Category: New Releases

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 

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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.

Artist: Chris Staples
Title: Cloud Souvenirs
Format: LP, Digital
Label: Hot Tub Recordings
Genre: Singer-Songwriter/ Indie
Release Date: 26/05/2023

Cloud Souvenirs is the sixth full length album by American songwriter Chris Staples, ten songs spun from accumulated memory and flashes of insight into the hidden corners of life. Recorded in the midst of travel back and forth to Florida to deal with his mother’s declining health, Staples built an unselfconscious masterpiece, a cathartic and complete expression of his craft. Cloud Souvenirs is a parade of sculpted moments, some light and airy, some gray and heavy with rain– variations on beauty, tenderness, grief and unexpected joy. 

What is gone is all still here. Florida is a place steeped in memories and significance for Staples, landscape, humidity, shapes in the sky, intangible tokens of youth. He worked on the album intermittently during these visits, but had to cancel recording sessions to take his mother to the hospital. Her ever present piano playing around the house was a key to finding music. Her loss is a reality impossible to express. 

Cloud Souvenirs is laced with insistent phrases and melody lines that linger long after listening. Songs that hint at narrative without being weighed down by unnecessary detail. Evocative and economical, melancholic and magical. Songs that nourish life and encourage self-reflection. Pulsing electronica, acoustic strummers, synth stabs, dry snare drums setting the pace, clear melodies fill the sky, no rain for days.