With so much good music coming through thick and fast, it’s easy for brand-new music to drop online and go overlooked. To help prevent this, we’ve picked five new releases you may have missed that we have stuck on repeat — stream music from Holly Herndon, Sarah Davachi, Ana Roxanne, Caroline Shaw & Attacca Quartet, and Seba Kaapstad. If you like what you hear, hit the links and support the artists.
Holly Herndon – PROTO
On PROTO, composer and sound artist Holly Herndon shares new works created in collaboration with her A.I. recording system called, Spawn. Her latest project continues with another collection of innovative, mind-bending songs and includes appearances from Jlin, Martine Syms, Lily Anna Hayes and Jenna Sutela. So beautiful, so brilliant. Can’t recommend this album highly enough!
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Sarah Davachi – Pale Bloom
The talented and prolific Los Angeles-based composer Sarah Davachi is back with a new album. On Pale Bloom, we find Davachi reconnecting with her first love – the piano. The music on the album is breathtakingly beautiful, and once again she crafts dreamy and luxurious minimal drone with effortless ease. There’s much to adore throughout, but ‘If It Pleased Me To Appear To You Wrapped In This Drapery’ which tips its hat to avant-garde composers La Monte Young and Eliane Radigue is, in particular, outstanding. An extraordinary record that you need in your life.
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Ana Roxanne – ~~~
As debut records go, ~~~ does pretty much everything it needs to do: instantly captivating, refreshingly different and leaves you wanting more. The fantastic diversity of these ambient pieces is what makes this 7-track collection such a breath of fresh air. To say this record will have you transfixed with its explorative soundscapes would be an understatement. Ana Roxanne crafts a profoundly personal project that is peaceful yet powerful. Listen to Ana Roxanne’s excellent EP ~~~ below, and if you like it make sure you support!
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Caroline Shaw & Attacca Quartet – Orange
Wow, this new album from Caroline Shaw is incredibly beautiful. The 12 songs on Orange are centred around the five-part ‘Plan & Elevation’ suite. Shaw describes the world she created for Orange (the fruit not the colour) “as a garden that she and Attacca Quartet are tending” she continues “the thousandth orange that you eat is just as extraordinary as the first.” So beautiful – bravo to all involved!
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Seba Kaapstad – Thina
We’ve had this new album from Seba Kaapstad simmering for a while, but now we bring it to boil. The multi-national neo-soul quartet comprised of a South African, a Swazi, and two Germans bring their global grooves and worldwide sounds on their excellent new album title Thina (the Zulu term for ‘us’). Through the global perspective of the members, the group explore a soundscape influenced by soul, groove, jazz, electro and the music of Africa. Fans of Erykah Badu, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Jill Scott, and the Things Fall Apart-era Roots will find a lot to enjoy here.
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