2025-11 November | SunNeverSetsOnMusic

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Woman Of Faces

CELESTE

Released 14 November 2025

Atlas Artists / Polydor Records

*****

Celeste delivers her most musically ravishing work yet — a vocally flawless, sonically lush album whose thematic ambition nearly matches its beauty.

Either side of her breakthrough debut album "Not Your Muse" (2021), Celeste has distinguished herself as one of the UK’s most expressive and emotionally intuitive vocalists, releasing numerous singles, EP's and compilations. Rooted in jazz, soul, and torch-song drama, she carries a timbre that feels both vintage and startlingly present. After the atmospheric introspection of "Not Your Muse", her work has grown increasingly cinematic, drawing from gospel, orchestral soul, and deeply textured sound design. Woman of Faces represents the maturity of an artist who now trusts nuance over spectacle and channels heartbreak, desire, and reflection through tone as much as words.
Woman of Faces is easily Celeste’s most musically accomplished album: strings glide, pianos smolder, and her voice - smoky, elastic, unmistakably her own - moves with impossible grace. Opening track "On With The Show", although excruciatingly short, soars majestically, as piano and percussion and strings reach levels matched only by Adele in living memory. "Keep Smiling" follows - as smooth and sophisticated as 40 years single malt. Her voice glides between restraint and emotional full-tilt with ease, drawing the listener into spaces of longing, memory, and self-questioning. The album’s strength lies in its restraint: nothing feels overworked, it's pace is almost glacial, yet every chord, every sigh, every turn of phrase resonates.

Thematically and lyrically, Woman of Faces contemplates identity, relationships, and inner conflict - how we present different faces to the world, and what remains when the masks fall away. Some songs capture that duality beautifully; others suggest it without quite resolving it, which leaves the thematic arc slightly uneven. But that vagueness can also mirror the complexity of real human emotion.

Placed against everything she’s done before, this album stands out as emotionally ambitious and musically assured. It may not answer every question it raises - but it asks them with rare subtlety and power.

Its combination of vocal brilliance, atmospheric craft, and emotional honesty make it one of the year’s most compelling albums.

Celeste Official Site

EUSEXUA Afterglow

FKA TWIGS

Released 14 November 2025

Young Recordings Limited

****-

Despite a solid foundation of club-ready beats, this follow-up to EUSEXUA is a stagnant, diminished afterglow by comparison, that misses a crucial artistic opportunity for reinvention.

Born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, FKA Twigs is an English singer, songwriter, dancer, and director. Rising to prominence with the avant-pop of LP1 (2014) and the raw, devotional artistry of MAGDALENE (2019), she has become a defining experimental voice. Her work blends electronic, industrial, and R&B elements, often utilizing her background in movement to craft elaborate visual and sonic worlds. Following the genre-fluid mixtape CAPRISONGS (2022) and the club-focused EUSEXUA (2025), Twigs continues to be recognized for attempting to redefine the boundaries of modern pop and dance music.

EUSEXUA Afterglow unfortunately reads less like a challenging artistic sequel and more like a collection of diminished B-sides or unadventurous outtakes from its celebrated predecessor. Where EUSEXUA blazed with chaotic, sensual fire, Afterglow merely simmers - thereby failing to extend, invert, or otherwise fuck with the original concept in a meaningful way.

The production remains tight - tracks like “Love Crimes” still deliver an industrial techno boom, but the overall experience is one of artistic stagnation, rather than of progression, expansion or subversion, any combination of which would have elevated both the original & its successor. For an artist who cultivates her genuine auteur status with a dedication to pushing musical, sexual and theatrical boundaries, EUSEXUA Afterglow presented a golden opportunity for conceptual reinvention that is not represented here (or in the proto-embryonic imagery and posturing in the album's accompanying videos).

Only time will tell whether her choice to merely double down on familiar sounds, rather than subvert or surprise, represents a ceiling to her current artistic trajectory.

Even if the album is not a setback to her avant-garde credibility, the result is a competent but ultimately disappointing companion piece to EUSEXUA, that pales in comparison to her best work.

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Cavejaz

FABIANO DO NASCIMENTO

Released 21 November 2025

Leaving Records All Genre

*****

A mesmerizing, rhythmically intricate exploration of Brazilian musical lineage, in which the nylon string guitar seems transformed, becoming a vessel of discovery, imagination and immersion.

Los Angeles–based Brazilian guitarist and composer Fabiano do Nascimento has long been celebrated for his ability to braid tradition with experimentation, drawing on choro, samba, northeast Brazilian folk idioms, Afro-Brazilian spirituality and the exploratory impulses of late-’60s/’70s Brazilian vanguard. Cavejaz (“music from the cave”) channels those threads in one of his most conceptually unified works.

The album’s palette is deceptively simple: nylon-string guitar, percussion, breath and occasional electronics, yet the results feel expansive - and not always easy listening. Instead, we find a body of work that is elemental, echoing and rooted in rhythmic pattern and primal resonance. It entices and challenges and as a result is amply rewarding. Collaborating on the album are: Fabiano do Nascimento (7-string Guitar, 8-string Guitar, Electronics), Paulo Santos (Handmade Percussion), U-Zhaan (Tablas), Ricardo 'Tiki' Pasillas (Percussion) and Jennifer Souza (Vocals).

Do Nascimento’s playing is supple and searching as he shifts between meditative repetition and bursts of crystalline clarity. It’s a recording that encodes a conversation between tradition and invention, inviting the listener to share space that feels ritualistic, tactile and transporting. Some tracks, for example “Maracatú”, carry the quiet propulsion of northeastern Brazilian traditions, as hints of baião, coco, or maracatu surface in the cross-accents and circular phrasing gently pushes the music forward. Other pieces hover in a not-quite-ambient haze, guided less by melody than by texture and breath. "Velho Templo", “Olhos Luz” and “Tranquilo” drift into more atmospheric spaces, guided more by texture and pulse than melodic progression. Throughout the album, do Nascimento's touch is deft, ranging from gentle in “Aguas Serenas”, to fiercely articulate in the title track - always at the service of the emotional contour of the piece, rather than technique.

