takes Glasser’s entrancing blend of dreamy experimental pop and layered electronics to explore themes of personal identity, emotional vulnerability, and the human experience. The album maps journeys of self-discovery as she unpacks intimate experiences with a maturity and cathartic outlook. Specifically, the tracks on ‘crux’ discuss the death of an old friend, her meditations on the fragility of life and the delicacy of relationships in times of uncertainty.

More than anything it’s about the importance of creativity and writing while healing, and on an individual level, looking inward and the examination of one’s grief, anxiety, and insecurities. Musically it searches outward, it includes the use of traditional folk, Celtic to communicate her Scottish roots, and Eastern- European styles, all introduced to her lush, atmospheric production, intricate vocal harmonies, and complex rhythms.

“Soaring vocals with free-flowing, rhythm-obsessed eclecticism that make for a notably welcoming collection of atmospheric, electronics-brushed pop” - Pitchfork

“It’s Glasser’s sonic constructions which holds our interest first and foremost; a bolder and more up-front sound” - The Line of Best Fit

“Potent, sexually charged and teeming with life. Make no mistake, this isn’t sex as male-gaze-pandering titillation, packaged in clichéd, chart-friendly couplets, but sex from a singular female perspective: intimate, all-encompassing, ecstatic. This is pop for consenting adults: music for awake minds” - Dazed

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: An absolutely mindblowing selection of crisp, modern percussion, deep basses and dancefloor-adjacent choruses stretched and smudged into Glasser's own unique style. It's both triumphant and anthemic but full of moments of crystalline beauty and introspective restraint.

TRACK LISTING

A Guide
Vine
Easy
Knaeve
Mass Love
Thick Waltz
All Lovers
Clipt
Undrunk
Drift
Ophrys
Choir Prayer

Esteemed composer and pianist Henrik Lindstrand presents his new album ‘Klangland’, recorded in Berlin by engineer Francesco Donadello and conducted by The London Contemporary Orchestra’s Robert Ames.

Following the release of his lauded solo piano trilogy, Henrik Lindstrand felt the need to expand his vision, in doing so he embarked on his most challenging sonic journey to date in a bid to discover new instrumental narratives and ways to convey emotion through concentrated melody alone. It’s a hunt that has defined his musical career so far, and on ‘Klangland’, his fourth studio album, he took an exacting approach to the process, utilizing a stirring 16-piece string section.

TRACK LISTING

Jord
Gammafly
Tumlare
Tuvstarr
Leva
Post
CPH - ARN
Millimeter
Klangland
Cykel
Hvid

One Little Independent are proud to release the high-concept debut album from the brand-new collaboration between three of UK folk’s most unique and prestigious voices; Marry Waterson, Lisa Knapp and Nathaniel Mann.

‘Blackletter Garland’, by Hack-Poets Guild, boasts twelve fascinating interpretations and original compositions that tell intricate tales of birth, love, conflict and death, with all the imagination of the folklore from which they’re based.

Inspired by historic broadside ballads, the trio rejuvenate and reinvent these stories, bringing them vividly to life for a new generation. Following an invite to the Bodleian Library by Sound UK Arts, the disposable song sheets (that would’ve once sold for pence, and were the forerunners of modern news media) gave a rare insight into the past whilst striking a chord with themes still relevant today. Celebrated film composer and multi-instrumentalist Gerry Diver helped in their exploration as a producer, and in adding fresh ideas to these past texts.

Across the album, anecdotal, descriptive yarns are spun to a backdrop of atmospheric strings, rustic instrumentation and elegant vocal harmonies, used precisely to communicate the victims as easily as they do the villains. The result is a compelling and thoroughly enjoyable balance between the traditional and contemporary.

TRACK LISTING

Ten Tongues
Daring Highwayman
The Devil’s Cruelty
Laying The Ghost
Birds Of Harmony
Hemp & Flax
Something To Love Me
Meat For Worms
The Troubles Of This
World
Rare Receipts
Be Kind To Each Other
Cruel Mother

“Malin writes vivid songs with killer tunes and sings them with scary conviction… There is simply nothing more you can demand from a great rock record.” - The Times (★★★★★).

Released in 2003, Jesse Malin’s acclaimed debut ‘The Fine Art of Self Destruction’ “wasn’t named for drug or alcohol abuse,” says Malin. “It was more about a personal wreckage when I looked back on my life, from my parents’ divorce to failed relationships, broken up bands, dropping out of school, crashing cars, breaking things. It was more of a spiritual journey in some sense. This record is definitely one of my favorites.”

