DJ Cop Killer Imaginary Codes (2020)

With its fifth album Imaginary Mountains, Paris’ Ghost Rhythms continues on its idiosyncratic path as one of the most unique and gifted instrumental bands in the world. Composed, as is most of their music, by keyboardist Camille Petit and drummer Xavier Gélard and recorded at home during France’s Covid-19 lockdown, Imaginary Mountains takes its title literally, providing themes for a variety of mountainous fantasies as found on old maps. As always, the band takes its cavalcade of influences – jazz, progressive rock, folk, classical music, chanson – and applies them to a cornucopia of melodies, moods and textures.

Equipped with a variety of trumpets, a ridiculous array of percussion instruments, and far too many electronics, Wim Van Hasselt and Koen Plaetinck combine to create an entirely new musical space. Presenting brand-new commissions as well as arrangements, they stretch the boundaries of classical music into a unique world of sounds and visuals, infused with traditional music, electro-underground, improvisation and – above all – their own vivid personalities. What if dreaming became reality? The imaginary tangible? When living a fairy-tale the fantastic is the concrete…

After a short hiatus, The Gaslamp Killer has returned with turbulent, moody, and gorgeous symphonies on his third full-length album, Heart Math. An intense and emotional masterpiece, it reaffirms why he remains one of the best DJs and instrumental hip-hop producers of his generation. This is a work conceived and creative with every last ounce of love and pain, all of it made in turmoil and psychic unrest, with music providing the only form of solace or opportunity to find even a fleeting moment of happiness. It is as pure as catharsis gets. Heart music to survive a season in hell.