“Krok” means “step” in Belarusian - and for Alex Chumak and his band this word comes with a lot of meaning. It’s the title and theme that run throughout SOYUZ's fourth album, reflecting the journeys the band has navigated in recent years, having moved to Warsaw due to political unrest in their homeland of Belarus and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Embracing the uncertainty became both the inspiration and main lyrical theme for Alex Chumak, SOYUZ’ composer and arranger, who also decided to go a step further and change the language in which he writes songs from Russian, which is used as lingua franca in many post-Soviet countries, to his native Belarusian. The result is nine songs about dreams and outer space, ordinary miracles, things very close and very distant at the same time.

In early 2022, Chumak and original members, Mikita Arlou and Anton Nemahai, joined tens of thousands of Belarusians seeking safety abroad. Resettling in Warsaw, the band released Force of the Wind in October 2022, garnering widespread acclaim, a string of major European gigs, and led to Polish musicians Albert Karch and Igor Wisniewski joining the band.

Deeper and more melancholic than previous works, KROK is quintessentially SOYUZ, laced with hope, dreams and a celebration of life. Given the difficulties with finding rehearsal and recording spaces in Warsaw and the departure of the drummer Anton Nemahai from the band, Chumak explored alternative options. He reached out to friend and fellow musical collaborator, Sessa, about the possibility of recording the new album in his recently finished studio in São Paulo, with Sessa and Biel Basile coming onboard as recording engineers.

At the tail end of 2024, Chumak and SOYUZ’ new drummer, Albert Karch, made the trip to São Paulo to record the first sessions for KROK. Sadly, they travelled without Mikita Arlou, SOYUZ’ co-founder and Chumak’s longtime creative partner, due to the financial impossibility of bringing him too. Laid down directly to tape, these sessions featured prominent Brazilian musicians Sessa, Biel Basile, and Marcelo Cabral, with a guest vocal feature by Tim Bernardes recorded at a later date. The final touches were then added back in Europe. Lush string and woodwind arrangements written by Chumak and Karch were recorded at the Polish Radio studio in Warsaw, and Rhodes parts were added by Chumak at Sven Wunder’s studio in Stockholm.

Though primarily recorded in Brazil, KROK is not a Brazilian or MPB album. It blends the bands' Eastern European roots with jazz, folk and global influences. The genre of the music is hardly identifiable: there are folk ballads and jazz-driven pop compositions covered in lush and often dissonant string and woodwind arrangements where each note is placed with care and meaning behind it.

Broad in its palette, KROK is full of highlights. The title track was the first song Chumak wrote in Belarusian as an adult, making for a fitting opener and one of the band’s finest tracks. Darker than most of SOYUZ’ songs, the tensions lift and lighten as the track progresses. The cinematic library jazz of 'Voo Livre', with ghostly vocals sung by Ciça Góes and Ina, feels like a modern twist on the Italian library composer Alessandro Alessandroni through its sublime choir and woodwind orchestration. Elsewhere, the heartfelt 'Lingua Do Mundo', composed, written, and sung by Chumak and the incredible Tim Bernardes, features one of the standout string arrangements from Chumak and Karch. 'Cichi Karahod' is an instant SOYUZ classic, almost Pat Metheny-esque as it opens, with the acoustic guitar and bass riff transitioning into jazzy AOR / pop-folk territory. The record closes with 'Smak žyccia', a gentle, dreamy spoken-word poetry piece in Japanese by singer-songwriter Manami Kakudo.

Despite immense challenges, SOYUZ have delivered a career-defining album in KROK. Heartfelt and beautiful, it is not an imitation of the past, but rather a truly original, contemporary expression all of its own.

