Category: New Releases

Artist: Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving
Title: Oscillating Forest
Format: LP, CD, Digital
Label: Bird’s Robe Records/ Dunk! Records
Distribution: MGM
Genre: Post-Metal/ Instrumental Rock
Release Date: 04/08/2023

Inspired by the sounds, intensity, emotion and life-cycles of the bush of the south-west of Australia, Oscillating Forest is a reconstruction of the harsh and varied landscape in audio form. As with the sounds and seasons of nature, the textures and tones captured here oscillate, pulse and modulate in a way that is not linear, predictable or safe; Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving guides the listener through a terrain where danger and beauty are found and contrasted around every turn. 

Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving composed the album in the mould of an hour-long live set – a free flowing piece of music, ignoring the constraints of standalone songs and traditional structures. Instead, each track is complementary to what comes before and after it, a constant transfer of searing energy and emotion, a cycle of constantly building and destroying itself. 

Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving recorded Oscillating Forest in 2021 and 2022 at Studio Sleepwalker’s Dread in North Dandalup, Western Australia. This was a period of intense inspiration for the band, the first  album written with Gracie Smith on drums – and second with Paul Briggs on guitar. There is a telling shift in energy and dynamics captured here – the chemistry and cohesion between Smith, Briggs and founding members Ron Pollard and Luke Pollard presented the opportunity to push further down the path of improvisation than previously captured on other Tangled records. Large swathes of the album were recorded live, with sections of improvisation punctuated by more purposefully layered movements.   

The artwork by South African artist Caitlin Mkhasibe further explores these themes of chaotic energy and space in the form of a conceptual view of Oscillating Forest, marked in map form. The lines, contours, terrains, textures, detail and intersections of trails echo the intertwining tracks of the record. 

Tracklist
1. Sudden Peril   
2. Ghost Albatross   
3. Twin Snakes In The Curvature   
4. Seep Into   
5. Lake Orb Altar 
6. Trinket Forest   
7. Lamprey Strings   
8. Bush Wallaby   
9. Folded Into   
10. The Mantle   
11. Oscillating Forest

Links
Official: http://tangledthoughtsofleaving.com 
Bandcamp: https://ttol.bandcamp.com/album/oscillating-forest 
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tangledtol   
Facebook: https://facebook.com/TangledThoughtsOfLeaving
Label: https://birdsrobe.com

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Artist: Hemina
Title: Romancing Together
Format: LP, CD, Digital
Label: Bird’s Robe Records
Distribution: MGM
Genre: Progressive Metal
Release Date: 11/08/2023

Get ready to embark on a mind-bending journey with Hemina‘s fifth album, Romancing The Ether, the epic conclusion to their conceptual story that has spanned their entire back catalogue. Explore the continuation of the adolescent’s story from Night Echoes, the child of the characters developed in their previous albums, Synthetic, Nebulae, and Venus. This album delves into the innermost motivations of family, meaning, and belonging through a psychological and spiritual journey. The 35-minute track is divided into 6 movements, each exploring the depths of the human psyche in a unique way.

Romancing The Ether is a genre-bending experience that draws influences from neo-soul, world music, ambient, and psytrance. The result is a cathartic musical journey that is as uplifting as it is dark and visceral.

The Australian progressive melodic metal quarter have earned a cult following for their signature syncopated grooves and multi-part vocal harmonies. The new album sees them pushed to their limits – it features over 100 part choral vocal arrangements and for the first time, live orchestral strings and 8-string guitars.

Hemina have shared the stage with international bands like Opeth, Haken, Queensryche, Protest the Hero, Kamelot, Apocalyptica, and Uriah Heep, as well as Australian legends like Caligula’s Horse, Chaos Divine, Voyager, Twelve Foot Ninja, Toehider, and Teramaze. They have also performed internationally at Progpower Europe (Netherlands) and Euroblast (Germany).

