Lunatic Beudo features the young rappers Zébédé, Bouba and G BOY from Kinshasa. These kids are surviving life on the streets. Yet, they all make fun of U.S. American gangsta sh*t hip-hop because they know when it comes to real street life nobody will tell them nothing.
How can anger, clarity of social analysis, the experience of pressure and pain as well as mystery be reconciled? In the flow of Congolese rapper Orakle Ngoy. Which she uses for a feminist critique of the (capitalist) system, being one of the very few female rap stars from Kinshasa. Decolonized beats based on exotica samples were provided for Orakle by German producer Martin Georgi, a son of English-Sinhalese immigrants.

Rap Music in French, English and Lingala from Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo) on a double A-side record with double A-side flip art work.
AA: female rap star Orakle Ngoy
A: rapper Lunatic Beudo feat. the street kids Zébéde, Bouba & G BOY

TRACKLIST:

AA1 Orakle Ngoy - If You Can Make It Here
AA2 Orakle Ngoy - Street Focus
A1 Lunatic Beudo - Gangsta F*ckn B*tch (Bana Mabe)
A2 Lunatic Beudo - R.I.P.


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Official re-release, retrieved from original cassette tape (1988). First time on vinyl! Includes Turkish musicians like jazz & percussion star Okay Temiz.
Brought to you by the compiler of the Saz Beat series as well as the Bosporus Bridges series.

A Danish-Lebanese Afro-American who has learned Turkish and knows how to play the saz? Who entered the Anatolian Pop scene in Istanbul right in the heyday, the early 1970s? And who got so much musical credit that the renowned Turkish producer Nazmi Senel released a solo album with him in 1988, recorded in Istanbul and including musicians like Turkish percussion star Okay Temiz? Sounds pretty unlikely. Sometimes miracles happen and highly improbable music gets released. A person with a diverse heritage as Nyofu Tyson can be seen as a 'melting pot', as a 'synthesis'. Yet, he can be also seen as someone who is able to step out for new paths.
This is the case for TÜRK LOKUMU - TURKISH DELITE. Like nobody before, Tyson connects and opens up Anadolu Pop towards a whole range of styles: Synth-Pop, New Wave, Reggae, Hip Hop/Break, Latin, Disco Boogie… He shows us how vital, compatible and versatile one could think Anadolu Pop at the end of the 1980s. The compositions are basically all Türkü-s, traditional Anatolian folk songs, yet updated with a poly-cultural music practice, which involved a lot of the then current musical trends. So, this is Turkish folk music and it has at the same time all what you like about the late 1980s pop music: cold electronic drum sounds, crisp-flashy synths, crunchy bass - all in contrast with warm distorted saz tones, wooden Turkish wind instruments, and a disco-soul proven female choir. This is crazy music. This is a miracle. This is Anatolian-Synth.

Nyofu Tyson
Profil:
Born in Los Angeles of Danish-Lebanese-African-American heritage, Nyofu Tyson grew up in a musical home. His Dad was an amateur jazz pianist and avid listener of many styles of music.
Nyofu began music as a bassist, playing Jazz and Latin with local groups. He studied composition, classical bass, and North Indian classical music at California Institute of the Arts for two years. His interest in ethnic music led him to Turkey, where he began playing the long-necked lute, saz.
He then lived for many years in Sweden, where he worked with Zulfu Livaneli, Okay Temiz and Hadji Tekbilek, all major names in Turkish music. He toured all over Sweden and Europe with these artists, while having his own band and making radio concert and TV appearances in Sweden and Turkey.
Since returning to LA, he has collaborated with Omar Faruk Tekbilek, oudist John Bilezikian and Cuatro Caminos Flamenco among others.
Nyofu travels regularly to Turkey, where he has gained recognition for his interpretations of Turkish folk poets and his eclectic style of saz playing. He still continues both musical lines, Turkish folk poet music and Turkish flamenco fusion.

https://www.nyofutyson.com


Credits

Music arranged, directed and English lyrics by Nyofu Tyson.
Re-Producer: Martin Georgi and Holger Lund (known as compiler of the Saz Beat series as well as the Bosporus Bridges series).
Vinyl-Mastering by Calyx Berlin.
Design by Julia Raschke. Many thanks to Nazmi Senel and Nyofu Tyson, Markus Lindner and Norman Nitzsche.
Distribution by wordandsound.
Executive production by Seismographic Records in cooperation with fluctuating images
© 2023 SR 002; seismorecords.bandcamp.com & fluctuating-images.de