The album’s “cave” concept is encoded in its acoustics: everything feels close, resonant - as if played in stone chambers where each note returns transformed. Although the careful attention and deep listening between its five collaborators is central to its excellence, Cavejaz showcases a level of virtuosity that seems beyond the conventional limits of the nylon string guitar - a patient, immersive work from one of today’s most distinctive guitar voices.

Fabiano do Nascimento Home Page

YouTubeThe Wind Doesn't Blow This Far Right (Official Video)

Paradise Now & Forever

OBONGJAYAR

Released 20 November 2025

September Recordings / Obongjayar

*****

The expanded edition affirms Obongjayar's vision, offering new tracks that further explore the emotional surrender and vulnerable warmth of his journey.

The original Paradise Now, released in May 2025, was a powerful statement of arrival and self-acceptance that remains one of the most engaging and entertaining new releases of the year so far. The deluxe expansion, Paradise Now & Forever, successfully deepens the emotional architecture of that vision rather than merely adding footnotes or second-rate outtakes, remixes or other such exercises in milking the cash cow of a successful release. The original album's spirit remains intact, and the new tracks, recorded during the same fertile sessions, extend the artist's exploration of themes of vulnerability and desire.

The standout new single, "Give Me More," is a radiant, percussion-driven track produced by Yeti Beats, blending warmth and surrender as Obongjayar's voice captures the complexities of falling in love with striking honesty.

This new material is not an afterthought; it feels essential, utilizing the same candy-coated electro-pop synths and soaring strings to enrich the original narrative. Paradise Now & Forever cements the album's status as a contemporary masterpiece, adding crucial texture to an already flawless manifesto.

The Wind Doesn't Blow This Far Right (EP)

LISA O'NEIL

Released 19 November 2025

Rough Trade Records

*****

The Irish folk auteur delivers a potent, stark EP of social protest and timeless poetry, underpinned by her singular, soul-shaking voice.

Born in County Cavan, Lisa O'Neill is one of the most distinctive and important voices in contemporary Irish folk music. Renowned for her stark, haunting vocalizations and sharp lyrical observations on modern Irish life, she expertly fuses traditional sounds with a fierce socio-political commentary. A self-taught musician on guitar and banjo, her visibility soared after her cover of Bob Dylan’s "All The Tired Horses" soundtracked the final episode of Peaky Blinders. Often compared to figures like Sinéad O’Connor for her uncompromising truth-telling, she is rightly celebrated as a cultural hero in her native Ireland.

This potent six-track EP is both a political broadside and showcase for O’Neill’s prowess as originator and interpreter. The title track, a stunning lament on divisive politics, establishes the EP’s uncompromising tone. This contemporary fury is expertly balanced by her moving adaptation of the Bob Dylan cover "All The Tired Horses" and the inclusion of her devastating original "Homeless in the Thousands (Dublin in the Digital Age)."

O'Neill frames her own songs within a timeless canon of social critique and stark poetry by with her own inimitable covers of works by 19th Century English writer of romantic, devotional and children's poems Christina Rossetti ("The Bleak Midwinter") and 20th Century Irish novelist and poet James Stevens ("Autumn 1915").

Delivered in her raw, indelible voice over minimal instrumentation, the EP is a vital, unforgettable listen that confirms her status as a folk force. It is especially welcome, since O'Neill's output has been sparing, with only five albums so far, the most recent of which "All Of This Is Chance" (2023) is a timeless masterpiece.

Lisa O'Neill Home Page

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Music from the PBS Documentary

The American Revolution

VARIOUS ARTISTS

FEAT. YO-YO MA, RHIANNA GIDDENS, BROOKLYN RIDER, DAVID CIERI

Released 7 November 2025

In A Circle Records

*****

A human curated sound tapestry blending period music and modern genius, this epic score is essential listening for history and music fans.

The music for The American Revolution, the monumental six-part documentary series directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt, features an all-star collective of period musicians and contemporary masters. Anchored by the principal score compositions of David Cieri (a frequent Burns collaborator) and Johnny Gandelsman, the album features commissioned performances from genre-spanning legends. Artists like Yo-Yo Ma, Rhiannon Giddens, and the string quartet Brooklyn Rider breathe new life into 18th-century compositions and traditional folk pieces, while providing new, emotionally resonant original music.

Far more than mere background music, the soundtrack is an immersive historical document, the power of which lies in its seamless blend of the familiar and the forgotten, offering an auditory experience as rich and nuanced as the history itself. Tracks range from the exquisite cello lament of Yo-Yo Ma’s "Les Sauvages" to the haunting, vocal power of Rhiannon Giddens’s traditional folk arrangements like "Dèan Cadalan Sàmhach." The album skillfully juxtaposes period fife-and-drum themes with David Cieri's atmospheric, modern compositions, giving the epic scale a vital, human heartbeat. This proves that the deepest stories are often best told through sound, confirming this as one of the best new albums of the year for any listener seeking depth over drone.

GODTET

+ The Sydney Symphony Orchestra

GODTET

NOVAK MANOJOVIC, NICHOLAS BUC

THE SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Released 14 November 2025

La Scape Records

*****

Dissolving musical hierarchies, GODTET’s ecstatic groove meets the SSO's symphonic weight in a fearless landmark convergence.

GODTET is an enigmatic Sydney-based electronic-jazz quintet led by guitarist Dave Rodriguez, who have developed global cult status in the underground scene for their spontaneous, groove-driven improvisation. In this remarkable recording they are joined by the world-renowned Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO), established in 1932 and resident at the Sydney Opera House. "It’s important to us to mention how monumental this new Sydney Symphony Orchestra record is for us. I don’t think any of us imagined such a thing would be possible in our lifetimes."

GODTED comprises Godriguez (guitar), Andrew Bruce (keyboards), Dominic Kirk (percussion), Jan Bangma (bass) and Tully Ryan (drums).

The collaboration is marshalled and composed by polymath Novak Manojlovic whose arrangements bridge GODTET's live-sampling artistry with the classical tradition, ensuring the SSO's structured score complements the band's fluid expression. However heroic it seems, this is not GODTET's first pass at working with orchestration: they also worked with Manojlovic on +Strings (2023). Recorded live at the Sydney Opera House, this album is nevertheless a monumental achievement in genre dissolution. Under the baton of conductor Nicholas Buc, the suite brilliantly explores the friction between the fixed structures of orchestral composition and instinctual, improvisation.