Their previous four albums were met with critical acclaim and showcased the band’s versatility and range. With Romancing The Ether, Hemina has once again paired with audiophile mastering engineer extraordinaire Ermin Hamidovic at Systematic Productions (Periphery, Devin Townsend, Plini, Architects) delivering their most polished, dynamic production to date.

Accompanied by an immersive full-length album visualiser, the record serves as a multimedia experience to transport listeners to another world, at a time when a temporary escape is sorely needed.

Romancing The Ether is out on Friday 11 August through Bird’s Robe Records. The band will embark on a series of tour dates during 2023, beginning with shows in Sydney & Canberra, joining long time friends and recent Eurovision finalists VOYAGER.

Tracklist
1. Romancing The Ether

Links
Official: https://hemina.com.au 
Bandcamp: https://hemina.bandcamp.com 
Instagram: https://instagram.com/heminaofficial
Facebook: https://facebook.com/heminamusic
Label: https://birdsrobe.com

Download press assets here 

Artist: Sounds Of New Soma
Title: Schimmer
Format: Digital Single
Label: Tonzonen Records
Distribution: Soulfood Music
Genre: Berlin School, Experimental, Elektro, Neo-Krautrock
Release Date: 26/05/2023

Schimmer is the first single from the upcoming album Fluxus 2071 by neo-krautrock duo Sounds Of New Soma, to be released fall 2023 on Tonzonen Records.

The new single is performed by the Sounds Of New Soma duo and very special guest Steffen Gründel on saxophone. Turn on, tune in, psyche out!

Fluxus 2071 is already the 13th album of the two musicians and yet again represents a very special step in the career of the band project. While the last album Musique Bizarre still Tonzonen label bands were brought on board for songs, so Alex Djelassi and Dirk Raupach have now again worked almost completely alone in the home studio Helmtown intensively on sounds.

Many sequences and melodies, abnormal tone sequences and spherical sounds further an excellent result has come about. Sounds Of New Soma at its best.

As the first song of the new album, Schimmer is deliberately an uncharacteristically short song. As short as catchy and captivating in its perception, the melody and the accompanying saxophone immediately remain positively in the listener’s consciousness.

An almost transcendental experience.
The song is the bridge to the whole.
The bridge to the rest of the album, which finds its continuation exactly in this way.

Links
Facebook: https://facebook.com/SoundsOfNewSoma 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soundsofnewsoma_official
Bandcamp: https://soundsofnewsoma.bandcamp.com 
Label: https://tonzonen.de

Artist: Judith Parts
Title: Meadowsweet
Format: LP, Digital
Label: self-released
Genre: Experimental
Release Date: 09/06/2023

Judith Parts, an Estonian artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer currently residing in Copenhagen, proudly presents her first solo album Meadowsweet. This enchanting musical masterpiece embarks the listener away on a captivating journey through self-discovery and personal growth.

Distinguished by its unique structure, Meadowsweet unveils a collection of songs and instrumental tracks divided into six chapters, which step by step reveal the story behind the album. Drawing inspiration from Nordic plants, Judith’s roots, and her ancestral lineage, the album gracefully pays homage to her Estonian heritage. Reflecting on her journey, Judith remarks, “Moving abroad made me really face myself. I started to realise how much we are formed by where we come from. How we carry all the beauty, but also all the pain that place and our ancestors have been through“. 

The album is accompanied by stunning visuals, a result of Judith’s collaboration with a jewellery artist Claudia Lepik, photographer Todd Richter, videographer Pille Kannimäe, and stylist Liisa-Chrislin Saleh. “Since the whole album is my way of looking at my roots, it was important for me to go to nature in Estonia to shoot the visuals,” Judith says.

The title track of the album is directly inspired by the Nordic plant meadowsweet. Meadowsweet smells sweet like honey, cures headaches and makes people fall asleep. Standing in a field of blooming meadowsweet feels like smelling your lover and getting completely high from it.” says Judith.

The song Meadowsweet is a tribute to the strength, power, sensuality and softness embodied by the “Meadowsweet Queen”, a character that emerged from Judith’s experience in a field of blooming meadowsweet. “After writing that song, it was clear to me that it would become the title track of the album.” 