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Tracklisting
A1 Roklem & Sebalo - Paradox
A2 Roklem & Sebalo - Absurd
B1 Roklem & Sebalo - Doppelganger
B2 Roklem & Sebalo - Zeitgeist

Sales Note
For us, dubstep has always been more than music; it's creative freedom to express emotions and to connect with a global family.
Paradox, Absurd, Doppelganger, and Zeitgeist are bilingual reflections of identity, contradiction, and culture - resonating across languages and borders.
Thank you all for being part of our journey releasing on DEEP MEDi after 9 years collaborating!
Chris & Sebastian
(Sebalo & Roklem)

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Tracklist
A1. WIM Fanfare - Prijs 75
A2. WIM Fanfare - Vrijloop
A3. WIM Fanfare - FM 84

B1. WIM Fanfare - Leer Mij Zingen
B2. WIM Fanfare - Gutcha
B3. WIM Fanfare - Piket
B4. WIM Fanfare - FM 88


LP in printed inner sleeve + insert. Cortizona proudly unveils Cortizona Heritage, a new sublabel created in partnership with the Study Centre for Flemish Music (SVM) to revive and showcase hidden chapters of Flemish music history. This heritage imprint will dig deep into the archives, restoring and reissuing rare, often overlooked recordings with the care and context they deserve. Its mission: to let unheard, thrilling, and underrepresented episodes of Flemish music history resound again, presented in beautifully crafted editions.



The debut release, Free Music (1975-1988) by WIM Fanfare, sets the tone. Founded in 1975 by pianist and improviser Fred Van Hove, tenor saxophonist Cel Overberghe, alto saxophonist André Goudbeek, and percussionist Ivo Vander Borght, WIM Fanfare emerged as the unruly street-arm of the Werkgroep Improviserende Musici (Workshop for Improvising Musicians). The WIM collective itself had been founded in 1973 as an act of protest - after Van Hove and Overberghe refused to play at Jazz Middelheim in 1972 in response to the stark pay gap between European and American musicians on the same bill. Instead, WIM members created their own event: the Free Music Festival, launched in Antwerp that same year.



Blending the exuberance of a marching band with the unpredictability of free improvisation, WIM Fanfare brought raw, joyful musical anarchy to city squares, parades, and unsuspecting audiences-especially during the Free Music Festival, where they became a tradition.



The recordings on Free Music (1975-1988) were first issued in 1990 as a cassette supplement to the art magazine Deus Ex Machina, an edition now virtually impossible to find. For this first-ever vinyl release of WIM Fanfare, these selections from Van Hove's extensive personal live archive have been fully restored and remastered. The album comes with newly designed artwork, an inner sleeve and cover featuring never-before-seen photographs by Gérard Rouy, and an exclusive insert with an original WIM Fanfare drawing, made by founding member Cel Overberghe, mid 70s. Detailed liner notes, assembled from archival press materials, interviews, and Van Hove's own tapes-complete the package, giving rich historical context to the music.



This LP not only captures the untamed spirit of a group that refused to march to anyone else's beat - it also launches an ongoing series dedicated to documenting, completing, and sharing the singular story of Fred Van Hove, WIM and the Free Music movement.



Recommended if you like:

Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Irreversible Entanglements, ICP Orchestra, Shabaka and The Ancestors, Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, Phil Cohran & The Artistic Heritage Ensemble, Moondog, Colin Stetson Ensemble, Fire Orchestra, Mette Rasmussen Trio North, Sun Ra Arkestra, Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra, BRAHJA, Roscoe Mitchell, Archie Shepp, Max Roach Freedom Now Suite, Global Unity Orchestra & good music



Sounds like:

Proto-street punks tearing into instruments they were never meant to play but delivering splendid tunes.

The Muppet Show Band feeding off each other's madness and vibe on the pulse of the pavement.