2. TRACKLISTS:

A1 - Turkish Delight
A2 - Midnight Rendezvous
A3 - Fiancé
A4 - Fidayda
A5 - If you wan my love
A6 - Emmoglu

B1 - Sunglasses Belly Dance
B2 - Eninem
B3 - Tabancamin Sapini
B4 - Cicek Dagi Oyun Havasi
B5 - Misty Mountain Melody






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Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo - a group of street children gathered around the artist Lova Lova to form the Atelier Kamikazi and record the album "Mokili na poche" in cooperation with Oyo Projects. They are "shégués", sons of soldiers, orphans or accused of being "child sorcerers". They talk in a funny and provocative tone about the difficulties encountered in their daily lives, about rivalry, politics, sexuality, and survival. These kids know they are fucked - and they fuck back.

Special remarks: Comes with bilingual (English/French) printed info inner sleeve.

PR Infos:

- TV Interviews: ARTE TRACKS, France (TV), BBC Culture News, France (TV)
- Radio Interviews: BAYERN 2, BYTE FM, DEUTSCHLANDFUNK, RADIO SUPERFLY (Wien)
- Exhibition Acud Berlin, IFA (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) Stuttgart

About Seismographic Records:

Seismographic Records is a label for global hybrid music, run by Martin Georgi (Quiet Elegance Records). «Seismo» deals with connections of local and international sounds, of cultures and epochs far apart. It wants to break through the boundaries of Western music history and focus on the unheard. On currents that have so far been excluded from algorithms and streaming services due to their lack of market relevance. This is about the localization of new trend-setting centers in the Global South. In this way «Seismo» wants to make visible the potential of a decolonized music development. Music takes on the function of a seismograph. It is a sensitive instrument to register social transformations.

The focus of the label is on the production of vinyls and their distribution on the global market. The pressing makes the projects materially tangible. The productions are preceded by a close collaboration with artists, researchers, designers, and journalists in order to explore the cultural and historical contexts of musical trends and to make them audiovisually accessible. Texts, graphics, and videos are used to illustrate the background and contextualize the music. Seismographic Records also collaborates with cultural institutions in order to provide a platform for the projects in the form of exhibitions, concerts, radio broadcasts and to anchor them in cultural discourse.

TRACKLISTS:

A1 - KIMPALA
A2 - OYO PROJET
A3 - SANI YA MBELE
B1 - TU ME YIMBA
B2 - PARANO


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7"
DJ Koze - Wie schön du bist EP
Two sides, one message - love in its purest form, captured at 45 RPM
A. Wie schön du bist (feat. arnim & The Düsseldorf Düsterboys)
AA. Amor (feat. César Lacerda)

A
DJ Koze, Arnim Teutoburg-Weiß aka arnim, and the Düsseldorf Düsterboys enchant with a touching homage to Holger Biege - one of the legendary architects of East German soul. DJ Koze once again proves his unparalleled sense for the extraordinary. Around the line "Du hast erzählt, gelacht / Mir gezeigt, wie schön du bist" from Holger Biege's 1978 song "Bleib doch", Koze weaves a small masterpiece, infused equally with nostalgic depth and futuristic elements.

Arnim Teutoburg-Weiß aka arnim (frontman of the iconic Beatsteaks) opens our hearts with his heavenly radiant voice. With full sincerity - pure and straightforward - he sings the love declaration of a lifetime.
Floating on a cloud, the Düsseldorf Düsterboys sprinkle lyrical stardust with their brilliant harmonies - fluffy and bizarre at the same time. It feels as if this cosmic quartet boarded a time machine and returned to the present to plant the essence of days gone by into today's matrix.

"Wie schön du bist" is not just a tribute to Holger Biege's work, but a loving bow to his entire musical legacy. It is an anthem to the timeless magic of music and the enduring power of love that connects us all.
Koze, arnim and the Düsterboys have created something truly unique here: a gem-a homage, a time travel, and a love letter all in one. Music can indeed be something magical.