Judith Parts is a Copenhagen based producer and artist who mixes acoustic instruments with electronics and field recordings, creating experimental pop songs and minimalist/melancholic instrumental tracks. Besides working on her solo project, she has composed and produced music for many theatre and dance performances. Originally from Estonia, she draws a lot of her inspiration from the nature she grew up in.

Tracklist
1. Meadowsweet   
2. Underwater Love   
3. København   
4. November   
5. Samsø   
6. Family   
7. Burn Like Witches   
8. Intro I   
9. Nettle Field   
10. Apple Tree   
11. Spells

Links
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/judithparts 
Official: https://judithparts.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/judithparts 
Facebook: https://facebook.com/judithpartsmusic 

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Artist: The Sun Or The Moon
Title: Andromeda
Format: LP, CD, Digital
Label: Tonzonen Records
Distribution: Soulfood Music
Genre: Psychedelic/ Kraut
Release Date: 16/06/2023

The Sun Or The Moon was founded in the summer of 2019 in Mainz by four adventurous and creative musicians to realize their sound inspired by the Kraut and Psychedelic Rock of the 70s. After the quartet had already released some songs in digital form on popular streaming platforms, the debut album Cosmic was released in September 2021 on Tonzonen Records as a double vinyl LP.

The four musicians Frank Incense (vocals, bass, guitar, synthesizer), Markus Weber (guitar), Susanne Schneider (piano and keyboards) and Niclas Ciriacy (drums and percussion) describe their sound as psychedelic space lounge music. Over an electronic foundation of repetitive beats and electronically generated soundscapes, the band develops their hypnotic sound, which is mostly located somewhere between monotonous Kraut, relaxed Psychedelic Ambient and sprawling Acid and Prog Rock.

With their second album Andromeda, which will be released on June 16, 2023, also on Tonzonen Records as vinyl, CD and in digital form, the four musicians open the next chapter of their chilling journey through time and space. The recording sessions and mixing of the new songs took a considerable amount of time due to the special and detailed ideas of the musicians, who also act as producers, and the large number of guest musicians invited to the sessions (including a string quartet). The musicians again used a variety of sources of inspiration that they incorporated into the production process: 60s and 70s psychedelic bands, art and prog rock acts (Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree), Krautrock (CAN, Amon Düül), electronic pioneers (Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream), trip hop (Massive Attack, Portishead) as well as world music, jazz, new wave and post punk. The special thing about The Sun Or The Moon here is that the four musicians manage in a relaxed way to merge their diverse influences into a homogeneous whole.

Tracklist
1. Operation Mindfuck
2. Psychedelik Kosmonaut
3. Planet 9
4. Andromedan Speed Freaks 
5. The Art Of Microdosing
6.  Into Smithereens
7. Surfin’ Around Saturn* 
8. 40 Days*
*CD only

Links
Official: https://thesunorthemoon.com 
Bandcamp: https://thesunorthemoon.bandcamp.com 
Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_sun_or_the_moon_music
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesunorthemoonband 
Label: https://www.tonzonen.de 

Download press assets here

Artist: Nile On Wax
Title: After Heaven
Format: LP, CD, Digital
Label: Tonzonen Records
Genre: Psychedelic Avantgarde Rock
Release Date: 19/05/2023

Known for her collaborations with international artists such as Iggy Pop, John Parish, Nick Cave or Hugo Race, Catherine Graindorge has joined forces with bassist David Christophe and drummer Elie Rabinovitch under the name Nile On Wax.

The music of the trio cannot be classified, it has a distinctive intense and almost nebulous identity. An atmosphere somewhere between post-rock, jazz and psychedelic sounds. The soundtrack for a western, or a late night city walk.

