This week’s guide is by CF Smith and contributors Arifur Rahman, Words By Shoaib, Neil G, Gavin Senaratne and Irfan Ayaan.
We are excited to share the latest edition of Between The Cracks. This week, we have seven releases to add to your collection, featuring everything from experimental jazz, to Brazilian orchestral, contemporary classical fusion and beyond. We hope you’ll find some music you love and feel excited to hit the buy button. Check out our latest picks below.
Albums
Kin Gajo – Tsuki 月
Brussels trio Kin Gajo features Stan Maris (accordion, electronics), Werend Van Den Bossche (sax, flute, clarinet), and Tom Peeters (drums, percussion). Inspired by J Dilla, Flying Lotus, and British jazz, they fuse hip-hop with electro-acoustic textures. Following their debut EP Āku, their album Tsuki 月 delivers a distinctive and colourful sound. The project is fully instrumental, relying on its clear, composed melodies to drive the narrative in place of lyrics. Accordion, flute, clarinet, saxophone, and electronic elements converge with measured precision, producing a cohesive sonic palette that engrosses the listener. Comprising 10 tracks, the album kicks off with ‘The Beginning’, a vibey track that starts with electro beats and is joined by breezy woodwind instrumentation. The second track, ‘Elegy for Gajo’, cuts through the album’s softer contours with its driving percussion and sax, while bright, unhurried flute lines establish a relaxed, open‑air mood. ‘To You Someday’ unfolds through a graceful melodic exchange between flute and accordion, anchored by understated percussion. The album’s title draws from the Japanese character for “moon,” a theme echoed in the eighth track, ‘Tsuki to Taiyo’ (“the sun and the moon”). A laid‑back piece of hip‑hop groove, accordion bass lines, warm synths, and drifting flutes, the track channels the cosmic push‑and‑pull of moon and sun. ‘Eternal Struggle – First Part’ serves as the opening half of a concluding two‑part suite that sharpens the album’s central contrasts. The album closes off with ‘Delusional Hustle – Last Part’ – an intriguing piece that combines the cacophony of traditional instruments with an electric rhythm. The track leans into a distinctly trippy atmosphere, leaving the listener slightly dazed as they try to grasp the album’s underlying message. Tsuki 月 is a great debut album offering promise for the future. If you like your jazz fused with instrumental hip-hop and electronic, look no further. – AR
Fabiano Do Nascimento & Vittor Santos Orquestra – Vila
Rio-born, LA-based guitarist Fabiano Do Nascimento is back with another full instrumental album in collaboration with Vittor Santos Orchestra. The album consists of 11 tracks, each one using multiple strings to tell the story and beckoning the listener into a melodious, divine musical journey. The album opens with soft classical guitar strums with the track O Tempo (Foi O Meu Mestre). The song builds to include other string instruments, cymbals, and fiddle music, joined by a steady lyrical melody right at the end, before fading into folk instruments. This track sets the tone for the rest of the album: calm, melodic, relaxing, and nostalgic. Next comes Spring Theme, a reflective piece that evokes the blossoming of spring. It establishes a simple lead melody, anchored by soft shaker rhythms and swelling strings. Valsa is a slow, moody, and languid waltz that softens the album’s frame. It lets the melody breathe without urgency. The track that will grab the most attention on the album is the 9th track: Prelude 5. The entire track builds up with a symphony of several string instruments and synths, having a steady flow state and then reaching a climax. The song is an ideal choice for an original soundtrack to a movie or musical. Many pieces from the album sound as if they were composed specifically for classic films and media. Rooting his inspiration in the nostalgic architecture of Rio’s Bairro Saavedra, his collaboration with Vittor Santos’s sixteen-piece orchestra on Vila delivers grand, orchestral messages of “earthly-experimental” frequencies for all listeners. – AR
Los Sara Fontan – Consuelo
Catalan experimental duo Los Sara Fontan deliver a defiant new record with their latest release, ‘Consuelo’. Built largely from the interplay of violin and drums, the album transforms minimal instrumentation into vast emotional landscapes ranging from meditative to explosive. At its core, the album is a response to a turbulent political and social climate, released as an attempt to create “consolation, solace, and relief.” Though primarily played on traditional instruments, the duo constructs expansive soundscapes that feel almost electronic in their scope, demonstrating their fascination with improvisation and evolving sonic textures. The album opens with ‘All the Bastards’, a tense, slow-burning composition in which the violin drifts through eerie melodic fragments, while the drums gradually build the energy. ‘Mecanismes d’Obediènciacia’ leans into hypnotic repetition built across multiple movements, gradually building a towering wall of sound. ‘Salomé’ provides an interesting contrast, drawing inspiration from Richard Strauss to close the album with theatrical flair. Despite the title, Consuelo is not a gentle or comforting listen. Its solace lies in the act of expression itself. An immersive and emotionally charged work that transforms two instruments into an entire universe of sound, Los Sara Fontan crafts a record that is both politically aware and deeply personal. – GS