AA
"Amor," a dandelion of a song, was created in collaboration with Brazilian singer César Lacerda. It is an acoustic love letter in its purest form-warm, crackling, and everlasting.


On September 13, the two original Amiga albums "Wenn der Abend kommt" and "Circulus" by Holger Biege were re-released as a double album and are available here
https://konsum.buschfunk.com




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LP. 180G BioVinyl, 2 LP + Sticker , includes Download to 3/12 h Radio Play "Archivos De Radio Piedras"

2. GENRE/S: Electronic

3. TRACKLISTS:

> A1 / 1. Cangilón
> A2 / 2. Piedras
> A3 / 3. Aquí
> A4 / 4. Agua pa fantasmas
> B1 / 5. Rio de las tumbas
> B2 / 6. Viento
> B3 / 7. Mi viejita
> B4 / 8. No Hope> C1 / 1. Radio Chomio (con Eli Wewentxu)
> C2 / 2. Rio radio correspondencia anfibia
> C3 / 3. 3eee
> C4 / 4. F Collect
> C5 / 5. Even heaven is uneven
> C6 / 6. El azar
> D1 / 7. I, you
> D2 / 8. Heterodina
> D3 / 9. Sin Conexión
> D4 / 10. SSS1
> D5 / 11. SSS2
> D6 / 12. SSS3
4. SHORT INFO:

The initial seed for this project was planted in 2020 when Nicolás Jaar wrote the song “Piedras” for a
concert at the Museum of Memory & Human Rights in Santiago, Chile, which commemorates the
victims of human rights violations during the military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet between
1973 and 1990. Between 2022-2023 it took on a new form as a radio play entitled 'Archivos de Radio
Piedras', which was shared on a dedicated Telegram channel. In 2024, the play was converted into a
24 channel installation at the University Museum of Mexico City (MUAC), where it was exhibited for 5
months.

Piedras 1 and 2 is a collection of the tracks featured within the play, all new music by Jaar, but partly
presented within the play as the music of Salinas Hasbún (the name a composite homage to Jaar's
grandmothers, Graciela Salinas and Miriam Hasbún).

The play follows two friends mourning the disappearance of Salinas Hasbún, a musician and writer
who vanished in the early 2020s. Although they live in a future where technology is advanced, they
resort to DIY radio methods because the anonymous group “Las 0cho” has launched a worldwide
attack on undersea internet cables, causing a global internet blackout.

The play's central theme revolves around the idea that truths, memories and identities speak from the
cracks (“rasgaduras”), or the "in-between" spaces ("en el entre"). This concept is supported by the
way much of the narration unfolds - in the liminal spaces between radio frequencies. The instability
and transitory nature of a constantly shifting radio dial becomes not just a metaphor but the structure
of the play itself. It’s in these moments of noise, static and interference that the deeper revelations of
the story emerge. This disjointed, ever-changing medium mirrors the way memory and trauma
operate within the play - non-linear, slipping through the gaps, found in fragments or ordinary
moments, rather than direct transmissions of “official” historical accounts.

This notion reaches its climax at the end of the narrative, when a text is discovered in which Salinas
speaks of finding a new number in a small pond in a cave mentioned in the first episodes of the radio
play. This pond, inside the “cochlea of the world”, is seen as a way to introduce real-life randomness
to computation. Embodied in the salt lakes of northern Chile, home to the world’s oldest bacteria, this
randomness disrupts the rigid order of binary code, paving the way for a transformation of digital life.
5. VITAL SALES POINTS:
First solo release by Nicolás Jaar since 2020’s Telas and Cenizas.

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Territories: World excl. UK

FORMAT 12" vinyl, generic sleeve, pantone printed labels, printed dl card

TRACKLIST
1. / A1 Multiplying My Absurdities 06:22
2. / A2 Punks In The Gym 07:12
3. / B1 Humanoid Fruit 08:41

