LIGHT-070

Tuqoos, Julmuds debut album release is a 15 track project rooted in heavy beats that bend space and time to subvert forms of enclosure. The sounds have an almost granular detailed texture while maintaining a gripping rhythmic flow via dense bass lines and a bitter sweetness in the melodies, blurring the lines between hanging on a street corner, at a protest or in a club. Produced in Ramallah - Palestine, Tuqoos pushes up against otherwise inaccessible space, resisting the conditions of a body in capture through sounds that morph, slip through and create breaks in times and spaces that remain occupied.

Majâz is undoubtedly the album that enlight the musical virtuosity of the Joubran Brothers. Between enthralling notes, striking musical shakes and burning silences, Trio Joubran invites us to an intense journey.

"This is an album that captures not just the product of exile, but a moment of relocation." - Adriane Pontecorvo, Pop Matters



"Summoning traditional Ethiopian melodies from the newest instruments within reach (synthesizers, drum machines, electric guitars), Admas specialized in paradox, generating exquisite new grooves that felt high-tech and low-budget, worldly and local, futuristic and nostalgic, funky and delicate." - Chris Richards, Washington Post



"...the great Jon Pareles recently turned me on to Admas, a band of Ethiopian expats in Washington, D.C., whose 1984 album “Sons of Ethiopia” is a rare and coveted find in the world that JP inhabits. Frederiksberg Records released a remastered version of the record late last month; ...It’s like instrumental go-go meets Ethiopian synth: excellent cooking music, in other words." - Sam Sifton, New York Times



"Asked why Sons of Ethiopia is finding new audiences all these years later, Aklilu speculates, modestly, that homebound music fans are starved for new recordings. Or maybe, it’s suggested to him, the album is simply good music? 'It is good music!' he says. 'I really think so. We put all of our hearts in it.'” - Rob Brunner, The Washingtonian



"Seven songs long, Sons of Ethiopia took the trio’s Ethio jazz/Ethiopian pop foundations and expanded them to include the drum machines and sleek synths of electro and the vibrant rhythms of reggae, samba, and highlife. The results were a perfect representation of their cultural connectivity. “It’s a global thing man,” Aklilu says. “It’s not even an Ethiopian thing. We were in the city, and the global thing was going on.” - Martyn Pepperell, Bandcamp Daily







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Sons of Ethiopia is a fascinating piece of the Ethiopian musical puzzle. Emerging from the community of Ethiopian exiles who had been scattered to the winds by the brutality of the Derg – the military dictatorship that had deposed Haile Selassie – the album was the sound of a new generation. The members of Admas were not musicians from the so-called ‘golden age’: they were children of the terror and propaganda of the Derg time – an era of state-sponsored neighbourhood bands and a propaganda-tinged traditional music scene, where the weekends were sound-tracked by the remaining hotel groups of a bygone Imperial world.



An instrumental album, rich with global influences, Sons of Ethiopia is one of the few Ethiopian recordings to have been produced outside Ethiopia in the early 1980s. As such, it is a key document of the Washington DC exile scene. The core members of Admas – Tewodros ‘Teddy’ Aklilu, Henock Temesgen, and Abegasu Shiota – had previously played in a group called Gasha, one of the few Ethiopian bands working regularly in DC during the early 1980s. Admas was born from Gasha, as an outlet for their more experimental instincts. Though they played as a backing group for singers (including Aster Aweke), the music on Sons of Ethiopia was never performed live.



Exiled in DC, far from the stifling propaganda and state terror of Derg-ruled Ethiopia, Admas took Ethiopian popular music into wholly new territory. Sons of Ethiopia is infused with broader musical influences than any other Ethiopian recording of the time. Having established a residency at the Red Sea restaurant in the early 1980s, the Admas players were steeped in the polyglot musical culture of the American capital. The diverse sonic influences of the city filter into the music, making the album a radically modern work of Ethiopian fusion. Mulatu, Girma Beyene and their peers in 1960s Addis Ababa had created an Ethiopian pop sound by using rhythms from Latin music, soul and jazz. Admas threw their net wider still, adding highlife, electro, go-go, samba, and roots reggae to the mix.



