Joris Feiertag is a Dutch producer and drummer from Utrecht in the Netherlands who makes music that is a finely balanced blend of organic and synthesized elements, often using ingenious syncopated rhythms combined with instruments such as the harp and kalimba. Roots is his third album on revered German imprint Sonar Kollektiv. The LP features not only a plethora of vocalists from across the globe, but also sees the producer playing with obscure samples and sounds, as he attempts to discover a new direction and find that sweet spot between dark and light; major and minor; new and old; uplifting electronica and soul.

Tracklist:
A1 - Nostalgia feat. WAAN
A2 - Keep Your Head Up feat. Noah Slee
A3 - Feel Me feat. Nego True
A4 - re:solution
B1 - Ballon Sogni feat. Falle Nioke
B2 - Didn’t Know Why (You Lost Your Soul)
B3 - Come Back

C1 - Queen & King feat. Rhi
C2 - Reverie feat. Robin Kester
C3 - Law of Attraction feat. OSHUN
D1 - Love Hills feat. Nego True
D2 - Waiting for Tomorrow feat. Leonard Luka
D3 - Violet (You & Me) feat. Oli Hannaford
D4 - Give a Little feat. Pete Josef More

"Never change a winnig team". That's what Radio Citizen's Niko Schabel must have thought when he decided to release his fourth album once again on Sonar Kollektiv. After the success of "The Night & The City" (SK310LP / CD) from 2015 and the productive collaboration ever since this seems like a wise resolution. Schabel's idea to retrieve to a mountain cabin in Salvenberg, Tirol with his band and tons of equipment turned out to be an even more crucial factor to the cause. Here they could create and record new songs and bring them together neatly for the new album. The 13 tracks assembled here on "Silent Guide" are - each on its own and in its entirety anyway - best proof how wonderfully this approach has worked out. For instance, you'd only have to listen to "Grand Jam" to get the picture: A composite work of Schabel (on synthesizer) with Bernd Oeszevim (on drums), Maasl Maier (on bass), Marja Burchard (on rhodes) and Johannes Schleiermacher (on synthesizer) leaves every musician enough air to breathe and even much more room for personal development. A qualification running like a common thread through the album's length. Don't worry though, "Silent Guide" isn't a random collection of live jams and untamed solos. "SaraSong" (composed by drummer Oeszevim) is a beautiful, gracious tune borne by Marja Burchard's trombone and Niko Schabel's bass clarinet packed in a semi-complex arrangement with two parts linked up ingeniously. Or take the opener and title track "Silent Guide": Here you have Natalie Greffel's voice becharming you. You literally can feel how much fun it must have been to bring this album collectively forth. On "Ninguém" Greffel sings in Portuguese and on "It's Not Enough" she's supported vocally by Marja Burchard for a mantra-like chorus superimposed over the captivating drumming by Bernd Oeszevim (the first part is a 33/16 beat by the way). On this track Johannes Schleiermacher plays the flute, on "Kein Planet" Niko Schabel plays an alto saxophone and on "Ethxxmologie" you hear a whole brass section featuring a bass clarinet, a tenor saxophone and two trombones. More