With Multiply Your Absurdities, Helena Hauff delivers her long-awaited 12-inch debut on Tresor: a multi-colored inauguration, masterfully crafted by the inimitable Hamburg producer and DJ.
The title track Multiplying My Absurdities opens the record, with a slow burn of magnetic synths and numbing acid drops. Through its simple yet thrilling dynamics, it occasionally falls into playful skepticism, creating something truly unique, uncompromised, and beautiful.
Punks in the Gym is named after an infamous climbing route in Australia. As its namesake, the track mercilessly rises to a techno summit. It gets steeper and steeper with every bar, resembling a volcanic dance where 303 earthquakes shake the ground before eruptions. Once you're halfway in, there's no turning back; all you can do is keep moving forward.
The closing track, Humanoid Fruit, transports to an even darker prehistoric landscape. Synths bursts remind of fossilized Pterodactyls revived—a challenging but rewarding trip through acidic rain and the alleys of your mind. Originally released as the soundtrack for Teslaism by artist and filmmaker Bahar Noorizadeh, a 3rd person musical racing game featuring Elon Musk and his self-driving car/lover and life coach, as they drive towards a shareholder meeting in a post-gamified Berlin landscape. It premiered at the “Tresor 31: Techno, Berlin und die große Freiheit” exhibition in 2022 and deals with stimulating skepticism about the emergence of a new era after Post-fordism that she calls Teslaism: "an upgrade to the system of production and consumption predicated on advanced storytelling, financial worldbuilding, and imagineering 'the look of the future.'" What has been once inspired by Helena Hauff's dystopian sound has now been made into an official music video for the track. Much like the video, Multiply Your Absurdities represents a journey into futuristic uncertainty.


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Rights: World excluding Fr & UK

2 x Solid White LP, 5mm spine Sleeve UV Gloss Finish, 2x Heavy Weight Printed Inner Sleeve UV Gloss finish, marketing sticker.

TRACKLIST DOUBLE VINYLS:
A1. Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song) (feat. The Mediaeval Baebes)
A2. Day One (feat. Dina Ipavic)
A3. Are You Alive? (feat. Penelope Isles)

B1. You Are The Frequency (feat. The Little Pest)
B2. The New Abnormal

C1. Home (feat. Anna B Savage)
C2. Dirty Rat
C3. Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse

D1. What A Surprise (feat. The Little Pest)
D2. Moon Princess (feat. Coppe)

SHORT INFOS :

Legendary electronic music duo Orbital return Early 2023 with new album “Optical Delusion”, the Hartnoll brothers first studio album since 2018’s Monster’s Exist. Recorded in Orbital’s Brighton studio, “Optical Delusion” includes contributions from Sleaford Mods, Penelope Isles, Anna B Savage, The Little Pest, Dina Ipavic, Coppe, and perhaps most surprisingly, The Medieval Baebes.
Earlier this year, Orbital celebrated their storied history with “30 Something” which, unlike other Best Of’s, contains reworks, remakes, remixes and re-imaginings of landmark Orbital tracks including “Chime”, “Belfast”, “Halcyon”, “Satan”, and “The Box”

SHORT BIOG:

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest [of humanity] – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison…”

You many have seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein on social media, the archetypal Smartest Guy Ever apparently having an out-of-character religious epiphany. It certainly leapt out at Paul Hartnoll of Orbital who spotted it in Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.

“As soon as I saw ‘optical delusion’ I thought Oh hey, that’s the album title,” says Paul. “It just seemed to say so much about how people construct their own realities, how we see patterns that aren’t there, how we see what we want to see.

“But it’s actually a misquote. He never quite said that. In the German original what he’s really saying is that human experience is as relative as physics. Wouldn’t it be good if we could accept that, and find a kind of universal theory of everything for the human race? Then you look at everything from history to art to your Twitter feed and you think yeah, that’s what we’re all trying to do all of the time…”

Hence ‘Optical Delusion’, the tenth original Orbital album and the latest in a burst of renewed post-pandemic creativity for two brothers who’ve stayed at the top of their game longer than anyone from the post-1988 Class of Acid House.

Now with ‘Optical Delusion’ the Hartnolls dig deeper into the unquiet psyche of our increasingly surreal and disordered world. Sketched out partly during lockdown but fully recorded in the uncertain After Times, the album summons up conflicting emotions and sometimes beguiling images from years when the science fiction doomsdays that the Hartnolls watched on TV as kids finally came true. There are mesmeric tracks with names like ‘The New Abnormal’ and ‘Requiem For The Pre-Apocalypse’ and ‘Day One’. But there are also straight-up bangers and ethereal cosmic dreams, abstract sound wars and deeply human songs of separation and loss.