Manojlovic’s arrangements amplify GODTET's rhythmic language with the SSO’s rich sonic canvas. The orchestra and quintet each retain their identity and place throughout the performance, as the musical expression and intensity moves back and forth between them. This synergy is perfectly demonstrated by opening piece "New Sun" whose neoclassical strings are infused with jazz flavors and segue into the percussion-fed, bass-driven "Stepper". The early drum and bass simplicity of this piece is in turn replaced by beguiling keyboards and expressive orchestral textures - a cinematic transformation that is typical of many tracks on the album, perhaps reflecting the artists' bedroom-to-concert hall journey.

A mid-album highlight, "The Fall Line" follows, it's steady, musical narrative carrying out of silence to the verge of terror. Three tracks follow, that seem to work as a suite, although not listed as such, First, the angelic harp of "Dub Angels", which serves as a palette cleanser after the intensity of "The Fall Line". This too diverges, this time to the melancholy and precedes "Cantus", perhaps, the album highlight, which opens meditatively but develops a romantic groove that builds into a vast cathedral of sound before dissolving into the more experimental, ephemeral "Bliss Angels". Closing the set, "Always Bright - Live" is a cathartic finale, blending controlled orchestral chaos with brilliant soloing, achieving powerful, uplifting completion. The work is a demonstration of music born in bedrooms and warehouses moving to the concert hall.

It is expansive, fearless, and a definitive moment for Australian music, received with rapturous applause in this engaging live recording.

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Sad and Beautiful World

MAVIS STAPLES

Released 7 November 2025

Anti

*****

A late-career triumph that pairs Mavis Staples’ undimmed fire with hard-won tenderness - a reminder that few artists speak truth with such grace, grit, and generosity.

Mavis Staples stands as one of the most enduring voices in American music. From her formative years with The Staple Singers through her remarkable run of modern, socially engaged solo records, she has carried gospel into soul, soul into protest music, and protest music into the 21st century with unwavering presence. Her voice — weathered but mighty — remains both balm and beacon. What defines her artistry today is not just longevity but luminosity: the ability to sound resolute and vulnerable at once, always rooted in compassion and communal uplift. Sad and Beautiful World continues that legacy.
Sad and Beautiful World is an album of clarity and conviction, steeped in the musical vocabulary Staples has long mastered: gospel warmth, earthy soul, and understated Americana grooves. Her voice, though rougher around the edges than in decades past, carries extraordinary emotional weight; every phrase feels lived-in. The production balances grit and glow, letting guitars, organ swells, and subtle rhythms form a sturdy frame for her testimonies.

Lyrically, the record sits at the intersection of sorrow and resilience — mourning division, loss, and injustice while insisting on hope as an act of will. Some tracks lean into quiet lament, others into foot-stomping uplift, yet all feel unified by Staples’ moral clarity and deep humanism. It’s not a reinvention, but it doesn’t need to be: Sad and Beautiful World succeeds because it channels the truth-telling simplicity that has always made Mavis Staples singular.

Verdict: One of the strongest releases of her modern era — deeply moving, beautifully grounded, and absolutely worth a place on your year-end list.

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Phylipe Nunes Araújo

PHYLIPE NUNES ARAÚJO

Released 24 October 2025

Far Out Recordings

*****

A stunning debut weaving stripped-back, folk-inspired Brazilian songwriting with sophisticated harmony and the rich, rugged spirit of the Northeast.

Phylipe Nunes Araújo is a Brazilian songwriter from Caruaru, Pernambuco, whose music is deeply rooted in the culture and diverse landscapes of Brazil's Northeast. Raised listening to local traditions like forrós and cantadores, his approach to lyricism draws heavily from regional folk poetry (Literatura de Cordel). Describing his sound simply as "Brazilian music from the Agreste of Pernambuco," Araújo expertly blends traditional rhythms (like coco and baião) with modern, sophisticated harmonies. This intimate folk-pop debut, created alongside collaborators Bruno Berle and Batata Boy, announces a pure and vital new voice.

This self-titled debut is a mesmerizing tapestry that beautifully threads together regional rhythm, folk poetry, and stunning ballads. Recorded primarily in São Paulo, the album is noted for its intimacy and authenticity, earning comparisons to the quiet, acoustic introspection of artists like Nick Drake. Araújo is quick to assert that while his nylon-string guitar evokes Bossa Nova, his foundation is strictly the Northeast, expertly recontextualizing rhythms like frevo and maracatu into a gentle, contemporary folk-pop sound. The ten songs, rich with extended chords, vividly evoke the diverse landscapes—from the hills of Pernambuco to the lagoons of Alagoas. Tracks like "Asa" and "Santa Cruz" are hypnotic, showcasing his mastery of melodic subtlety. This is an honest and pure statement, a luminous debut that demands and richly rewards repeat listening, cementing its place as an essential new voice in Brazilian popular music (MPB).

Far Out Recordings

Artist Website (Paul Kelly)

YouTube

LUX

ROSALIA

Released 7 November 2025

Columbia Records

*****

In a monumental, four-movement pop-opera that is inspired by feminine mystics and saints, she achieves a kind of transcendence, blending her flamenco roots with orchestral grandeur (in thirteen languages).

Rosalía Vila Tobella is a pioneering Spanish singer, songwriter, and producer renowned for her genre-defying music that masterfully fuses traditional flamenco with contemporary genres like art-pop, hip-hop, and electronica.

Hailing from Catalonia, she underwent nine years of formal flamenco training before achieving global acclaim with her breakthrough 2018 album, El Mal Querer (The Toxic Love).

Maintaining meticulous creative control, visual artistry, and willingness to embrace challenging, maximalist soundscapes, Rosalía is a somewhat atypical pop star. Her work is characterized by deep cultural research and she is blessed with a powerful, versatile vocal capability- a combination that places her among the most innovative and ambitious artists of her generation.

LUX (Latin for 'light') is Rosalía’s most ambitious and profound statement yet, a four-movement, 18-track epic that completely abandons the hyper-pop of Motomami (2022) for something closer to a sacred text. Inspired by the lives of female saints and mystics, the album centers around Rosalía’s stunningly controlled voice, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra and guest appearances by artists like Björk, Carminho, Estrella Morente, Sílvia Pérez Cruz, Yahritza y su Esencia, and Yves Tumor. Other collaborators include Angélica Negrón and Caroline Shaw as arrangers, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo as composers, Noah Goldstein and Pharrell Williams as producers, and Venetian Snares as a drum programmer.