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DJ Support: DJ Harvey, Kelvin Andrews/ Balearic MIke (Down to the Sea and Back), Howler (Pikes/Totem Projects) Joe Morris (Shades of Sound/Pikes)

New vinyl only 4 track EP of reinterpretations on the fledgling Oswego Music label, from the mysterious Lovehandles.‘Unrequited Dub’ sees a quintessential eighties tune and Larry Levan favourite reframed as an epic 11 minute balearic slow jam- with scarce copies available digitally getting plays in recent months from Kelvin Andrews/ Balearic Mike (Down to the Sea and Back), Howler (Pikes/Faith/Totem Projects) Joe Morris (Shades of Sound/Pikes) and even Mr Harvey Bassett seeking out a copy. One for sunsets and heartbreak. Next up-‘Stars before the Sun’ is a recut of a thrift store Hare Krishna disco funk cut. WIth solina strings, drum breaks and a positive message to live for now. ‘Crystal Lites’ first on the flip; heads to the disco. Versioned here with whacked out pinging delays and reverbs. It’s been reworked before, but never like this. ‘It’s a Long Shot’ second on side two, is a 12” mix that never was- an eighties Balearic drum machine pop favourite,extended for djs. Its ethereal vocals, minor keys and spaced out fx perfect for late nights and early mornings. ‘The Drum-Set (skit)’ rounds things off here- a short and sweet reminder of the international, multiracial origins of rhythm. Perfect for mixtape intros and interludes.

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Having worked together on his 2024 album Colours & Light, Project Gemini aka Paul Osborne joins forces once again with Wendy Martinez, French singer and composer, and also part of renowned psych-girl group Gloria on a new collaborative EP. Landing on Mr Bongo, ‘Time Stands Still / Le temps s'arrête’ is a sonic exploration that shows a shared love of the progressive music emanating out of France in the ‘60s and ‘70s and the celebrated film soundtrack composers of the time. A more melodic and romantic excursion than Paul’s previous recordings, this EP marries his richly textured, cinematic psych rock with Martinez’s captivating vocal presence.

A body of work born during the period Paul was finishing up his last LP Colours & Light, he penned an album’s worth of instrumental library-style music and had the idea of having Wendy add vocals and lyrics to a selection of them. The instrumental record got scrapped, but thankfully ‘Time Stands Still’ grew out of it.

Paul was a fan of Wendy’s work as both a solo artist and in the band Gloria, and her inclusion on the Project Gemini tracks ‘Entre chien et loup’ & ‘Extra Nuit’ showed a clear synergy to their musical approaches and sounds. For ‘Time Stands Still’ he sent over instrumental tracks one by one, with Wendy taking time to find melodies and French poetry she was happy with and returning her ideas from her home just outside of Lyon.

Drawing inspiration from French soundtrack composers such as François de Roubaix, Francis Lai and Michel Colombier, as well as French female artists including Léonie and Laurence Vanay, these productions are a contemporary love letter to this sound, not a homage. Mixing psych, folk, chanson, and French new wave, it’s music that pulls you in deeper, with groove, grit and passion at its core.

'Je n'ai plus peur' kicks things off with a sultry energy. It’s a psych-funk production drenched in attitude, swagger, and edge, which nods to the left-field side of Serge Gainsbourg’s music. Elsewhere, 'Âme contre âme' feels like the opener from a forgotten new-wave film, managing to be at both beautiful yet sinister and longing. 'Crawler' could be incidental music from the same film, with Wendy using her voice as an instrument layering the backing track as Paul's bass takes centre stage. The ghostly spoken word of 'Ce qui est intact' echoes a funky version of what the Théâtre du Chêne Noir d'Avignon may have recorded.

A transportive journey ‘Time Stands Still’ is nostalgic yet new in the same smoke-filled breath. Fuzzed-up guitars and driving basslines meld with folk-leaning organs and mellotron vibrations to give that eerie, otherworldly edge. All of which are seasoned by the sensuous, layered vocal tones of Wendy Martinez, alongside crisp drums from Tony Coote and considered percussive touches by Paul Elliot.

Vinyl 12" comes with lyric sheet insert.

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Japanese drummer and producer Takafumi Okada has had his hands in several projects over the last 12 years or so, and, like with his music, patterns emerge: his discography is full of DIY sounds, an unconventional attitude to production, and an ability to create tension and mystery with layered polyrhythmic grooves.