And it all starts with a bang. Lead single ‘Dirty Rat’, an outright Fall-meets-Front-242 class rant with vocals by Sleaford Mods mob orator Jason Williamson, harks right back to the Hartnolls’ days of politicised anarcho-squatpunk. It began as a remix swap (Orbital did the Sleafords’ ‘I Don’t Rate You’) and morphed into a comic, brutal, bass-driven harangue not so much against our rulers but at the petty, mean-spirited, frightened, Mail-reading voters who put them there: the people who are “blaming everyone in hospital/blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel/blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

Also key to the album is opening track ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’ which returns to an Orbital truism, that time always becomes a loop. This chugging, cyclical Orbital groove gives way to an unnerving past-meets-present timeslip fit for ‘Sapphire And Steel’ as goth maenads The Mediaeval Baebes materialise to sing ‘Ring O’Roses’ – the innocent nursery rhyme whose roots are in the Black Death.

“I’ve always liked folk music and mediaeval sounds,” says Paul, himself an occasional Morris dancer. “I had the basis of that track and I wanted to spin it off somehow.” Trawling his archives he stumbled on The Mediaeval Baebes’ version of ‘Ring O’Roses’ “and my hackles just went up. I was like, my God, this is the original pandemic folk song.”

?his being Orbital, there are collaborations galore on the album, the roles once played by Alison Goldfrapp, Lady Leshurr or David Gray now filled by new talents. London singer-songwriter Anna B Savage contributes a compellingly fragile, Anohni-like vocal to ‘Home’, in which nature reclaims the scorched and vacant mega-cities. ‘Day One’ is a pulsing techno track featuring the singer Dina Ipavic. Paul got in touch with her after working on a score for a sculpture show of giant robotic installations by his friend Giles Walker during the pandemic. First Paul cut up his own score and Ipavic’s vocals on the track The Crane, which appears on the deluxe version of the album. Then he thought, Why not work with her for real? The result is school of ‘Belfast’, a bassy dreamscape with vocalised clouds billowing above.

The pensive ‘Are You ?live?’ adds to the Orbital product range of existential questions (‘Are We Here?’, ‘Where Is It Going?’) in collaboration Bella Union signings Penelope Isles, AKA brother and sister act Lily and Jack Wolter. “They’re our studio mates, they work upstairs!” says Paul happily. “And they’ve both got amazing voices.”


But Orbital are Orbital and never far from the dancefloor. “Eventually the more abrasive bits came back into the fold…” ‘You Are The Frequency’, first of two tracks to feature mysterious vocalist The Little Pest, surrounds the listener with warped voices ordering you to the dancefloor (Phil: “we wanted the idea that the music is kind of absorbing you”). And the second, the sinister ‘What A Surprise’, traps you in a paranoid electronic hall of mirrors.

In another nod to Orbital’s resurgent past the cover artwork once again comes from fine art painter John Greenwood, creator of fantastical grotesques for the covers of ‘Snivilisation’, ‘In Sides’ and Orbital’s most recent album, 2018’s ‘Monsters Exist’. Orbital had just had a slick Mark Farrow cover for ‘30 Something’ – this is a return to the overripe and bulbous techno-organic constructions that somehow express Orbital’s own uncontrollably fertile sound.

There are gaps in the future that Orbital are desperate to fill too; there will be tours and festivals and rooms and fields full of people. Those long paralysed months when we had little to look forward to but a Zoom DJ set made Paul and Phil appreciate the things that make life worth living.