The production is a breathtaking tapestry of classical instrumentation, stripped-down flamenco palmas, and unexpected electronic glitches, with Rosalía seamlessly singing in a staggering thirteen languages, turning linguistic diversity into a new form of musical texture. Tracks like the operatic "Mio Christo Piange Diamanti" and the sprawling, experimental "Berghain" (feat. Björk and Yves Tumor) are high-water marks, confirming that LUX is less a conventional pop album and more an immersive, ceremonial experience.

It is a work that demands, and utterly rewards, complete attention.

YouTube (Paul Kelly - Seventy playlist)

Label Website

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Off The Record

MAKAYA MCCRAVEN

Released 17 October 2025

International Anthem

*****

A magnificent, sprawling collage of live-improvised 'organic beat music' where jazz, hip-hop, and electronica are masterfully cut, pasted, and recontextualized.

Makaya McCraven is a pioneering American drummer, producer, and "beat scientist" renowned for his innovative approach to creating what he calls "organic beat music." Born in Paris to a musical family, McCraven was steeped in jazz, hip-hop, and global folk traditions. Based in Chicago, his signature method involves recording hours of live, improvised sessions with a rotating cast of musicians, earning him the nickname of "cultural synthesizer", which he then meticulously edits, overdubs, and re-arranges in the studio. This process transforms spontaneous moments into layered, cohesive, genre-fluid compositions, effectively blurring the line between live performance and production, a technique that has cemented his place at the forefront of modern jazz.

Off The Record is a compelling, double-disc compilation drawing from four EPs (Techno Logic, The People’s Mixtape, Hidden Out!, and PopUp Shop), showcasing the power of McCraven’s unique sonic architecture.

Built from live, communal improvisations with collaborators like Theon Cross, Ben LaMar Gay, and Jeff Parker, the album is then sculpted through McCraven's post-production wizardry.

The result is a vibrant, rhythmic tapestry that is both spontaneous and structurally dense. Tracks like the hypnotic "Technology" (featuring Cross's blistering tuba work) and the funky pulse of "Battleships" (with Parker's guitar) demonstrate a deep, infectious groove rooted in jazz but filtered through the aesthetics of hip-hop and dance music. This is an adventurous, highly rewarding listen that perfectly encapsulates McCraven’s gift for turning ephemeral live moments into timeless, beat-driven art.

سماع [Sama'a] (Audition))

أحمد [AHMED]

Released 21 October 2025

OTOROKU

*****

The Pat Thomas-led quartet delivers a euphoric, explosive masterclass of Sufi-inspired free jazz, re-imagining the foundational music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik.

أَحْمَد [AHMED] is a powerhouse quartet comprised of pianist Pat Thomas, saxophonist Seymour Wright, bassist Joel Grip, and drummer Antonin Gerbal. Since 2014, the group has been dedicated to excavating and re-imagining the music and spirit of the 1950s/70s pioneer, Ahmed Abdul-Malik, who blended jazz with Arabic modes. Their collective sound fuses abstract free improvisation with danceable, rhythmic intensity, drawing inspiration from disparate sources like Thelonious Monk, dub, and jungle, all delivered with an electrifying, collective heat.

سماع [Sama'a] (Audition) is a vital release, marking أَحْمَد [AHMED]'s first studio recording after years of acclaimed live work. The album is a full-suite re-imagining of Ahmed Abdul-Malik’s 1958 landmark Jazz Sahara, a work that fused late-Fifties jazz with North African modes. Crucially, the quartet tackles this piano-less original with Pat Thomas's percussive piano at its core, achieving a fusion that is both historically reverent and utterly contemporary.

The Arabic term Sama’a, meaning meditative listening, defines the spirit of this music. Tracks like "Ya Annas (Oh, People)" evolve from ghostly split-note sounds into pulsating dance rhythms, while "Farah 'Alaiyna" becomes rocketing jazz swing. This is dizzying, euphoric music—four interlocking pieces recorded in single takes that stretch the concept of jazz-as-dance, confirming the quartet as a force moving through music history like no other.

YouTube - Ya Annas [Oh, People]

The Cosmic Tones Research Trio

THE COSMIC TONES RESEARCH TRIO

Released 24 October 2025

Time Longer Than Rope

Mississippi Records

*****

The band's second album channels spiritual jazz, cosmic improvisation and textural experimentation into a coherent, transfixing whole.

On their self-titled second album, The Cosmic Tones Research Trio deepen the exploratory aesthetic that defined their debut, pushing further into the borderlands between spiritual jazz, ambient and avant-garde. The trio, whose almost telepathic rapport has emerged as their greatest instrument, draw upon the lineage of influences that includes Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Sun Ra. Yet, their sound feels individualistic and the music is anchored in the moment: rhythmically fluid, harmonically open-ended and richly attuned to space and texture.

The album is a study in balance: serenity and friction, structure and dissolution, earthly pulse and celestial drift. Although their tools are typical - reeds, keys, percussion, electronics - their collective imagination is expansive. Their music emerges as both searching and well grounded, meditative but full of movement, like a ritual unfolding in slow spirals.

Across the record, the players demonstrate a remarkable sensitivity to each other’s gestures. Saxophone lines stretch outward, keys shimmer, and percussion navigates the liminal zone between groove and texture. The music feels improvised, but remains focus; each piece evolves with an internal logic that rewards continued listening. Though subtle, the trio’s use of electronics adds atmospherics that elevate their acoustic interplay into something otherworldly.

There are passages of genuine beauty, moments of spirited dissonance, and long stretches where the music seems to be contemplating its next direction. It’s a record that invites patience and offers revelation, a quietly powerful statement from a group whose chemistry continues to deepen.

Mississippi Records

YouTube - The Sacred Garden

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Sun Moon Darkness 明日音

MONG TONG 夢東

Released 23 November 2025

Ancient Move Records

****-

A hypnotic, shape-shifting leap forward from Taiwan’s most inventive psych-experimentalists: an album in which ritual, folklore, and electronic surrealism collide.