Nick Schofield – Blue Hour
On Blue Hour, Nick Schofield and Scott Bevins (No Cosmos) enter an iridescent ambient-jazz space. Schofield created the album as an ambient ode to Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way, and Bevins intuitive trumpet playing is totally improvised. Across the album, Bevins trumpet spirals drift through Schofield’s pillowy synth vistas. Sky Cafe and Magic Touch set the tone with gently cycling progressions. Trumpet lines curl like vapour trails against soft-focus arpeggios. Dream On floats a little further from song form. Its harmonies hover on the edge of sentimentality without tipping over. Goodnight Sun feels like the album’s axis point. It plays like a subtle twilight hymn, with percussion nearly disappearing. Sustain becomes the main rhythmic engine. Imagine Space and Natural Wonder push the cosmic angle. They offer slow and shimmering builds that reward deep listening. The final stretch with Hidden Corner, Hotel Cloud, Kyoto Kiss, and Times plays like a suite of late-evening vignettes. Each track becomes a slightly different shade of blue. The trumpet never grandstands. It threads through the synth textures like distant city lights. Blue Hour works as an intimate and weightless liminal listening. – IA
Alfred Matérn – Solo Solo
‘Solo Solo’, the latest album of the New York-based trumpeter Alfred Matérn, is a stripped-back take on free jazz. Building on a variety of instruments, including trumpet, bass, percussion, and a garnish of everything else, the Gothenburg-born musician delivers a wonderful mix of musical layers that coalesce into a holistic album that speaks to the heart. Shifting between brittle, fluttering lines and darker, rougher outbursts, the album perfectly showcases Matérn’s versatility. It also features a chaotic flurry of electronic distortions that elevates the album’s musicality to cosmic heights. While tracks such as Fantasi, Broadway Brooklyn, and Walk Don’t Walk ascend into heavenly territory, the foundation is rooted in solid rhythm sections, anchored by bass lines and tight percussion layers that keep everything steady. A tasty sonic treat, Solo Solo is a masterful work of art by Matérn that subtly veils themes of intimacy and quiet resistance. – NG
Yamirah’s Solar Explorers – Andromeda Galaxy
Over the past year or so, Yamirah’s Solar Explorers has been slowly drip-feeding their music online. Led by guitarist Yamirah Gercke, the band is completed by pianist Sacha Hladiy and drummer Ria Rother. We got wind of the trio recently with the quietly stunning and succinctly titled ‘I’m So Tired of All These Wars’. They now have an album’s worth of music to devour, and while some tracks don’t quite cut the mustard for us, looking at you, ‘Badji’ and ‘French Toast’. There are plenty of other tracks that get our juices flowing. The opening track, “Flying,” feels instantly familiar, as though I’ve heard it before, even though I haven’t. It’s light on its feet and as warm and inviting as a stranger’s smile. The vibe gets a little darker on the title track, which features a complex 7/8 time signature and blends groovy jazz with ethereal, space-themed textures. The easygoing charm of the opener returns with Giraffe, assisted by Walter Gauchel on flute and saxophone, who adds a lighter, melodic layer. As we slip further into the record, we find my fave cut, ‘Ode To Jürgen’. Throughout the track’s five-minute journey, the trio creates an incredibly captivating and spiritual soundscape. Opening with Gercke’s gentle guitar licks, Rother’s rhythmic flow is subtle yet powerful, while Hladiy’s dazzling piano progressions range from mellow to high energy and back again. Utterly wonderful, but don’t just take my word for it – press play. – CFS
Benny St. Peixe, Mikhayla Robinson – The Gospel As Told By Black Love
The Gospel As Told By Black Love is intimate by design. Across just under twenty minutes, Benny St. Peixe’s low-end atmospheres cradle Mikhayla Robinson’s poetry, turning each piece into something devotional. The bass doesn’t accompany the words. It anchors them. This isn’t spoken word layered over background music. It feels more intertwined than that. Benny’s loops hum and pulse like a living organism, while Mikhayla’s voice moves between tenderness, grief, protest, and reverence. The album frames Black love not as cliché romance, but as survival, lineage, and sacred practice. That emotional spectrum becomes clear in the released pieces. ‘Wonders’ opens with warmth, its bass lines steady and reassuring as the poem leans into awe and affirmation. ‘Say Her Name’ shifts the mood, carrying political weight without losing intimacy. Elsewhere, the sombre ‘Another Eulogy’ finds Robinson expressing sadness and emotional pain, backed by a melancholic musical backdrop. The highlight is the title track, ‘The Gospel As Told By Black Love’, which stands out for its contemplative reflections on societal values related to love and connection, backed by a beautiful spiritual jazz vibe. What lingers most is the restraint. Nothing is overproduced. Every word lands. Every note feels intentional. – WBS