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Turning their gaze to the buoyant culture of wyrd, modernist German folk music, Quindi welcome a spectacularly idiosyncratic offering from Johannes Schebler, aka Baldruin. Bewildering narrative twists, high drama and intricate delicacy make Mosaike der Imagination an engrossing listen from the outset, as baroque atmospheres and tumbledown drums intertwine with tactile string plucks and needlepoint synthesis in an authoritative bridging of ancient and hypermodern sonic sensibilities.
Schebler's catalogue as Baldruin is extensive, reaching back to the late 00s and covering a lot of ground through cassette albums on respected underground labels like SicSic, A Giant Fern and Lullabies For Insomniacs. Meanwhile, his work has been recognised as part of a broader movement of experimental electronic music in Germany taking inspiration from folk traditions, as documented on last year's essential Bureau B compilation, Gespensterland. Beyond his solo work, Schebler also works with Jani Hirvonen as Grykë Pyje (mappa), and both collaborate with Paul Wilson as Yayoba (Not Not Fun). Christian Schoppik of leading dark folk project Brannten Schnüre joins him as Freundliche Kreisel (STROOM). It's a tangled, fascinating and evocative sound world which Mosaike der Imagination offers a compelling window into.
No two tracks on the album follow the same pattern or palette, whether gliding through the Giallo synth undulations and post rock tonal arcs of 'Stimme des Wegelagerers' or spelling out miasmic incantations through flickering flames on 'Aus dem Feuer, aus dem Licht'. 'Hinein, hinaus, hinüber' revolves around meditative drum mantras and cascading melodic phrasing, densely layered and evolving with purpose. 'Gemeinsam hindurch' flicks between swooping strings and pizzicato plucks in a purely romantic expression of orchestration, 'Mit verbundenen Augen' is a bewildering choral voice study and 'Im Sternstrom' revels in ecstatic synth arpeggios. Nothing can be predicted except the vibrancy and clarity of Schebler's vision.
It's a vision which extends to the front cover artwork for Mosaike der Imagination — a glorious tapestry created by Finnish artist Jan Anderzén, with a responding design and layout from Schebler adorning the rear sleeve.
Stepping to the side of the cosy daydream reveries that inhabit much of the Quindi output, Mosaike der Imagination indulges the label's penchant for sophistication in a freakily fascinating new framework from the heart of an exciting movement in experimental folk music.

Tracklist:
A1 Zwischen Planeten
A2 Stimme des Wegelagerers
A3 Aus dem Feuer, aus dem Licht
A4 Immer wieder im Kreis
A5 In den Tiefen
A6 Hinein, hinaus, hinüber
A7 Fantasiegebilde
A8 Der verwunschene Hain
A9 Blick nach Drüben
B1 Innerlich außerhalb
B2 Schimmernde Chimäre
B3 Gemeinsam hindurch
B4 Mit verbundenen Augen
B5 Purpur-Trank
B6 Im Sternstrom
B7 Schlingerling
B8 Endstation Sehnsucht

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Territory: Germany, Austria, Switzerland only

Single LP Gatefold (black vinyl)

Tracklist

1. Kravitz
2. Pantalla azul
3. Elastica II
4. Oidos
5. Quieras o no
6. Enfrente
7. Elastica
8. Márgen del indice
9. Alarmas olvidadas
10. Descubrimos un suspiro
11. Intento fallido
12. Kitana
13. Angel nuevo

A sense of destiny hangs over Sentir Que No Sabes, Mabe Fratti’s fourth solo-credited album released in a five year span. Her work has always possessed a finely tuned sense of drama capable of expressing a range of emotional states, and across this new album, she conveys the struggle to process various relationships or situations–and the actions that come next. Sentir Que No Sabes is urgent and clear, poppy, generous and approachable, while showcasing a considerable emotional hinterland. It is also, as Fratti is quick to mention, “groovy.”

Written and recorded with her partner, multi-instrumentalist, and co-composer Héctor Tosta (I.La Católica, Titanic), Sentir Que No Sabes is the result of an intense, detail-oriented process. Fueled by a new confidence gained in their collaborative project, Titanic, and its critically acclaimed 2023 LP, Vidrio, the two hunkered down in the familiarity of their studio (aka Tinho Studios) to bash out the initial sonic coordinates of her new record. “We talked and talked, and discussed ways of playing and recording, until things became inevitable,” Fratti explains. “We recorded a bunch of demos at our home studio and that meant we had a lot of time to re-edit and experiment. We really dug in. We were super focused on detail.” Tosta also took up the controls as producer and arranger-in-chief for all additional instruments. The album was later completed at Willem Twee Studios in Den Bosch in the Netherlands, and Pedro y el Lobo Studios and Soy Sauce Studios, in Mexico City.