To celebrate the album’s 20th Anniversary, ‘The Fine Art of Self Destruction’ is reissued and paired with a bonus disc of alternative versions, reimagined and re-recorded with Malin’s longtime band.

The bonus album was produced by Derek Cruz and engineered by Geoff Sanoff, who worked on Jesse’s recent albums ‘Sunset Kids’ and ‘Sad and Beautiful World’.

TRACK LISTING

LP1
Queen Of The Underworld
TKO
Wendy
Downliner
Brooklyn
The Fine Art Of Self Destruction
Riding On The Subway
High Lonesome
Solitaire
Almost Grown
Xmas
Cigarettes And Violets

LP2
Brooklyn (Walt Whitman In
The Trash)
Riding On The Subway ’22
Downliner (Afterglow Version)
High Lonesome (PBR Vacation)
Cigarettes And Violets ’22
Almost Grown (Busker Version)
Solitaire (Song For Kelly Keller)
Queen Of The Underworld (Cantina Version)
Xmas, Etc.

Following the release of Netflix’s inspiring documentary short, ‘Hold Your Breath: The Ice Dive’, Galya Bisengalieva presents her official soundtrack, via One Little Independent Records.

To accompany the gruelling journey of freediver Johanna Nordblad as she tries to break the world record for distance travelled under ice with one breath, Galya has crafted an expert ambient narration that highlights the rising intensity toward the films looming climax.

Galya uses warped solo violin techniques and electronically manipulated strings to produce compelling and emotive compositions that induce complete submersion. The soundtrack commands attention while giving the characters their own space to breathe.

“Employs swirling drones and saturated textures to evoke a fragmented world” - MOJO.

“[The tracks] beautifully storyboard the titular film, but also stand on their own as life-affirming ambient pieces” - Electronic Sound.

TRACK LISTING

Prelude
First Dive
Sisters
The Crash
Elina’s Fears
Healing
Melting Ice
Tapani
Lake öllöri
Should I Panic About Dying?
Rebuilding
The Night Before
The Dive
Ending

Ghost Car, the London-based international punk quartet, have announced their debut album ‘Truly Trash’ following their signing to One Little Independent Records. A riotous, quick-witted collection of 11 garage-rock bangers.

The album provides Ghost Car with a platform to rage against political injustices, as their unified battle cries attack patriarchal inequality, homophobia, racism and toxic relationships. ‘Truly Trash’ is a call to reclaim autonomy and to revolt against the powers that uphold an archaic nationalist system.

Right out the gate ‘Truly Trash’ makes its intentions clear. Riff-heavy ballad ‘Terrible Feelings’ rises in raw intensity as group harmonies build toward a shoegaze noise-out, while follow-up ‘Selfish, Spoiled’ uses frenzied synth to drag the sound in a 60’s psych direction. Call-and-response gang vocals permeate the entire record as back-to-back choruses keep energy levels at maximum, evident on ‘Mechanical Soul’ which boasts huge glam guitars and caustic drums of pure fury.

Of the eruptive ‘Basta’ singer/guitarist Maeve Henry tells us “It was written from the perspective of someone commenting on being a queer woman being happy with her sexuality. We’ve had a lot of men at our gigs in the past sexualising or infantilising us, so this is a massive f*ck you to them”. Singer/bassist Cece Corapi expands “It felt important to reiterate the fact that your sexuality doesn’t define the type of person you are. There is still a lot of biphobia around, even in certain queer scenes, and a perception that it’s not a valid sexual identity. It’s important to call this out”.

The LP continues with the punchy Riot grrrl of ‘Embleton Road’ and ‘Clown Town’ which show the band at their sarcastic best, oozing B52s and Delta 5 swagger with jaunty B-movie melodies. The latter of which makes comment on the circus of errors by the Conservative government, with particular focus on Boris Johnson, following Brexit. With band members hailing from England, Ireland, Italy and Spain, Ghost Car are keen advocators for freedom of movement, a belief only strengthened following the events in Ukraine. Cece explains that this “opened our eyes to the consequences of borders even more, when considering a country caught between two opposing powers (Russia and the EU/Nato) and the devastation this leads to. I think it’s important that we become more aware of these issues, but we need to make sure that we don’t stop there and always look at it from a more internationalist point of view. And to consider what that means for everyone.”

