“Everyone should go to Japan at least once in their lives,” Tokyo's SHIMA feels. Not everyone will be able to. But at least, you can enter the vivid world of her new album which combines sensual groove patterns, folk melodies, club moods and her vocals into a beguiling, neon-lit urban fantasy.
Only someone who takes the roots of jazz so seriously could come up with a vision of the genre this fresh: After getting kicked out of the Paris conservatory, Remy Béesau started forging his own curriculum, built around sampling, beats, deep moods, and his soaring trumpet lines.
For their debut album, the duo retreated to a small wooden house, away from the busy bustle of their Rotterdam base. Here, they sought to write the music which best represented their identity as “new nomads” and their reality as a creative part of the Turkish diaspora.
“I’m such a sucker for spatial effects like reverb and delay,” Tokyo producer, Ableton-trainer and composer Sakura Tsuruta says, “I probably overuse them!” On her latest EP, however, every note, treatment and sound is at its right place – it's the aural equivalent of a perfect Lemon Sour.
Franz Scala about a modestly sized analog synthesizer with a gothic sound and the power of the big polys.
For their new album, the duo covered Jefferson Airplane's classic "White Rabbit.” Astoundingly, their version turned out to be even more psychedelic and otherworldly than the original. Spirituality has little to do with it – it's all about “love, religion, and the nature of truth.”
Some producers struggle with over-seriousness. Not Invexis. His hard-hitting, high-octane techno sound is the result of a playfully open-ended process. One of his new tracks kept joyfully shapeshifting for an entire year – clearly, the journey is the reward here.
The Moroccan producer builds sonic utopias from field recordings, found sounds and ferocious groove patterns. Listening is never passive, it's never just one thing – it's healing and transformative, questioning and consoling. As he puts it, it's “a way to read and understand the world around us.“
Many listeners experience mental images. But can the feet of dancers, too, sense the impulse behind a beat? In the music of Closet Yi, scenes, sounds, and sentiments collected while traveling translate into a architectural web of urban patterns – percussive, visionary, and beguiling at once.
In the club, dancers have been seen struggling to find the movements to match the Colombian producer's beats. At home, however, and ideally under a pair of immersive headphones, his music takes on the kind of soothing quality that some dystopian sci fi flicks convey.
The Brussels trio delivers the true Late-Night-Jazz. Based on dreamy piano licks, trance-inducing drumming, spiritual basslines and phantasmagoric synths, this is the soundtrack to a night filled with promises, headed for a morning that will never come.
Making music, to Indian-American producer Kush Arora, means placing energy at the right spot – or creating new ones for it to inhabit. Born in live situations and hyper-saturated with noise, the results have a meditative, hypnotic quality about them – although they have got him threatened as well.
Spiritual jazz can get nigh-symphonic. For Blue Earth Sound, James Weir was looking for something more intimate. Mostly built around sweet piano riffs, soulful drums, and blissful flute and brass, the music takes you to safe places of healing and comfort.
“I am learning from the masters that everything you have is right in front of you.”
Juri Seo's work explores “the continuum between timbre, harmony, and noise.” Yet its main goal is not experimentation, but exhilaration. Making consistently surprising use of just intonation, electronics, and traditional instruments, this music makes you forget the past and remember the future.
Steve Lawler has gone through a “god awful” first record and overcome gear addiction to end up in a place where music is a pure expression of emotion. His new single is a relentless burst of energy – describing a place where euphoria and unfulfilled desire merge.
David wanted his new album to be “strange, trippy and beautiful.” It turned into more than that: A fantasy for vocals, wind controller, MIDI guitar, and drum-synthesizer that goes from poetic babblings and insular sounds to mysterious structures. It's like witnessing the birth of a new music.
The Australian producer is wrapping huge emotions in a soft fabric, aiming for euphoria with small gestures. Her debut full-length encompasses and congenially blends dreamy house, sequencer electronica, and dancefloor anthems – this is what it feels like to truly be taken on a journey.
Furtherset's work is brimming with a potential for synaesthetic confusion: Intuitions get “tuned,” images explained, visuals and sounds collide. It is music that has to bridge the divide: Richly resonant, menacing yet balletic, these orchestral ambient works are still-lifes at the cusp of eruption.
His classical education and the accompanying mindset almost ended cellist Daniel Brandl's creative ambitions. Now, his music exists in a fascinating “inbetween-ness” - a driftstate which allows for a force beyond the players and their influences to emerge.