With Sun Moon Darkness, Taipei-based duo Mong Tong, brothers Hom Yu何宇 and Jiun Chi紀恩治, deepen their alchemical fusion of psychedelic rock, fourth-world ambience, and pan-Asian mysticism, pushing their sound into darker, denser terrain.

While previous releases toyed with looping guitar motifs, field recordings, and vaporous rhythms, this new album feels more architecturally ambitious - a work structured around the cyclical symbolism of sun, moon, and shadow. The band continues to draw on Taiwanese folk imagery, Daoist ceremonial textures, and Southeast Asian timbres, blending them seamlessly with drum-machine throb, woozy synthwork, and serrated psych riffs. What emerges is a sonic cosmology that feels ancient and futuristic at once, a trance-like language Mong Tong have steadily refined into something unmistakably their own.

Each track unfolds like an esoteric ritual: polyrhythmic percussion twitches beneath swirling synths, guitar lines coil like incense smoke, and sampled voices filter through the mix as if carried by shifting winds. Tracing a cycle of moods suggested by the title, the opening pieces radiate a kind of solar heat - bright, restless, and rhythmically alert. The album soon slips into cooler, more nocturnal territory with tracks like “Full Moon,” where dub-leaning basslines and drifting melodic fragments take hold. Later, the atmosphere thickens: the ritualistic pulse of “Feng Shui” 風水 and the shadowy electronic churn of “Strong Recommendation”強烈建議 (feat. 黃大旺) evoke the album’s “darkness” dimension without naming it outright.

Across these transitions, Mong Tong shape a fluid narrative of light, reflection, and descent, expressed through evolving textures, tonal palettes, and the duo’s instinctive command of trance-like groove. Yet despite the thematic weight, the music remains nimble, playful, and richly textured. Mong Tong have crafted a work of deep atmosphere and imaginative coherence - a contemporary psychedelic milestone shaped by the cultural ghosts of the region.

Mulatu Plays Mulatu

MULATU ASTATKE

Released 26 September 2025

Strut Records

*****

The godfather of Ethio-jazz revisits and reinvigorates his iconic compositions, offering a profound, expansive, and career-defining statement

Mulatu Astatke, born in Jimma, Ethiopia, is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger widely acknowledged as the creator of Ethio-jazz. He was the first African student to attend Berklee College of Music, where he fused traditional Ethiopian pentatonic modes with Western jazz and Latin rhythms. Astatke is primarily known for his work on the vibraphone, conga drums, and keyboard. His music gained global recognition following the Éthiopiques reissue series and his extensive inclusion in the soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch's 2005 film Broken Flowers. Now in his 80s, Astatke continues to champion and expand the boundaries of the genre he invented.

Mulatu Plays Mulatu is more than a simple greatest-hits collection; it is a grand vision realized through re-arrangement, extended improvisation, and heightened rhythmic complexity.

This is Astatke’s first major studio album in over a decade, and he tackles eleven of his own compositions, including the instantly recognizable "Yèkèrmo Sèw," stretching them out to allow his ensemble - featuring musicians from London, Addis Ababa, and LA - to truly breathe. The album is a sonic tapestry, seamlessly blending classic jazz instrumentation with traditional Ethiopian instruments like the begenna (a low-range harp), masenqo (a single-string bowed lute), and krar (a lyre). Tracks like the ten-minute opener "Zelesenga Dewel" showcase this fusion at its most potent, alternating between simmering grooves and swirling, modal experimentation. It is a work deeply steeped in tradition, yet fiercely forward-thinking, cementing Astatke’s legacy as a contemporary giant.

Artist Website (Mulatu Astatke)

In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper

ŠIROM

Released 3 October 2025

tak:til / Glitterbeat

*****

Prepare to be taken on a transcendental journey and enjoy this remarkable Slovenian trio’s mesmerizing and expansive imaginary folk soundscape.

Širom is a critically acclaimed Slovenian trio founded in 2015, composed of Ana Kravanja (violin, viola, ribab, qeychak, balafon, frame drum, chimes, various objects, percussion, fipple flute, voice), Iztok Koren (banjo, three-string banjo, gembri, morin khuur, balafon, percussion) and Samo Kutin (hurdy gurdy, bass harp, harmonium, lyres, frame drum, tampura brač, brač, lute, chimes, balafon, acoustic resonator, various objects, voice).

The band describes their work as "imaginary folk," a sound unbound by geography or tradition, yet deeply rooted in a mystic, polyphonic sensibility. Weaving together a vast array of over a dozen acoustic and often handmade instruments - including the ribab, morin khuur, and various homemade harps - they fuse folkloric motifs, contemporary classical elements, and experimental rock into long-form, hypnotic compositions. Their music is characterized by its minimalist repetition that builds to ecstatic, meditative trances, creating sound worlds that are simultaneously ancient and utterly unique.

Širom's fifth album, "In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper", is a colossal and captivating journey across seven captivating tracks, the longest of which stretches close to 19 minutes. This release finds the trio venturing into their most expansive and subtly melodic territory to date, without sacrificing any of their trademark hypnotic depth. Tracks like the epic opener, "Between the Fingers the Drops of Tomorrow’s Dawn," patiently coil around acoustic drones and intricate, clattering percussion, drawing the listener into a ritualistic state. The album beautifully balances micro-detail - the sound of wood, rustling strings, and faint chants - with a towering, cinematic scope.

This is not casual background listening; it’s a demanding, yet profoundly rewarding experience that is best enjoyed in full surrender, as it offers an extraordinary, seamless synthesis of disparate global sounds and untethered fantasies.

Black Jesus eXperience Official Website

Biofilter

BIRDSNAKE

Released 21 November 2025

Bathtub

****-

Psychedelic infused downtempo electronica exploring the line between digital and organic. A free-flowing sensory combination of acid jazz, drones, textures and dubbed out rhythms.

Melbourne quartet Birdsnake (comprising Winton Findlay, Leon Sebastian, Ayden Thorne, Jacob Minarelli) are back with Biofilter, a synth-forward fusion of acid jazz, trip-hop, psychedelia and electronica. While their palette draws from well-established traditions, the band’s approach is anything but derivative. Across the album, they smuggle in unexpected influences: metallic circularity reminiscent of gamelan patterns, a taste for atonal groove, and a widescreen cinematic sensibility. The result feels both carefully sculpted and instinctively playful, suggesting a group still discovering - and delighting in - the breadth of its own possibilities.