Grungy pop-punk anthem and lead single ‘Sex’ channels the likes of Stiff Little Fingers and The Undertones, mixing with the bands amalgamated influences from 60's girl groups like The Ronettes and The Shangri Las to the explosive rock n’ roll of The Runaways. ‘Conch Pearl’ and ‘Sushi Addict’ deal in distorted, jumped-up chaos, and ‘No History’ is about our reliance on digital technology and a reminder to try to live life spontaneously. Album finale ‘Truly Trash’ is a defiant message seeped in ethereal, doomy layers of ferocity. Singer/keyboardist/thereminist Clara Bleda’s closing comment; “F*ck Trump, f*ck Boris, f*ck the right wing”, while Maeve adds; “F*ck the DUP too”.

“This album is our way to express what bothers us, from personal interactions to international politics. We wanted to explore different themes in a simple way so that they could be accessible to everyone.”

Originally the album was due to be released by Burger Records, however as accounts of sexual assault and exploitation of women by associates of the label came to light the band pulled out of the planned release. As activists for feminism and members of the LGBTQ+ community, Ghost Car practice what they preach, and aim to spread their mantra of inclusivity and equal rights as loud as possible.

Ghost Car aim to utilize their diversity to explore different writing styles, while expressing themes of openness and empowerment. They’ve been championed by the likes of Mickey Bradley (Undertones), Skin and Du Blonde, and were deeply inspired by the late Lyndell Mansfield. They’ve also grown as performers supporting the likes of Shonen Knife, Amyl and The Sniffers and Beth Ditto, while remaining a London headline mainstay. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Terrible Feelings
2. Selfish, Spoiled
3. Mechanical Soul
4. Basta
5. Embleton Road
6. Clown Town
7. Sex
8. Conch Pearl
9. Sushi Addict
10. No History
11. Truly Trash 

Singer, songwriter, novelist, and painter Kathryn Williams is proud to announce her new album ‘Night Drives’. The collection explores a more filmic sound, with a larger ensemble of instrumentation, particular emphasis on the strings and production from Ed Harcourt. It’s out on July 15th via One Little Independent Records.

Journeying from leftfield contemporary pop to soft acoustics, Kathryn Williams uses her latest LP to explore a variety of fresh ideas driven, in part, by a host of collaborators. Kirsty Logan, Oystein Greni, Romeo Stodart, Matt Deighton, Simon Edwards, Yvette Williams, Neill Maccoll, Andy Bruce, Ida Wenoe, Joel Sarakula, Emily Barker and John Alder all have credits on various tracks across ‘Night Drives’. Kathryn explains “I’ve been releasing music for 24 years now. That fact blows me away, and things have changed so much over those years. The biggest change has been my love of co-writing and writing for other artists. This began when I first went on a writing retreat with Chris Difford forming close friendships and working relationships that are represented here”.

Her first official album since ‘Hypoxia’ in 2015, ‘Night Drives’ opens with some of Kathryn’s most immediately electronic tracks to date, the nihilistic ‘Human’, big ballad ‘Answer In The Dark’ with all it’s bold, layered production, and the dynamic, infectious ‘Radioactive’. Elsewhere on the likes of ‘Moon Karaoke’, ‘Magnets’ and ‘The Brightest’, a more cinematic sound is explored; slowly unravelling stories backed by delicate acoustics and elated, emotive string pieces. ‘Put The Needle On The Record’ and joint closers ‘Starry Heavens’ and ‘I Am Rich In All That I’ve Lost’ are relaxed and fall into the more traditional world of folk inspired melancholia. Kathryn’s inimitable charm colours the whole album with emotion and affection – occasionally brooding, always likable.

Discussing some of the themes explored she says “Some of it is questioning who we are, realising that being human is about flaws, humility, and the consequences of how we react to others. It can be about the longevity of a long-term relationship, how to keep the fire burning and to celebrate that. So many love songs are about the first moments, but this is about enduring love. The simple things that fill a day and how our dreams and wants are so separate to the daily grind. The final track is a philosophical musing on loss and gain in life. How by living a long life we will lose so much, but that in itself is riches”.

The classic references that Kathryn draws from, particularly that of fellow Liverpudlians The Beatles, are clear in ‘Night Drives’, which plays like a road-trip through her styles and influences. It recalls visions of a British countryside lightly illuminated by the flicker of passing lampposts and the endless, rolling landscapes beyond them. These are intelligent, self-aware tracks, with Kathryn’s unmistakable writing backed with beautifully arranged, natural compositions.