The sonic scenes of the sensitive sound sculptor's soundtrack to a surreal Icelandic documentary never surrender to the striking images. The rhythm of the movie and the floating ghostliness of the synthesizers interlock, creating a dialogue across different layers of perception and consciousness.
Sometimes barely a minute short, James Burns' ambient work hovers weightlessly at the cusp between clip and composition. Every piece briefly opens a portal into a world of blurry outlines, unresolved grief and softly lingering tones – one step further, and you'd loose yourself.
Maybe our narratives of the new are broken: Lingyuan Yang's latest album has the shape and the line-up of a jazz trio. Underneath, however, microtonal melodies, hyperreal virtuosity and constantly shifting constellations create a seductive sensation of inspiring disorientation.
The German duo are playing trippy house with a jazz mentality, treating the studio like the stage, blurring the lines between downbeat and dancefloor. Their latest jams were only supposed to yield one EP's worth of material – then they couldn't stop themselves.
Mary Yuzovskaya's vision of minimalism is one of the most consistent in techno. Intriguingly, her creative process is the exact opposite: it knows no limitations, rules, or extraneously imposed boundaries.
Jeremy Delvila has always had a knack for minimalism. Born and raised near Paris, he also has the legendary “French Touch.” His new EP is based on the simple premise of making every single element sound as soulful as it possibly can.
In Glasgow Domenic Cappello is already a legend. The pieces of his upcoming EP could make him one far beyond the city's borders. Layering rich, dreamy strings over Kraftwerk'esque beatwork, it's his most personal release yet.
Born in Afghanistan, Farhot has become one of Germany's most acclaimed and exciting hip hop producers. The future? Is all about never being boring.
“The modular's an instrument that I have to work on constantly. When I come back from a holiday, I often find myself wondering how it all works.”
The French producer's hypnotic sonic dreams do not reinvent the rules of deep house. Suffused with warmth and a sense of wonder, they extend into worlds that retain their mystery yet feel like coming home.
Translating their raw, propulsive electronic afrobeat to the stage remains a constant challenge for the trio. The real task, however, is to remain relevant: “Being an original artist today feels like survival.”
Something's hidden in the basement, something sinister and hypnotic, flooded in strobe light, smeared with pulsating synth streaks. If you want to feel safe here, you've got to make the demons your friend.
Konalgad's debut LP sits at the cusp between dream and nightmare, reliving and exorcising a dark phase in his life. And yet, these pieces move towards the light, not away from it – testimony to the ideal of physically playing, singing and moving his body while composing.
Beats, sampled and chopped lyrics, field recordings and processed instruments: In his wondrous songs, inspired by Irish culture and poetry, Daniel McIntyre excavates fossils from the future.
Ukrainian producer Anton Somin talks the talk on the future of music - and his meticulously crafted, future-high, sample-shot rhythmical sculptures more than delivers on the promises.
An inveterate perfectionist Live Sollid Schulerud could never finish a track in a few hours. Perhaps that's precisely what makes her inimitable electronic songscapes, often driven by deeply personal experiences, so unique.
Max Walker is right – his hard-hitting fusion isn't avantgarde per se. But it is certainly part of the vanguard when it comes to rhythmical inventiveness, emotional complexity and the creation of deep, innovative textures.
After once being blown away by Reich's 18 Musicians, the Catalan composer no longer looks at music through a maximalist or minimalist lense. It's all about finding and honing the ideas that truly matter.
Sri-Lankan born Dilee D has found a new home in Chicago. A firm believer in the benefits of technology, his shimmering melodic house is inspired by the constant need to push the envelope.
Experiencing the duo's debut album MestizX is “like downloading a mountain” - a mind-altering journey through trance-inducing vocals, multilayered drumming, naked emotion and psychotropic electronics.
From Protection-era Massive Attack via modular-synth-fantasies to stripped-down melancholia, Nite Kite is exploring personality over progress.
First, Febriani spent time in the Indonesian forest. Then, she translated the inspiratio into stripped-down, bass-heavy percussion-funk.
The French quintet shape their own vision of 21st century jazz, soul, and hip hop – seducing the mind, but keeping the body engaged.
For Iona Evans, sheer determination in the face of rejection and belief in the world you are creating are crucial.
As masters of Back to Back DJing, the French duo are constantly in conversation through music.
"My own voice isn't loud enough to be heard. So I'll let the music speak through big speakers."