What impresses most about Biofilter is the subtlety of its inventiveness. Birdsnake operate within recognisable frameworks, yet each track contains a twist that nudges the listener off-centre. “Rare Amulet” and “Bugbite” pulse with gamelan-like cycles, their chiming repetitions creating a hypnotic undertow beneath the band’s smooth, synth-heavy glide. “orange276” expands the album’s cinematic range, unfolding in patient, widescreen layers that feel almost storyboarded. The atonal funk of “Ancient Signal” shows the quartet embracing rhythmic friction, while “Hydrostatic Pressure” struts with an off-kilter swagger that keeps the groove intriguingly unstable. Throughout, the production is clean but never sterile, allowing the band’s textural curiosity to shine.

Biofilter may nod to its influences, but Birdsnake sound most compelling when they’re bending those references into their own slightly skewed contours, marking this as a strong new product from a band still finding its way, but full of invention.

Hamnet (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

MAX RICHTER

Released 21 November 2025

Decca

****-

A restrained, emotionally resonant score in which Richter blends Elizabethan colour with modern minimalism to illuminate a story of grief, love, and artistic genesis.

Composed for Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Hamnet*, the story of love and loss that would ultimately shape Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Max Richter’s score draws deeply from the emotional and psychological contours of the film.

As Richter notes, he began sketching themes after reading the script, crafting a musical language rooted in Elizabethan grammar and instrumentation but shaped by modern sensibility and character psychology. Agnes, the story’s centre, becomes the fulcrum for a distinctive choral palette: women’s voices used both in historically recognisable ways and as vessels of inner experience. Blending traditional orchestration with subtle electronics, Richter creates a sound world that mirrors the film’s natural landscapes, familial bonds, and metaphysical reflections. It is the work of a composer at the height of his powers — one whose ability to render complex human feeling into music has made him among the most influential voices of his generation.

Hamnet is one of Richter’s most nuanced and empathetic scores — a meditation on grief, memory, and maternal presence. The opening cues (“Of Agnes,” “Of Orpheus”) establish a delicate emotional geometry: period-inspired strings, modest electronics, and the choral language he developed for Agnes, all arranged with the restraint of someone writing from inside a character’s heartbeat. Pieces like “An Abysm of Time” and “The Great Globe Itself” reach toward metaphysical grandeur, yet the score never loses its intimacy; the music moves like breath through the film’s woodland spaces. The use of women’s voices is especially striking, providing both historical resonance and an almost subconscious emotional current. “On the Nature of Daylight,” reintroduced here, anchors the soundtrack with familiar gravitas, yet feels newly integrated into the story’s architecture. Rather than overwhelm, Richter gently carries the narrative — a quiet, luminous work that lingers long after the final note.

* The name "Hamnet" comes from William Shakespeare's son, whom he and his wife Agnes named after their friends, Hamnet and Judith Sadler. The spelling of names was inconsistent during that period, and "Hamnet" was frequently used interchangeably with "Hamlet". The connection is a frequent topic of interest because Shakespeare later wrote the play Hamlet after his son's death, leading to speculation about how grief may have influenced the famous tragedy.

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I LOVE LIFE

even when I'm hurting

DAVE MCMURRAY

Released 14 November 2025

Blue Note

****-

Detroit saxophone legend Dave McMurray delivers a soulful masterclass, fusing jazz, Afrobeat and R&B with unstoppable groove and heart.

Dave McMurray is a Detroit-born saxophonist, composer, and bandleader whose career spans five decades of genre fluidity. Known internationally as a member of the alt-disco funk band Was (Not Was) since 1981, his versatility has led to hundreds of sideman credits with artists from The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan to Herbie Hancock and Iggy Pop. McMurray's sound is steeped in the Motor City's rich musical legacy, blending hard bop, Motown soul, and rock. Since signing to Blue Note Records, he has cemented his reputation as a formidable and soulful leader in contemporary jazz.

The powerful personal mantra "I LOVE LIFE even when I'm hurting" is the thematic core of McMurray's finest album to date. Co-produced with longtime collaborator Don Was, the record is a celebration of Detroit's musical ecosystem, featuring an all-star cast: guitarist Wayne Gerard, bassist Ibrahim Jones, vocalist Herschel Boone, and keyboardists Luis Resto and Maurice O’Neal.

McMurray's six original compositions burst with soulful melodicism, shifting seamlessly from the Afrobeat grooves of “The Jungaleers” to the hazy soul-jazz of “7 Wishes 4 G.”

The tracklist is expertly curated, featuring a magnificent tribute to the late Yusef Lateef ("The Plum Blossom") and a heartfelt cover of Al Jarreau's "We Got By," featuring neo-soul star Kem on vocals.

Displaying the same versatility seen on his Grateful Deadication albums (2021 - 2023), he also reworks "The Wheel" - a masterpiece of resilience, sophistication, and pure, unadulterated soul.

Dave McMurray

Blue Note Records

Bandcamp (Blue Note Spotlight)

Blue Note Spotlight

YouTube We Got By ft. Kem (Official Video)

Give Me All Your Love

DON WEST

Released 14 November 2025

Don West /Mandatory Music

****-

A stylish, blend of yacht-soul, AM-radio nostalgia and contemporary polish.

Don West the has carved out a niche as a modern curator of the 1970s/early’80s soft-soul aesthetic. Emerging from the Manly (Northern Beaches), Sydney. West grew up around music: his dad’s ’70s guitar inspired him, and his brother taught him soul, blues, and R&B chords. As a young musician, he played bass in his brother’s band, Sons of the East.

Inspired by influences including soul greats like Marvin Gaye, Al Green, and Bill Withers, and following his attention grabbing self titled debut EP Don West (2024), Give Me All Your Love doubles down with a set of songs that feel like they drifted in on a warm coastal breeze: satin keyboards, unfussy grooves, falsetto-flecked harmonies, and melodies that reward lingering. Like Boz Scags at his best, it is West's emotional directness that that separates him from mere retro revivalists, underpinned by songwriting that is based in sincerity rather than irony.