“I am really proud of this record. Also really scared of putting it out into the world after such a long time” she continues, “I can say that because it’s not just down to me. It’s because of the musical family I have around me that keeps me safe, makes me better, is there for the times when I think I can’t go on. It’s about realising that by sharing things creatively, they can be better and it’s not about showing people how great you are. It’s about making the songs the best they can be and trusting people with that. I’ve been on OLI records since 2010. In that time, they have put out 8 albums as well as the anthology box set. Their belief in me and ongoing support has been nothing short of a miracle. They’ve happily allowed me to do side projects, collaborations, write novels, teach. They’ve encouraged me to make my art and include it on releases. Having the label, Ed Harcourt and the other artists who I work with believe in me has helped me believe in myself and want to be what they think I am.”

Kathryn Williams is often described as “a songwriter’s songwriter”, her timeless and searching work has earned her accolades, critical acclaim, and a loyal fan-base. In this new musical world when we talk about an artist’s body of work, we tend to think of a handful of records stretched out across of a handful of years, if we’re lucky. A changing industry and a focus on immediacy has done little to alter such notions, which makes Kathryn Williams something of an anomaly – releasing 12 full-length albums under her own name since her debut LP, ‘Dog Leap Stairs’, released in 1999.

As impressive a stat as that might be, it does little to capture the true magic of Williams work; the enchanting craft that has grown and expanded as she’s moved from one project to the next, from the breakthrough success of her Mercury Prize nominated ‘Little Black Numbers’ all the way to her Sylvia Plath tribute project 'Hypoxia' and last year’s Christmas album ‘Midnight Chorus’, written with Dame Carol Ann Duffy.

While her best-known work is characterised by rich and honest songwriting inspired by the greats, Williams has continually been able to evolve as an artist because she’s always looked outside of such boundaries. She continues to listen and learn while, at the same time, writing with a fiery spirit and a sense of adventure that has never once wilted. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Kathryn Williams clearly takes influence from both folk and country, with wistful melodies and swooning progressions at the forefront, but the result is more akin to a grand orchestral wave, both dramatic and grand. It's thoroughly beautiful and very emotive throughout.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Human
Answer In The Dark
Chime Like A Bell
Radioactive
The Me For You
Moon Karaoke
Side B
Night Drive To The Lake
Put The Needle On The Record
Magnets
The Brightest
Starry Heavens
I Am Rich In All That I’ve Lost

World renowned handpan player and composer Manu Delago presents his unique new album, ‘Environ Me’, via One Little Independent Records. Constructed using his signature percussive skills as well as electronic manipulation and sounds recorded directly from an array of natural sources, the LP is a dynamic and poignant exploration that harnesses the best of his adventurous spirit and singular vision.

An audio-visual journey accompanied by a collection of expertly made films, each track also represents a different element and contains its own inspired and individual concept, varying from the use of wildlife, fire and water to the manmade steel, gears, Velcro and more.

On ‘Environ Me’ Manu Delago asks his listener to join him on a multisensory adventure with their eyes wide open, an intriguing experience that constantly evolves over the course of its 12 tracks, through electronica and ambient and carries with it an important environmental message at its core.

Manu Delago has performed in prestigious venues in more than 50 countries around the world. The Grammy-nominated artist runs his own band and has collaborated with various artists such as Björk, Anoushka Shankar and Olafur Arnalds and has appeared as a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra.

TRACK LISTING

1. Interference
2. Liquid Hands
3. Transformotion
4. Curveball
5. ReCycling
6. Autoshred
7. Pattern Pulse Popcorn
8. FaunaSauna
9. Trees For The Wood
10. Acoustic Aviation
11. Footsteps (feat. Isobel Cope)

Returning with their first new music in 8 years, Stubborn Heart have announced their anticipated new album ‘Made Of Static’, released on June 4th via One Little Independent Records.

Luca Santucci and Ben Fitzgerald, who have spent the last few years developing the ten brooding electro-soul tracks that make up the successor to their lauded 2012 self-titled debut, have once again struck a fine balance between ominous synth-soundscapes and introspective songwriting.

Balance is the key theme here. With Fitzgerald leading the production and manning the machines, the sound is rawer than on their previous album. Left-field pop with dark, icy edges, it finds a home somewhere in between r&b and cold wave. Santucci brings the heart and with it his aching, obsessive lyrics and a desire for something grittier in its presentation. The duo’s talents complement each other perfectly throughout.

