Matmatah Hypnagogia

Featuring their modern take on the traditional Breton genre known as Kan ha Diskan, La Ouache is the debut album from French quartet Matmatah. Influenced by Alan Stivell's Again LP, their 1998 debut, which combines Celtic rock with Middle Eastern folk, was produced by Claude Chamboissier and features the hit singles "Lambe an Dro" and "Les Moutons" alongside the rousing instrumental closer "Ribette's" and the hard-hitting "Troglodyte."

While singer and multi-instrumentalist Bonnie Bloomgarden and guitarist Larry Schemel knew their intention for the album before a single note was written, the actual nature and direction of the music was a mystery. The initial inspiration for the record came from the jubilant spirit of Ethiopian funk records the band had been listening to on tour, but once they began to channel the songs it seemed like the music came from somewhere not in the past but in the future. In the weeks leading up to recording, Death Valley Girls relied on their subconscious and effortlessly conjured Under the Spell of Joy’s eleven tracks as if they’d tapped into the Akashic Chronicle and pulled the music from the ether.

Hailing from Constanta, a port city on the Black Sea of Romania, E-Mantra is a seasoned veteran and prolific composer, with several releases on respected labels such as Suntrip and Altar, under a variety of aliases (E-Mantra, Emanuel Carpus, Neurosect, and Night Hex, to name a few). Early on in his career Emanuel was influenced by a wide variety of sounds, including acid, techno, and of course trance, but he’s primarily known for representing Goa Trance and Goachill / psychill / psybient (call it what you will).
One of the things that makes his productions special is the emotional richness he brings to his craft, as well as his ability to create a sense of traveling into other worlds (both inner and outer). If you had a rocket ship to explore the stars this would be your ‘go to’ soundtrack.

You can often judge musicians by the company they keep. Float the Edge, the latest album from pianist-composer Angelica Sanchez, features her alongside two of the most sought-after rhythm-section musicians on the scene: veteran bassist Michael Formanek and rising-star Tyshawn Sorey, both acclaimed leader-composers in their own right. To be released via Clean Feed Records on March 25, 2017, Float the Edge sees this earthy, expansive trio perform Sanchez’s compositions, as well as several free improvisations. “A lot of what we do as a trio and what each of us does living a life in this music is take things to the edge, taking the risk to jump off without really knowing where you’re going to land,” the pianist says. “When it works, you feel like you’re floating it’s beautiful.”