For the final studio recordings, the pair were joined by drummer Gibran Andrade and trumpetist Jacob Wick to fill out and expand on Tosta’s percussion and brass arrangements. This small group of friends were able to work quickly and openly, and without fear: a testament to the exhaustive groundwork put in at Tinho Studios. This can be heard in three short, intermediary tracks that also manage to be the most aggressive on the record: “Kitana” (a scratch-laden instrumental that acts as a strange prelude for the last track, “Angel nuevo”) and a pair of two-minute instrumental interludes, “Elastica” I and II. None are throwaway mood pieces; rather they act as emotional cue cards, and hint at the way Fratti and Tosta created the overall atmosphere of Sentir Que No Sabes.

A strong sense of rhythm irrigates the sound from the jump, as heard on the glorious opening track, “Kravitz.” Here, the brilliant plucked cello line acts as a bassline and props up the steady thump of the kick drum. The cello’s growl serves as a conduit for a set of slightly paranoid lyrics that tell us “Quizás haya oídos en el techo” (“maybe there are ears in the ceiling”), while the song also introduces another staple of the record: the clever brass stabs, whistles, parps, and other interjections that paint a canvas of traffic in a city. It’s a postmodern, widescreen sound that for some might recall The Blue Nile’s Hats.

Sentir Que No Sabes is a record full to the brim with a modern pop sensibility, invoked by the sort of magpie spirit that ensnares anything it can find, repositioning sounds for the here and now. The keys and melody on the melancholy “Pantalla azul” (“Blue screen error”) transport us back to the glossy mid-1980s. “Oídos” (“Ears”) is a beautiful slice of contemporary, hybrid pop, in which Fratti’s vocal lines delicately spin themselves around the lean structures erected by the brass and drums, and the descending “plink” of a set of piano chords. Then we have a gloriously strong ending with the swell of “Angel nuevo” (“New angel”), another cinematic track full of gentle, instrument-rich swells and eddies that manages to be almost endless in its range–and yet intensely personal, as Fratti’s voice is close, almost whispering in your ear. A much needed lullaby for our fractious times.

The lyrics, for their part, have a stop-start quality to them, and hint at the small, incremental emotional taxes we pay through just living our lives. They circle around the music like birds waiting to swoop. There is something of the spiritual in all of Fratti’s work that expresses itself in a form of yearning: she looks to new horizons while personal dramas find themselves internalized, contextualized, and then dealt with through metaphor. Here, she was keen to mention Tosta’s constant encouragement in her finding a path to best sing or phrase her words to impart their maximum effect. “Hector was super inquisitive about my lyrics and asked me questions about what I meant, which sometimes is something you don't wonder so much about in isolation,” Fratti explains. “Besides, he is a great poet, and you can see that in what he did on the Titanic record. This made me go deeper into my lyric writing and definitely transformed it into something that I feel super happy about now.”

Take “Enfrente” (“In Front”), a track that initially comes across as a languid, glossy number, with plucked cello strings standing in for a bass line and brittle synth parts. Soon we catch on to a brilliant minor chord switch, which mirrors the fear and doubt expressed in the lyrics as someone “trembles up to the podium” in a “search for meaning.” There’s also the startling introduction of a vocoder in “Quieras o no” (“Whether you want it or not”); it comes precisely at the point Fratti sings “Quieras o no es un desastre” (“Whether you want it or not, it's a disaster”). Moments like these leave room for interpretation and, over time, create a strong bond between the listener and the record.

In fact, across Sentir Que No Sabes, each phrase–whether instrumental or vocal–becomes at some level emblematic of acts and moods that impart deep emotional significance. We see this best on “Intento fallido” (“Failed attempt”), which could be the score to feeling trapped in self-doubt, only to suddenly be sprung free by the song’s gloriously upbeat ending. On “Márgen del índice” (“Index margin”), the quicksilver switch between initial disharmony and a beautiful melody is breathtaking, all augmented by evocative arrangements, textured production, and the slightly playful, gnomic lyrics. The track’s emotional ecosystem allows another brilliant ending, which uses the simple repeated phrase, “Cómo lo va a ver?” (“How are you going to see it?”).

So what to make of Sentir Que No Sabes? High gloss Pastoralism? The sound of a city-bound, post-post modern soulscape? No matter the emotions evoked, it's the work of an artist coming into their own, and creating a benchmark record.





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