“This album has been a quiet form of personal activism—a subtle response to the outside world.“
"There is only one rule: does the music have an effect on me? Anything that doesn't fulfil this rule can go."
“Everyone has their own way to fight their demons. For me, dancing is one of the healthiest ways to do that.“
"I notice a certain darkness in AI generators. The word “fear” feels very relevant here."
"I'm trying to create sonic worlds. Textured palettes, and sounds that can also be imagined as symbols."
“Music is about emotions, a narrative, a beginning and an end. Sound deals with what is there, what occupies the space.”
"I do not regard my music to be an expression of emotions or feelings - but as an expression of musical ideas and of the unfolding of time."
"The process of connecting sounds often mirrors life."
“I believe that my new club Surreal is a unique experience in club culture."
"In an improvisation, every participant is putting a musical offering into the mix. All the others are called to respond to it."
"It's essential to dominate the technology, not let it dominate you."
“One of the things that attracted me to England was the rain!“
"There's a balance between embracing the vast potential of electronic music and using constraints to drive innovation."
"In electronic music, we are still pioneers."
"Electronic music can possess a specific kind of nostalgia. It feels like an open door to write something new."
"You don't need infinite sounds. You need the right ones."
"I want collaborators to have complete musical freedom. Too many words in advance can destroy that."
"Songs as we create them in the western world are in effect mathematical equations."
“I find something magical in not knowing too much.”
"Programming drums in Ableton made me understand the beautiful math behind rhythms."
"Choosing constraints is a very important part of the creative process."
"Some of the time I may have a slightly unorthodox way of working."
"I love losing myself within a world where there is no absolute control."
"To be considered a part of a lineage would be the ultimate compliment for me."
"I have to set some sort of limits. Otherwise I’d just spend a whole week putting phasers on fart samples."
"Banging doors and people shouting – those things can completely throw me and send my heart racing."
"I have to love it, enjoy it. It's art. That’s what it's all about."
"We are now close friends - even though we haven't met in person yet!"
"Practical application with your own experiences is what makes the difference."
"I try to have an idea of the song in 3-4 hours. Finishing the production can take me weeks."
"I like my modular world. There isn’t a preset in sight!"
"Technology, technology! Can we all stop whinging and try to enjoy ourselves?"
"Improvisation embodies the humanity and uncertainty that can often be lost in electronic music."
"If I may say so: There's some really wicked, high-quality shit on my new album."
"I have a terrible habit of rarely using the same kick drum. It has cost me months of my life."
“You can live your whole life as a work of art - from eating to dressing to loving.”
“The best music usually isn’t the most original, never-before-heard thing.”
“Lofi Symphony is my masterclass of interpretation.“
“Don't believe the hype! Quality, simplicity and emotions will always win in the long run.”
"Being able to travel the world as a DJ seemed utterly ridiculous when I started.“
“Collaborating potentially comes from our furious need to connect.”
"At some point, machines take control – and drive me to paradise!"
"When I’m low on ideas I always try to buy new hardware or software to find new inspiration."
"I’ll have an idea and I’ll see it through."
"I use a lot of what people might view as just noise or error sounds."
"There is music hidden in the sound of boiling water and burning firewood."
"Sound is an invisible presence. It has the ability to completely occupy and fill a space it's in."
“We are already becoming cyborgs. Our intertwinement with machines is getting deeper every day.”
“I was given 15 minutes at Abbey Road. I ended up getting enough stuff for 2 records.”
"Working without a DAW totally changed the way I write music."
"I usually find that a good song is easy to produce. Try producing a bad song, it’s really hard."
“With live instruments and musicians, the music remains fluid until you record it.”
"The kitchen is always rewarding. Some of my sounds are samples of saucepans."
"I believe in creative mixing. It's the ultimate personality stamp on a piece of music."
"Sometimes technology stifles creativity. Especially when you're more into technology than music."
"It's like there's an ancient civilisation hiding behind the DX7 algorithm."
"Sound challenges our beliefs of how the universe is supposed to be."
"I am curious about stimulating the brain with music that is not audible. Are we still ‘hearing sounds’?"
"It's very hard to make the sound of a dental surgery appealing. But it's a challenge we are willing to take."
"I like music when it’s weird and poetic at the same time."
"All the important plugins exist already. They just aren't 100% yet."
"I doubt AI will offer much beyond saving time or small variations."