Throughout Me All Your Love. West leans into slow-burn rhythms with velvety synth pads, and understated guitar lines. His tender, slightly raspy-at-the edges vocals sit comfortably in the mix. The title track sets the tone: warm, inviting, and unhurried, like a quiet confession whispered over late-night radio. Elsewhere, West adds subtle variations: a gentle disco shimmer here, a touch of blue-eyed soul there, all woven into a cohesive mood.

But it is the album's restraint that make it work. Nothing is overstated, and yet everything feels perfectly placed - a world built on texture, tone, and emotional clarity.

Don West Home Page

YouTube Don West - Day To Night

Mark Barrott feat. Norma Winstone & Leo Taylor - I Am The Sun, You Are The Moon

I Am The Sun, You Are The Moon (EP)

MARK BARROTT, NORMA WINSTONE, LEO TAYLOR

Released 17 November 2025

Anjunachill

****-

A quietly luminous meeting of three singular musicians, resulting in an brief, but enchanting suite of songs that conjures radiance from restraint.

I Am the Sun, You Are the Moon brings together Balearic sound-shaper Mark Barrott, legendary jazz vocalist Norma Winstone, and drummer Leo Taylor (Floating Points, Hot Chip, Joy Crookes) - the son of Winstone and late UK pianist John Taylor (1942-2015) - for a collaboration that feels both unexpected and utterly natural.

Barrott’s gift for spacious, atmospheric production meets Winstone’s unmistakably tender, exploratory voice - a presence that has defined European jazz for decades. Taylor’s drumming provides the third point in the constellation: patient, tonally expressive, more concerned with colour than propulsion.

The EP unfolds as a meditation on light, time and emotional stillness, blending ambient textures, jazz impressionism, and poetic vocal work. It feels like a transmission from a parallel coastline - serene, soulful, and disarmingly intimate.

The trio creates a work that’s contemplative without drifting into the aimless, an EP of rare subtlety and clarity, where every gesture feels intentional. This is a small, exquisite set of pieces that will reward repeat listening.

Wikipedia Sullivan Fortner

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Play

THEO CROKER & SULLIVAN FORSTER

Released 7 November 2025

ACT Music + Vision

****-

A pair of improvisers meet with no plan and no compositions, capturing the raw, unfiltered essence of conversation in a fearless duo setting.

Grammy-nominated trumpeter, composer, and producer, Theo Croker's genre-fluid sound is a blend of jazz traditions, hip-hop, R&B and electronica. Grandson of Doc Cheatham and mentored by Dee Dee Bridgewater, his recent albums showcase his commitment to pushing Black American Music (BAM) into futuristic realms while maintaining "swagger and poise."

Sullivan Fortner is a Grammy-winning pianist from New Orleans. The core pianist for the late Roy Hargrove's quintet (2010–2017), his music embodies the blues and jazz tradition, connecting eras and genres with an inventive, deeply soulful approach.

Their collaborative album Play is a unique document of two masters shedding expectation. After discarding an initial session of standards as "stale," Croker and Fortner returned to the studio with no compositions - save for Croker’s opening 'A Prayer for Peace' - deciding instead to improvise entire tracks based on spontaneous ideas.

This context is key to understanding the writing credits: while Croker holds the composition credit for the initial piece, the other thirteen pieces are essentially fully improvised duets, capturing the spontaneous "in-the-moment expression" of two lifelong friends.

Fortner's piano is not merely accompaniment; it is the engine of the exchange, matching Croker’s fluid trumpet lines with equal parts fire and restraint. The resulting music is raw, boundary-breaking duo jazz that perfectly captures the essence of creation in the moment, proving that true collaboration lies in shared, co-produced expression, not just pre-written charts.

Wikipedia Theo Croker

YouTube - A Prayer for Peace

Infinity II

JEREMY ROSE

TULLY RYAN, BEN CAREY, NOVAK MANOJLOVIC

Released 14 November 2025

Jeremy Rose

****-

Merging minimalist jazz and ambient electronics, Rose crafts an expansive, hypnotic sonic journey through time and memory.

Artist Profile ARIA Award-winning saxophonist and composer Jeremy Rose is one of the most vital forces in contemporary Australian jazz. Known for his "gift for vibrant melody" and restless creativity, he has released over a dozen albums as a leader across projects including The Vampires and The Earshift Orchestra. Rose is also the founder and director of the respected Earshift Music label. Holding a PhD in composition, he has collaborated with international luminaries including Kurt Rosenwinkel and Lionel Loueke. With a reputation for blurring genre boundaries, Rose weaves jazz with world music, minimalism, and electronic soundscapes.

Album Review Infinity II reunites Rose’s acclaimed Project Infinity quartet (featuring Novak Manojlovic on keys, Tully Ryan on drums, and modular synth artist Ben Carey) for an immersive deep dive into a musical universe of improvised minimalism.

Conceived as a single, uninterrupted suite, the album moves seamlessly through ten movements, exploring ideas of impermanence and temporal echoes. Rose’s commanding saxophone and bass clarinet lines float over a bed of hypnotic, shifting textures, as Manojlovic’s piano weaves with Carey’s subtle, generative modular synthesis.

The result is a profound Jazz Ambient soundworld that is both cerebral and deeply rhythmic. Pieces like "Resonance" and "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" demonstrate the quartet’s telepathic interplay, crafting expansive soundscapes that evoke the ritual of memory and the quiet urgency of perpetual motion. It’s a bold, captivating statement on the future of Australian improvised music.

Japanese/Australian artist Mia Taninaka’s artwork extends the album into a visual realm. Currently living and working on Bundjalung country, northern NSW, her dreamlike imagery, where mythical figures, natural forms and celestial motifs intertwine, mirrors the music’s balance of fragility and power. Her painting invites the viewer into a world where organic and surreal patterns repeat and dissolve in continuous transformation. The vibrant palettes echo the music’s layered improvisations, suggesting motion, and timeless presence.

Jeremy Rose Home Page

Album Cover Artwork (Mia Taninaka)

Non Fiction - Piano Concerto in Four Movements

HANIA RANI, MANCHESTER COLLECTIVE, JACK WYLIE

Released 14 November 2025

Decca Records

*****

A profound, modern concerto reflecting on media-filtered conflict, where neo-classical structure meets experimental, ambient sound design.