Sons of Ethiopia is the only recording of its time to capture young Ethiopian musicians in the US, cutting loose on their own thing. It is the fresh sound of youth, freedom and imagination, which the band made for themselves and by themselves, owning every part of the process. But it is also a music of exile, made by players who performed week in week out for crowds of their fellow Ethiopians, many of whom had lost family and friends to the Derg, and had often fled to the US in fear for their lives. Sons of Ethiopia channels this loss, longing and hope, and it is imbued with the melancholy and nostalgia so typical of Ethiopian song. A joyful work of synthesis and experiment it may be, but its roots run deep.

Newly-founded Icelandic imprint NIX welcomes Swiss talent Chlär for its sophomore release as he drops a trio of dynamic productions across his ‘Dance Instructor’ EP.



An imprint with an ethos of showcasing fresh, singular material from across the electronic spectrum, NIX looks set to make a statement as a label to watch in the months ahead. Founded in 2021 by Reykjavik favourite and bbbbbb alumnus Árni, who combined with fellow Icelandic talent and synth-disco producer Hermigervill for the label’s first release, the label now opens its doors to its first international guest in Berlin-based, Swiss DJ, producer and label owner, Chlär. Fresh from releases on Mutual Rytm and Welcome To The World Loop, the Bipolar Disorder coowner flexes his muscles as he serves up a trio of driving yet nuanced productions across his ‘Dance Instructor’ EP.



A1 ‘Galvanizer’ is a loopy, hypnotic tunnelling ride through classic and modern techno soundscapes as rolling drums and icy hats guide vocal snippets down a descending groove, while ‘Vital Force’ showcases his studio talents and wide-reaching sound palette as skittering percussion, snaking low-ends, and further warped vocal interjections drive the production into the peak-time hours. The B-Side is home to title track ‘Dance Instructor’, serving up a seven-minute cascading dive through vivacious, spirited percussion arrangements, resonant lead stabs and sharp claps to draw from cues in its title and serve up a production set to make dancers let go and lose themselves to the groove.

gravado em 3 dias em Maio de 2019 na Sala de Ensaios Galéxia (Braga, Portugal)



Label: Cantigas do Poço

Produção e masterização: David Machado



Guitarra e flauta transversal (Víboras Negras): Leonor Coutinho

Guitarra (Maria): Maria Salgado

Baixo e Mini Korg (Intro): Inês Perdiz

Baixo (Melhor Assim): Maria Salgado

Teclado: Fernanda Maria

Bateria: André Vagaroso

Trompete: Kali

Vozes: Vanessa Rodrigues + Maria Salgado

Voz (Televendas): Leonor Coutinho

Voz (Melhor Assim): Inês Perdiz

Coros: Todos + Sara Maui

Percurssões e palminhas: Todos

Bebé: Manú



Poesias: Todos

Poesia "Melhor Assim": Sara Maui



Agradecimentos: Projéctil (R.I.P.) e respectivo staff: João Martins, Rui Santos, Tiago Frodo, Fernando Fernandes; Sara Maui; Sofia Ophelia, Jordi Lopes; Filipe Moreira; Emanuel Fernandes; Kapa; Jota Brito; Tiago Marroco; José Silva; Rafa Carvalho; Henrique Palmeirim; Suri Cata; Smith; RockStar Pub; The Nancy Spungen X; Vai-te Foder; Pé Roto; Panelas Depressão; e todas e todos os que se cruzaram connosco nesta viagem intergaláctica







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"Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun" is as much a 'greatest hits' as it is a 'debut album' for Ben LaMar Gay. It's a collection of music composed, performed & produced by the anomalous Southside Chicago-born, sometimes Brazil-residing artist, compiled from 7 albums he made over the last 7 years but never made the effort to actually release.



With its title taken from the mantra Ben repeats across several tracks on "Grapes" (1 of the 7 aforementioned albums), "Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun" is our effort to channel the rainbow of sonic expressions, art & poetry beaming from the ark of his unreleased catalogue into a cohesive & communicable compilation. It's as good of an introduction to Ben LaMar Gay as we could fit onto a single LP. To call it "eclectic" would only scratch the surface. This music is everything.

Created around a conversation with his brothers, Alfa blends melancholy Jazz harmony with alternative hip-hop and soul.

"so the flies don't come"

by milo

produced by Kenny Segal

RBYT002



"Spring returns; it returns and will go away. And God

curved in time repeats himself, and passes, passes

with the backbone of the universe on his shoulder.



When my temples beat their mournful drum,

when that sleep etched on a knife hurts me,

there are desires not to move an inch from this poem!"

- César Vallejo. Weary Circles.