Artist: Bend The Future
Title: Sounds So Wrong
Format: LP, CD, Digital
Label: Tonzonen Records
Distribution: Soulfood Music
Genre: Progressive/ Jazz-Rock
Release Date: 19/05/2023

The Grenoble quintet’s spectacular third album is all about stylish surprises, elegant harmonies shaped by variety, and passion. What Bend The Future offers is not a jazz-rock album that transcends the genre, but an unforgettable adventure that expands over thousands of kilometers.

Formed in Grenoble, France almost exactly four years ago, Bend The Future hits hard once again with their third studio album Sounds So Wrong. Emerging from the fusion of progressive rock and contemporary jazz with Eastern European influences, the band had already established their sound with their first two records, particularly with their sophomore album Without Notice released via Tonzonen Records. Utterly distinct from every other band on the label in terms of sound, the band continues to showcase their fearless and ingenious approach in the new album, SSW. Evolving anew, Bend The Futurebuilds up on their sound, stoically moves forward along their distinctive path, and boggles minds in the process.

Artist: Ashinoa
Title: L’Orée
Format: LP, Digital
Label: Fuzz Club Records
Distribution: Cargo
Genre: Krautrock, Experimental, Psychedelic Electronica
Release Date: 12/05/2023 (EU)

Ashinoa is a french band born in Lyon in the closing stages of 2015. Since forming, the French four-piece comprised of Stefan Chamolt, Matteo Fabbri, Jérémy Labarre and Mathias Chirpaz have been at the forefront of the alternative scene in their home city of Lyon. Influenced by Krautrock and electronic music, they create a vaste universe centered around psychedelic synthesizers and guitars, percussive and kraut rhythms, and galactic visuals.

At times percussive and dancey, at others hypnotic and cinematic, the largely synthesiser-driven soundscapes of L’Orée feel both of the past and the future. It’s the sound of two different worlds – a record capable of being as primal and ritualistic as it is synthesised and digitally manipulated. Where the band’s prior minimal Krautrock (see their 2019 Sinie Sinie LP) might have brought to mind cold, dark post-industrial cities, L’Orée‘s kosmische experimentalism takes you instead on an instrumental journey through the the natural wilderness via the medium of shape-shifting psychedelic electronics.

Artist: The Upland Band
Title: Living In Paradise
Format: LP, CD, Digital
Label: Kapitän Platte
Distribution: D/AT: Cargo Records, Benelux: Sonic Rendezvous FR: Differ-Ant, CH: Irascible, IT: Goodfellas 
Genre: Psychedelic Guitar Pop
Release Date: 12/05/2023

The Upland Band is the one man band of Michael Beckett (aka kptmichigan, Super Reverb and ex- Tuesday Weld) who also produced, recorded and mixed the album, aided considerably by Dirk Kretz (Old Men Group, ex-Tuesday Weld) and Christian Obermaier (Eagle Boston, ex-The Innits). 

A small village, somewhere in the soft hills of Germany`s East-Westphalia, is where the stories from Living In Paradise take place, with the lyrics being informed by historical facts, objective observations and good old down and dirty village gossip. A concept album so to speak. 

The cast of characters ranges from a poorer than poor ragpicker, to a retired cop, nazi neighbours and the ghost of an unknown, downed Canadian bomber pilot to name just a few. The stories told involve, among others, a historical paper mill which was used for Methamphetamine massproduction, the hardships of life in the 17th century, a steam powered train on which you can eat Kale and sausages and get wasted to pleas for the villagers to try just a little harder. 

Artist: Howlin’ Sun
Title: Maxime
Format: LP, CD, Digital
Label: Apollon Records 
Distribution: Plastic Head Distribution
Genre: Southern/ Blues Rock
Release Date: 05/05/2023

Howlin’ Sun is finally back with their highly anticipated 2nd album. The sound is familiar for fans of the first album, but this time it is crisper, darker and bigger. The dark and heavy title track Maxime – a homage to a legendary former venue in Bergen, sets the stage for the album.

Maxime is a broad exploration of the rock genre going from southern country rock to gritty garage, complimented by the indie intermission Jayne and the americana album closer Bittersweet Morning Sun.