S.O.L.L
Mind Reader

Touching Bass continue to prise open a distinct, exciting lane for themselves as a label home for forward-thinking, soulful music with the progressive second album (and third project) from Danish/Tanzanian trio, Athletic Progression — Jonas Cook (keys), Jonathan J. Ludvigsen (drums) and Justo Gambula (bass).'cloud high in dreams, but heavy in the air' sees the Aarhus-based band dive deeper into their intricately fused world of experimental, groove-based music. Recorded over the course of one week in Copenhagen in 2019, bringing together songs that had been marinating and evolving during their live shows, they finally felt ready to eternalise them in the studio. The rest of the album was written in in the studio, turning iphone memos of ideas from soundchecks into songs and improvising. The album serves as a time machine snapshotting processes and different times of Jonas, Justo and Jonathan's lives both personally and as a group, a current expression of past experiences.The album is mixed by Eric Lau (KOKOROKO, Yussef Dayes, Mansur Brown) and celebrates freedom and spontaneity at its core, beautifully capturing those playful moments where jams become songs. The title (which comes from Brother Portrait’s verse on “Extended Technique”) echoes that playfulness, while also contemplating on the realities of life and its important decisions.Sonic touchpoints include the space-leaning electronics of Brainfeeder’s Flying Lotus and Thundercat, the glowing dexterity of JD Beck & Domi and BadBadNotGood and jazz-fusion’s boundless nature, with rapper/poet Brother Portrait supplying the feels of London.Like all of our favourites they’re a band best experienced live, blessed with an uncanny ability to make three instruments sound fuller than most. As a result, they’re already familiar faces on Danish national television, have sold out multiple shows both at home and in Europe (supporting Moses Boyd and Alfa Mist) as well as receiving two Danish Music Awards and one Critic Award for ‘Best Musician’ between them.Outside of their own music, they’ve also played alongside talented contemporaries including Kaidi Tatham, Charlie Stacey, Erika de Casier and Taylor McFerrin in New York.With this album, a 20+ date European tour and a number of other exciting projects ahead of them, Athletic Progression are on the cusp of growing beyond their native Denmark and onto the global stage.

Laminated Skies is the new album by Jason Moore aka Raw Poetic, produced alongside friend and frequent collaborator Earl Davis aka Damu the Fudgemunk and featuring guest musicians Pat "P" Fritz on guitar and Luke Stewart on bass. Sessions for ‘Laminated Skies’ took place in the sweltering summer heat in 2019 at Windom Road studio in Brentwood, Maryland; with Damu’s production adding a tapestry of instrumentation including live and programmed drums, strings, vibraphone, kalimba, melodica, vinyl scratching and synthesizers. Musically pulling from the genres that make hip hop; the multidimensional work also draws inspiration from Ralph Ellison’s novel The Invisible Man, spirituals, and their individual influences -, on which Jason says “I was an English major, Luke is a jazz bassist, Pat a classically trained guitarist, and Earl brought in a wealth of knowledge that funneled us through a direction that worked.”

Le Beat Scientist américain vient de sortir "Universal Beings E & F Sides", une collection de quatorze titres inédits gravés pendant les sessions de son album de 2018 et réunis pour la BO du documentaire de Mark Pallman.

22a label founder, multi-instrumentalist and producer Tenderlonious continues to evolve away from his recent jazz projects and delve further into the world of house and electronic beats.This is his most club orientated release to date, yet he still manages to capture the essence of his live instrumentation. Detroit techno via Woking and South London!

Paris, May 13th 1968. There was a general strike. One last plane left the runway, strewn with flaming oil drums. On board were three jazz musicians wondering whether they would be able to return home one day. But for the time being they really want to make it to Madagascar where concerts and workshops with young local musicians were waiting for them. Pianist and bandleader Jef Gilson was accompanied by his bassist Gilbert "Bibi" Rovère (Martial Solal Trio) and the young drummer Lionel Magal (Crium Delirium). Gilson, who already had a reputation for finding new talent (it was thanks to him that, amongst others Jean-Louis Chautemps, Henri Texier, Jean-Luc Ponty or Michel Portal first became known) was literally blown away by the standard of the young Malagasy musicians, all capable of imitating their American idols by ear. Their names were known only to jazz fans on the island; Serge, Allain and Georges Rahoerson, Arnaud Razafy, Roland de Comarmond, Joel Rakotomamonjy, Alain Razafinohatra, Samuel Ramiara... Gilson then had a vision: he wanted to encourage them to play jazz which was truly Malagasy and which would find its’ soul in the island’s culture and traditional instruments (Sodina flute, valiha, various percussion instruments...).He would go back to the big island three times, in March (with cellist Jean-Charles Capon), in October 1969 (alone), then in February 1970 (as a trio with guitarist Raymond Boni and drummer Bertrand Gauthier). The two trips in 1969 would lead to the sessions, recorded on a simple ReVox with two Neuman microphones, which would make up the essential part of this mythical album entitled "Malagasy", and first issued in 1972 on the Lumen label, and then reissued, as early as 1973, on Palm, Jef Gilson’s own label.Apart from the last track, recorded in Paris in 1971 with Malagasy instruments brought back from trips by the trio which would play on the avant-garde "Le Massacre du Printemps" (Futura), all the other compositions on the album are by Jef Gilson, Jean-Charles Capon and the young saxophonist Serge Rahoerson. There is also a cover of a song issued just a few months earlier and that the Malagasy musicians had only heard through bits and pieces played by Gilson on piano: the song is "The Creator Has A Masterplan" by Pharoah Sanders, and it is one of the most wild and mystical versions you will ever hear.In May 1972, Madagascar itself would be the theatre of youth revolt. And the composition "Avaradoha" by Serge Rahoerson, the second track of the first side of this album, would be the anthem of the revolution on the streets.

Back in the day, French pianist, composer and all-round jazz superstar Jean-François Quiévreux, a.k.a. Jef Gilson, was up there alongside the likes of peers John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, and Sun Ra. In a fitting homage to the decades worth of sublime music, and his sad passing away in 2012, French quarter Palm Unit have released a lively, honest tribute, upbeat and contemporary re-interpretative vision of his legacy..Gilson has been noted for changing the face of bebop with free-jazz and afro. Along the way his big band featured the likes of Lloyd Miler, Bill Coleman, Michel Portal, and others. With his own recording studio and label Palm Records, Gilson released music from greats including Byard Lancaster, David S. Ware, François Jeanneau, and more. He also helped embed a more entho style to the world of jazz, inspired by his visits to Madagascar, which resulted in the famous Malagasy jazz albums.Palm Unit are a wildly eclectic super-group of jazz greats includes uKanDanZ's saxophonist Lionel Martin, keyboardist Fred Escoffier from Le Sacre du Tympan, drummer Philippe 'Pipon' Garcia whose mostly known from his worth with the Erik Truffaz Quartet, and special guest Del Rabenja -- who played alongside Gilson in Malagasy -- on the Magascan valiha harp. Palm Unit plays Gilson's repertoire without any a priori, in a totally complex-free manner, reinventing it whilst preserving its original essence. The keyboards sound almost psychedelic (and often not that far from the style of Eddy Louiss on Jef Gilson's 60's albums), the sax scratches, mews and wails, whilst the drums make the whole thing swing. Even Del Rabenja was surprised to rediscover the songs still sounding so modern, decades after they were created.