Birth Of A New Day is available on vinyl, cassette and better value digital from our official store















































‘Birth Of A New Day’ was the second album of collaborative duo of HKE and Telepath, working under the name 2814. A follow up to a relatively minor hit at the time – the self-titled debut ‘2814’, ‘Birth Of A New Day’ ended up becoming a radiant realisation of the original project’s intention, as both artists expertly mixed and matched ambient palettes and styles to create the vague and distant neon utopia – a sense of romantic melancholy and longing peppered by the suggestive sounds of the world the music inhabited.



An album that shaped an era, ‘Birth Of A New Day’ was quite literal in a prescient manner as it shook the foundations of the underground and catalysed the ‘dreampunk’ movement coming out of the post-vaporwave era – helping define the aesthetic of Dream Catalogue as a record label in the process.

Hania Rani announces ‘Music for Film and Theatre’ a personal selection of recent compositions for film, theatre and other projects.



Writing music for film and theatre has always been a big part of Hania Rani’s musical world. It is also a part of the creative process that can be tantalisingly out of reach for listeners, either the project doesn’t come to fruition or the music simply isn’t available away from the film or play. From early collaborations with friends, to last year’s two scores for full length films (xAbo: Father Boniecki directed by Aleksandra Potoczek and I Never Cry directed by Piotr Domalewski‘) Rani has been involved in many such projects, each representing an important step in her artistic development and life as a composer and artist:



“Composing for motion picture or theatre is for me a very different kind of work than writing for my own projects. Firstly, I need to collaborate with somebody else who sees the world through the lense of their own art and craft. That's why these kinds of encounters can be so exciting - they are a promise of creating something very new, as a result of creative work of so many people from all walks of life. Secondly, I feel that music in film is an invisible character, a missing emotion that creates a special atmosphere and sensation. It doesn't illustrate, it completes the work of art. I think it is an extremely sensitive matter that rejects banal associations and easy solutions. I feel like composing for film works like an exercise for my imagination.”



It is the nature of these collaborations though, that sometimes the composers own preferred compositions don’t make the final cut. This is where Music for Film and Theatre comes in as it allows Rani to present a selection of her own personal favourite pieces composed for film and plays. Pieces that made it to the final cut and pieces that were rejected by the director or the producer. Bringing the music together as an album offers a chance for Rani to share her music with her listeners on her own terms and a chance for her fans to hear a different side of her art.



“I put them in one place, as a collection of precious objects that were kept for years in a drawer. Some of them were composed a couple years ago, some are the result of recent research. I am very happy to finally be able to present them as a separate project."



Rani is of course grateful to all of the directors who have entrusted her to create music for their projects, but she professes especially warm feelings for the pieces composed for her first ‘real’ theatre play, Pradziady, directed by Michał Zdunik. The title comes from ‘Dziady’ a term in Slavic folklore for the spirits of the ancestors and a collection of pre-Christian rites, rituals and customs that were dedicated to them. The essence of these rituals was the ‘communion of the living with the dead’, namely, the establishment of relationships with the souls of the ancestors. “I felt this story needed extremely dark and fragile music, and at the same time a sound that could express the mixture of the two worlds - the living and the dead. I decided to compose part of the soundtrack with a string quartet but including two cellos, viola and only one violin. We recorded in a little house, completely built from wood, mostly from Finnish pine. I always felt this space has a very special, warm and natural acoustics - especially when it is combined with string instruments. The track composed for this theatre play is called Ghosts but actually didn't finally make it to the performance, although I like it so much that I thought it would perfectly fit





this compilation”. Other highlights include the enchanting Soleil Pâle written for a collaboration with director Neels Castillon, and improvising dancers Alt Take, the beautiful melancholy of In Between (from the film score for xAbo: Father Boniecki) and the magical bliss of The Beach (from I Never Cry) and together they create a beautiful offering from an artist whose every note is worth hearing, but for whom the journey is just beginning:



“I am very happy to see that many artists consider my music as the right soundtrack for their works, because film music was always a huge inspiration for any of my compositions. I find there a lot of life and real emotions, but also a feeling of freedom. Freedom from my own thinking patterns and prejudices. I also believe strongly in collaboration between people, I always feel this is the way to create something really new, based on a mixture of different ways of thinking, feeling, expressing.”



This then is Hania Rani, Music for Film and Theatre – enjoy!



Artwork by Łukasz Pałczyński

Design and layout by Adam Heron



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