Takafumi is well known as the former drummer of goat, the experimental band from Osaka. His mathematical lock-grooves helped to zone-out minds and levitate audiences between 2017-2023, notably on goat’s third album “Joy In Fear”. Prior to that, Takafumi was playing in his trio The Noup, a formation of guitar, bass, drums and synths that found their own balance of no wave and trippy homemade sounds over the course of several releases since 2013.

Under his Manisdron alias, Takafumi has a clutch of weighty records and tapes. In particular a 12” EP and double LP “Body of Void” on US label L.I.E.S. demonstrates his high-octane, industrial style, made on hardware and a drum kit. There are also Manisdron tapes of glitchy scatterbomb electronics to be discovered on Takafumi’s own label Cathodic.

Takafumi’s new project Nboj Tespo is another intriguing offshoot. Warm electronic sounds are layered with polymetric rhythms across nine tracks, and arranged in such a way as to bring listeners into a hypnotic dance state. Takafumi combines his Elektron Machinedrum, Boss delay pedal and Novation Bass Station 2 at his home studio, to produce minimal grooves that grow into fully-fledged creatures and take on a life of their own.

While Manisdron is one side of Takafumi’s solo output - that is, industrial and machine-like rhythms made with a real drum kit - Nboj Tespo flips that premise, and creates organic songs with a drum machine. The artist name also hides a clue: shift every letter of Manisdron down a notch and we find ourselves on the other side of the alias - the same identity but from a different viewpoint.

If the viewpoint of Nboj Tespo has a theme, it’s one of finding positivity in life, or a mysterious sense of satisfaction in the everyday. That makes “Blessed Planet” a perfect companion, for both the inside and the outside world.

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Repress!

Out of print since early 2023 E. LIVE's first solo full length gets another repress due late Sept. The modern boogie sound with 6 cuts that dive deep deep into a funky transgenre orbital amalgamation of space funk, boogie, jazz funk, chill wave & deep house. Pic sleeve.

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Yan Tregger, born Edouard Joseph Scotto Di Suoccio, is a prolific French-Italian composer, trumpeter, arranger, and library music specialist. Tregger built a vast and varied catalogue of over 1,400 works registered with SACEM as a library music composer. His output spans funk, jazz-funk, psychedelic disco, electronic experiments, film soundtracks, advertising jingles, and even relaxation music.
This LP is a compilation of rare or unreleased tracks made by the Maestro in The 70's.

A1 - Bad Shot
A2 - Hard Way
A3 - Huff
A4 - Scarlett Room
A5 - Mister Kunz
B1 - The Girl In The Gold
B2 - My Next Life
B3 - Mineral
B4 - Henny

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Daniel Monaco Band is an international group led by Italian bassist Daniele Labbate. Blending jazz, funk, house and disco with live energy, their debut EP ‘Get Naked and Fly’ captures years of collaboration and experimentation. The result is a warm, analog-driven sound crafted by seasoned session musicians who’ve toured the world and are now channeling their creativity into original music as a group.

Lead track ‘Love Ago’ delivers modern disco with the authenticity of the golden era, ‘Mimouna’ has a psychedelic edge, with the WHODAMMANY remix taking the original into a more electronic direction. ‘The Devil Left Dancing’ takes a subtly off centre path, nodding to Brazilian influences, while the title track ‘Get Naked and Fly’ is raw and instinctive blending live instrumentation with electronic sensibilities.

The project is a testament to what happens when musicians trust each other enough to explore freely without chasing perfection. A live band speaking house, funk and jazz with one voice — analogue, soulful, and free.

Personnel : Percussion by Yannick Van Ter Beek, Drums by Robin van Rijn, Sax by Alessandro Russo, Guitar by Simone Cesarini and Bass by Daniele Labbate.

Designed by Bradley Pinkerton.

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