This week’s guide is by CF Smith and contributors Arifur Rahman, and Irfan Ayaan.
We’re back with another Between The Cracks selection featuring seven essential releases from the sonic universe – this week, Anatolian folk, Afro-Brazilian rhythms, jazz improvisation, left-field experimental ambience and more. Hopefully, you’ll discover a new release or two you love that will have you itching to hit the buy button. Below, you will find our latest picks.
Albums
Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Love this album! Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek’s Yarın Yoksa shatters musical boundaries with a blend of Anatolian tradition and psychedelic soul. This self-described outernational ensemble, featuring German-Turkish vocalist/bağlama player Yıldırım alongside bandmates from France, Germany, and South Africa, creates a sonic tapestry that transcends borders. With Leon Michels’ production elevating the proceedings, the album (whose title translates to If There Is No Tomorrow) navigates personal pain and collective resistance through eleven carefully crafted tracks. The group’s diverse backgrounds infuse traditional Anatolian music with a fresh perspective, simultaneously honouring heritage while boldly reimagining its possibilities. Standout track Çiçek Açiyor opens the album with hypnotic intensity, while Misket demonstrates their ability to transform folk structures into something utterly contemporary with its pulsing rhythms and atmospheric textures. Yakamoz dances with a laidback ‘70s funk vibe, while Cool Hand is effortlessly the epitome of cool itself. This is boundary-pushing world music at its finest, a testament to cultural exchange that feels both timeless and urgently modern. – IA
Alabaster DePlume – A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole
Saxophonist, singer, songwriter, activist, orator, and poet-philosopher Alabaster DePlume delivers a passionate and honest musical expression on A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole through his fusion of spoken word, jazz improvisation and atmospheric folk. DePlume maintains his exploration of vulnerability, connection and optimistic defiance through the release of this album after his dazzling efforts with GOLD (2022) and To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol 1 (2020). DePlume’s one-of-a-kind voice guides the listener, which creates thoughtful, spontaneous musical compositions. His poetic delivery gets wrapped in melodies that seem to reveal tender secrets, and instrumentals spread in waves before returning to nothingness. Through gentle saxophone melodies, tender strings, unpredictable beats, and minimalist patterns, your mind will naturally get pulled into his musical universe. The album exists between folk music and performance art alongside jazz elements. The musical flow throughout this album presents unstructured dialogues that lead to contemplation rather than definitive solutions. A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole showcases DePlume’s unique talent for transforming personal emotions into intricate artistic structures through its contemplative, unorthodox approach. – CFS
Blue Lake – Weft
“Weft” is the latest release by Jason Dungan, known as Blue Lake— a project for solo music and collaborations by Jason Dungan on string, wind, and percussion instruments. This serene album is hard to categorise in any particular genre; the Copenhagen-via-Dallas composer has expanded his instrumental palette by blending drone, folk, and ambient. Each track is playful, creative, and has a quirky choice of instruments, like the custom zithers with 36 strings on “Strata.” All tracks are composed and produced by Blue Lake except “Tatara”, an ensemble-like composition with bass clarinet, viola, and double bass. Utterly gorgeous. – AR
Test Card – Signals
Get lost in Lee Nicholson, aka Test Card’s latest endeavour, Signals, which merges post-rock, downtempo, ambient, and dream pop elements. The album takes cues from artists like Hood, The Durutti Column, Tortoise, and Boards of Canada through its soft beats, wandering guitar patterns, delicate piano notes and acoustic elements. The tranquil characteristics of the album stand out in the tracks ‘There Are Years in October’, ‘And Soon the Pleasure Point Divine and ‘Looking Back Like Hours For Fools’. The uptempo tracks, ‘Mono Valley Kids Delight’, ‘Summer Vanishes Once a Holiday’ and ‘Memory Mind The Wave Out There’, perfectly counterbalance and keep things interesting to the blissful calm. Signals highlight Test Card’s finest work, with Nicholson subtly tweaking his sound to elevate it to impressive new heights. – CFS
Masako Ohta/Matthias Lindermayr – Nozomi
If you resonate at all with their 2022 debut album, you’d be happy to hear that Masako Ohta and Matthias Lindermayr are back with another beautiful offering. Once again, Ohta, a renowned pianist, joins forces with Lindermayr, an accomplished trumpeter, to create ‘Nozomi’. The album’s Japanese title, which translates to “hope,” fits perfectly, as it was crafted during a period of personal loss for Ohta, with music shining through as a beacon of hope. Their work, imbued with creativity and emotion, takes listeners on a solemn and slow journey, offering layers of depth and nuance. Throughout seven tracks, Ohta’s classical influences intertwine with Lindermayr’s jazz-inspired flair to create an album that serves as the soothing balm we all need in this maddening world. – CFS
Blendreed – Tales Of Tide
Musina Ebobissé’s Tales Of Tide is a hypnotic voyage across sonic waters where boundaries dissolve into mist. Under his Blendreed alias, the French saxophonist returns with this reissue of his 2022 album, following his acclaimed ARMAUN EP. The album navigates the fertile waters between jazz, ambient, and experimental music with remarkable fluidity. Ebobissé’s tenor saxophone phrases drift and echo across electronic landscapes, creating an immersive atmosphere that suspends the listener meditatively. The music unfolds like oceanic currents, gentle yet powerful in its emotional pull. Horizon stands as a centrepiece, where languid horn lines expand across seven minutes of contemplative space, while Undercurrent demonstrates Ebobissé’s mastery of tension and release through subtle textural shifts. For listeners who loved André 3000’s ambient explorations on New Blue Sun, Blendreed offers an even deeper journey into expansive sonic territories, a much-needed respite of reflection in turbulent times. -IA
EP’s
Trinka – EP
Although we’re just dipping our toes into 2025, we’ve already stumbled upon some musical nuggets that promise a good year for new music. Another early addition to our ever-growing collection is the debut of Trinka, an organic and joyful Afro-Brazilian trio. Listening to the EP, the trio’s passion for Brazil’s black musical history is immediately evident in every beat, rhythm and melody. While it may not break new ground, it’s executed with great finesse. The three standouts in this impressive debut are ‘Dois No Ilé’, along with ‘Grego’ and ‘O Mais Belo Fim Do Mundo’. If music were a delicious meal, you’d come back for seconds. – CFS