Santucci has amassed an impressive list of writing and vocal credits in his time, with the likes of XL and Warp signee Leila Arab, Plaid, Riton and Soulwax amongst them. Fitzgerald has also been hard at work at his home studio programming various styles of music for artists and producers from around the world. As Stubborn Heart, they come armed with some serious experience and a wealth of influences. There’s an honest simplicity in the way they create, with lyrics written in an immediate, direct fashion with the aim to catch a feeling rather than emulate one. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Talking Gold
2. Proves To Be
3. Against The Tide
4. Mum’s The World
5. Points Of View
6. Everything Matters
7. To Make You Happy
8. Oh Stephanie
9. Drop The Ball
10. Out Of My Hands

‘Kick The Ladder’ the anticipated debut album from Icelandic composer and songwriter Kaktus Einarsson, frontman of post-punk outfit Fufanu, will be released by One Little Independent on May 7th. It was produced by Kaktus, alongside Swiss electronic composer Kurt Uenala, and finished in New York City. It draws heavily on the concept of how we as a society relate to our surroundings, whether it’s environmental or personal. 

TRACK LISTING

Kick The Ladder
Ocean’s Heart
Hypnotized
No Runaway
Daydream Echo
Gone To Bed
My Driver
45rpm
Story Of Charms
One Of Those
Space Soul
Chimes

Composer and violinist Sarah Neufeld is a career-long touring and recording member of Arcade Fire. Her third solo LP ‘Detritus’, confronts anguish with beauty, turmoil with grace, gliding through the present like a dancer mid-motion, reaching through space 'til she's caught.

The album is wistful and emotive, and carries the listener on a journey of euphoric and complex looped violin dusted with mesmeric melody recall. Openers ‘Stories’ and ‘Unreflected’ lead with atmospheric ease, sombre soundscapes and distant, otherworldly vocals. ‘With Love And Blindness’ ups the tempo with remote, dreamlike rhythms that hypnotise and enthrall. ‘The Top’ is elated, but it highlights the isolated strings and poetic loneliness Neufeld is able to convey with them. ‘Tumble Down The Undecided’ and ‘Shed Your Heart’ are climatic in their delivery, full of cascading notes and delays before closer ‘Detritus’ exits with a state of calm, easing back into the shadows and taking with it the vivid textures and images crafted with infinite grace over the course of the album.

NOTES ABOUT DETRITUS
I composed this album within a larger body of work that was commissioned as a live soundtrack for Peggy Baker Dance Project’s Who We Are In The Dark.

Who We Are In The Dark is a collaboration originating in 2015 when Peggy Baker (legendary Canadian dancer and choreographer) and I were asked to perform a duet together at Fall For Dance North. Peggy chose to choreograph to my piece From Our Animal from my (then) upcoming second album, The Ridge.
Wanting to create something personal for her for this performance, I composed a prelude which began with the words “who we are in the dark”.

There was something utterly compelling about working and performing together.
Coming from different generations (Baker is now 68), we share a sense of intensity, curiosity, and ferocity.
Shortly after our debut performance together, Peggy commissioned me to collaborate with her on a full scale piece for her company. I began composing for this project in 2017, with the solo violin piece, The Top.
Peggy and I were exploring themes of darkness- her take often lived in the macro, universal elements, space, death, while my own exploration at the time was more close up- intimacy and the ego self. I think there was an invisible thread between us from our own experiences of loss and grief.
To say the least, this collaboration and the work we produced has held tremendous meaning for both of us.

Drummer and composer Jeremy Gara (Arcade Fire) joined the collaboration in 2018, adding percussive and harmonic depth to my solo compositions, as well as inputting his own signature style of ambient noise composition and heavy, gripping drumming into the live score.
The work premiered in February 2019 and toured internationally throughout the year, with our most recent performance in Den Hague at Holland Dance Festival in February 2020.

I began distilling the solo compositions into a smaller, album length body of work in the Summer of 2019, experimenting live with solo versions, adding more vocals, and incorporating foot pedal bass synth to my solo live capabilities. This body of work stood out for me, as a further push and refinement of the composition style I’ve been developing for the past 8 years, and as a marker of an intense and difficult passage in my own life.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stories
2. Unreflected
3. With Love And Blindness
4. The Top
5. Tumble Down The Undecided
6. Shed Your Dear Heart
7. Detritus