This week’s guide is by CF Smith and contributors Words By Shoaib, Neil G, and Irfan Ayaan.
This week’s Between The Cracks features six albums by artists who treat sound as something to be shaped, stretched, and reimagined. It’s a compact selection, but every release hits with strong intent. From the nomadic vignettes of the Passepartout Duo to the exploratory strings of Emily Wittbrodt and Asher Gamedze’s “practices of assembly”, these releases remind us how rich the underground can be. Alongside these, this edition features a debut solo release from Momoko Gill, and a debut collaborative release from Bhairavi Raman, and Nanthesh Sivarajah. Lastly, Ramesh Shotham gathers family and friends for his crazily good new full length. Dive into our latest selection, and if something tickles your eardrums, follow the buy link to make it yours! Enjoy the music, and have a great weekend!
Albums
Passepartout Duo – Pieces from Places
Passepartout Duo’s Pieces from Places feels less like a traditional album and more like a living diary, one built from months of wandering and listening. Each track is a sonic postcard, crafted with self-built instruments and field-rooted textures, capturing the duo’s nomadic spirit. What makes the project compelling is its balance of intimacy and expansiveness, music that feels handmade yet endlessly transportive. The opening number, ‘From Taipei’, is a striking introduction. Written at Treasure Hill Artist Village, it dances with bright patterns from the taishogoto, swelling into dreamy synth tones that dissolve into a lullaby-like calm. It’s a piece that manages to be both playful and contemplative, echoing the layered pulse of the city that inspired it. In contrast, ‘From Belgrade’ feels warmer, grounded in piano and brushed percussive textures. Its melody, rising from harmonium-like tones, evokes the sensation of a city waking up, expansive yet companionable. From there, they touch on the urban rhythms of Tbilisi; the still coast of Ayvalik; the labyrinthine acoustics of Fes; Kolkata’s vibrant density; the wintertimelessness of Trondheim and beyond. Taken together, these works highlight Passepartout Duo’s gift for turning travel into sound. Pieces from Places isn’t just an album; it’s a map of memory and motion, unfolding month by month. – WBS
Emily Wittbrodt – Wearing Words
‘Wearing Words’ by the talented musician Emily Wittbrodt is a quietly alluring work that blurs the line between chamber music and theatre, tinged with poetic elements. Building the album around an uncanny ensemble of instruments such as the harpsichord, cello, clarinet, accordion, and drums, all of these unite together under the banner of the extraordinary voice of opera singer Sandro Hähnel, who shifts effortlessly between emotional vulnerability and a graceful poise. Blending together old-fashioned flavours with a more strikingly modern approach, Wearing Words is a collection of tracks that drives emotion to its core, even with its baroque elements. Among the stellar tracks, songs such as Cold Shelter, Lost Ground, and The Angry Men show Wittbrodt’s ability to balance precision with emotion, echoing the dramatic elegance of old. The result of this harmonic approach is an expressive album that beckons the willing to listen attentively. – NG
Asher Gamedze – A Semblance: Of Return
A Semblance: Of Return finds drummer and thinker Asher Gamedze refining his practices of assembly. The music feels looser and more lived-in, but it never loses its intellectual or political rigor. The ensemble shapes each track as a kind of study circle in motion. Horns, vocals, and rhythm section debate, affirm, and sometimes fracture around shared motifs. Pieces like Stranger No Death and the title suite stretch out in long arcs. Gamedze’s cymbal work acts almost like a narrator and constantly redirects attention. Focus shifts between frontline melodies and murmured vocal refrains. The vocal passages feel less declamatory than on earlier work. They sound closer to overheard conversations and thread liberation philosophy, memory, and critique through the music. There is a grounded South African sensibility throughout. Township swing is reformulated into spacious modal episodes and drum choirs evaporate into free-time rubato. The album imagines community as a daily sonic practice. It feels imperfect, searching, and utterly absorbing. – IA
Momoko Gill – Momoko
Known for her collaborations with Matthew Herbert, Alabaster DePlume, Coby Sey, and Tirzah. With ‘Momoko’, the self-titled album by producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Momoko Gill, the musician is fully branching out as an artist. Thriving in the jazz and electronic world, Momoko has translated her immense musical experience into a debut album that truly branches out. Mixing genres such as rhythmic jazz, experimental, and electronic music, the album features intimate songwriting that feels natural and raw. Tracks from the album, such as No Others, Shadowboxing, and River, perfectly encapsulate Gill’s groovy confidence, soft intimacy, and stacked musical prowess, effortlessly shifting across different sonic territories. The musician’s peak genius is on full display in the song ‘When Palestine Is Free’, which features a large choir to further drive home its personal message. The self-produced album is indeed a bold step for Gill, and it has paid off for the artist. With depth and a convincing sense of self, she has kicked off her solo career with ease, releasing a powerful, diverse album that will have a lasting impact. – NG
Bhairavi Raman and Nanthesh Sivarajah – Syncretic
This is another one that was released late last year, but it would be a shame for something this good to be overlooked. Bhairavi Raman and Nanthesh Sivarajah’s Syncretic arrives as a vivid first offering, weaving Western classical form with the deep-rooted colours of Carnatic tradition. Their shared Tamil heritage pulses through the album, linking Raman’s South Indian lineage and Sivarajah’s Sri Lankan roots in an intimate exchange of rhythm, melody, and memory. Raman plays the violin and loops while Sivarajah works his magic on the mridangam, an ancient, double-sided, barrel-shaped drum originating in South India. Tracks such as ‘Elemental’, ‘Thunbam Nergayil’, ‘Seven’ and the highlight, ‘Guardian’ are the most adventurous pieces. Carnatic ragas meet flashes of Western tradition in the most beautifully crafted and astonishingly emotive way. – CFS
Ramesh Shotham feat. Madras Special, Keshavara, Family & Friends – Weirdly in Time
Described as a “huge family affair,” Weirdly in Time by Ramesh Shotham blends global jazz, kraut, psycheldelia with traditional Indian rhythms. It features a collaborative lineup of close relatives and long-time musical partners. Collaborators include his son, Keshav Purushotham; his brother, Naresh Purushotham (Veena); his niece, Sahana Naresh (vocals); his nephew, Kailash Srinivasan (voice note) and his daughter, Miriam Purushotham (artwork). Ramesh says the title for the album came spontaneously to him because “we find ourselves globally in ‘weird times’. But, the word ‘time’ also denotes rhythmic time. It was also the right time in my career to do something musically with my son and bring in other family members.” Opening with Morsing Madness, clearly showing his 1970s rock roots with Embryo. This high-energy track serves as a bold showcase for the morchang (Carnatic mouth harp). It places the traditional instrument at the forefront of a rocky, psychedelic soundscape. The meditative In Plain Sight, featuring the rich tones of Sahana Naresh, is a highlight, as is the Tamil storytelling-meets-psychedelic-funk of Vaanam Azhuthalum. If you want to hear Shotham really show off his skills, head straight for Dholak Time. A crazily good album. – CFS