Hania Rani is a Polish composer, pianist, and vocalist, classically trained yet moving fluently across contemporary, electronic, and jazz genres. Dividing her time between Warsaw and Berlin, she has cultivated a reputation for creating evocative, spatial music centered around the piano. Non Fiction marks a significant departure from a hitherto more contemporary repertoire - in the form of her debut piano concerto and symphonic work, recorded with a 45-piece orchestra, no less. The piece was directly inspired by the rediscovery of compositions by Polish child prodigy Josima Feldszuh, who died in the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII, prompting Rani to explore the constant coexistence of harmony and disorder in the face of conflict and the survival of the human spirit.

Non Fiction is a sonic metaphor for survival, expertly structured around the architecture of modern minimalism. The concerto’s opening I. Sonore – Animato immediately establishes a profound, spiritual gravity, channeling Henryk Górecki’s sustained, drone-like harmonic fields as a delicate piano melody emerges from the orchestral depth. This fragility gives way to the rhythmic insistence of II. Teneroso, where the driving, interlocked pulses of Philip Glass and Steve Reich create a controlled chaos, symbolizing life’s accelerating momentum and the relentless human will against war. The brief, Somber III. Misterioso leans into introspection, using fragile, pointillist piano notes and sustained silence, echoing the quiet desolation of Morton Feldman as it embodies the immense loss. The final IV. Semplice offers hard-won solace, a clear, elegant melody that rises to a peak and then fades, leaving the listener with a quiet, powerful testament to the enduring memory of Josima’s music.

Hania Rani Official Website

Decca Records

YouTube: Non Fiction YouTube Documentary

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And still, a resonance

MARTY HICKS, AUDREY POWNE

Released 1 November 2025

aloeswood records

****-

An enthralling cinematic dialogue between piano and trumpet that explores quiet stillness and evokes expansive emotional landscapes of breathtaking clarity.

Marty Hicks, an Australian pianist known for his textural compositions, collaborates here with trumpeter Audrey Powne, a prominent figure in Melbourne's modern jazz scene. This duo project is a departure from their larger ensemble work, favoring minimalist, reflective, and spacious arrangements. Hicks's use of piano and subtle electronics provides a meditative foundation, while Powne’s lyrical trumpet acts as the central voice, weaving complex melodies. The album was recorded in Tokyo, and its sound reflects the intimate, highly focused environment, resulting in a contemplative and deeply rewarding listen for fans of contemporary instrumental music and neo-classical jazz.

And still, a resonance succeeds by prioritizing silence as much as sound. The six-track album feels less like a collection of songs and more like a single, unfolding emotional journey. Hicks’s piano work is patient, often cycling through melancholic figures that recall Max Richter or Ryuichi Sakamoto, subtly augmented by atmospheric textures. Powne’s trumpet tone is exceptional - warm, clear, and perfectly modulated, conveying profound feeling without needing excessive ornamentation. Tracks composed by Hicks ("A Modicum of Hope") and Powne ("The Empty Garden") sit beautifully together - a shared vision for restraint and emotional depth.

This is a masterful work of collaboration, demanding quiet attention and rewarding it with exquisite, delicate beauty that resonates long after the final note fades.

Sudan Archives Home Page

Juniper

JOY CROOKES

Released 31 October 2025

Insanity Records / Speakerbox Recordings

****-

A warm, polished selection of new songs from one of neo-soul’s most distinctive young voices in an album that deepens her artistry but retains her mix of grit and grace.

With Juniper, Joy Crookes strengthens her place within the UK’s seemingly inexhaustible lineage of neo-soul luminaries - a cohort that includes the likes of Beverley Knight, Corinne Bailey Rae, Cleo Sol, Jorja Smith, Greentea Peng and more. Crookes has always stood apart for her blend of South London storytelling, Bangladeshi-Irish heritage and classic soul inflections. On Juniper, she develops an engaging mixture of orchestral warmth, dub-leaning basslines, and richly textured arrangements, pairing them with lyrics that dissect love, identity, fragility, and resilience.

The album feels like the work of an artist stepping fully into her range. Crookes’ songwriting has always been intimate, and here she adds confidence, polish and variety. Strings bloom around her vocals without overwhelming them; horns drift in like late-evening light; percussion walks a careful line between neo-soul slink and reggae-tinged sway. Across the record, Crookes writes with a diarists clarity, finding the edges of vulnerability one moment and delivering sharp-eyed social observations the next. Her voice is always the record's magnetic centre - warm, subtly husky and capable of flipping from conversational informality to sweeping emotion in the turn of a phrase.

The lasting impression of Juniper is its balance of lyrical and instrumental song-craft. Every track feels plush yet purposeful, clearly the result of shared objectives between Crookes and her collaborators, carving a cohesive space in mood and meaning. Refined, soulful and entertaining, it's an impressive evolution of her talent that, in a crowded field, elevates her standing among her peers.

Olivia Dean Home Page

Steve Gunn's Official Website

Music For Writers

STEVE GUNN

Released 15 August 2025

Three Lobed Recordings

****-

An instrumental gem that blends acoustic guitar with ambient soundscapes, creating a meditative backdrop for concentration and deep thought.

Steve Gunn is one of contemporary American music's most respected guitarists, known for a style that synthesizes American Primitive, finger-picked blues, psych, and folk traditions. While critically acclaimed for his vocal songwriting, Gunn frequently explores instrumental forms, showcasing dazzling fretboard virtuosity combined with a deeply meditative approach. His work is characterized by expansive compositions that reward close listening, firmly establishing him as a crucial figure in modern psychedelic folk.

Music For Writers is Gunn’s first entirely solo album since 2021 - it follows a pair of albums with pianist David Moore (of Bing & Ruth) - and was born from an artistic residency in Latvia. Eschewing vocals entirely, the album occupies a unique, contemplative space in Gunn's portfolio, allowing a focus on delicate acoustic guitar work, subtle synths, and atmospheric field recordings to build small, immersive sonic worlds.

The title suggests its purpose: the music is designed not as passive background noise, but as an active accompaniment to deep thought and creative focus.

Tracks like the wistful "Park Entrance" and the inviting, gradually unfolding closer "Pedvale Sunrise" highlight this mastery of space and subtlety. It is a beautiful, deeply rewarding listen, inviting the listener to observe the quiet drama inherent in sound and nature.

Three Lobed Recordings