This week’s guide is by CF Smith and contributors Arifur Rahman, Benny Thomas, and Irfan Ayaan.
We’re back with a new edition of Between The Cracks. As ever, we thrive in the underground and cherish those adventurous artists who relish creating something truly distinctive. From Naná Rizinni to IIan Salem, we have six releases that live in spaces the mainstream leaves unoccupied and refuse to be neatly pigeonholed into any one box. 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
Nana Rizinni – Epiblast
São Paulo-born drummer, producer, and composer, Nana Rizinni, unveils her latest album, ‘Epiblast’. Over 9 tracks, she explores the highs and lows of life through electronic jazz-fusion. The album opens with the title track ‘Epiblast‘ and closes with ‘Epiblast(Outerlude)‘, completing the tracklist in a circle-of-life fashion. The first track begins with a single sax note and gradually adds other notes, building a catchy cadence. The song blends electronic music with percussion and synth to build up a rhythm that carries the album’s core message and sound. It gradually builds up an amalgamation of different instruments, which fade out at the end, leaving only a single note playing. Next is ‘Faisca‘, which picks up on the same note the previous song left off, giving the listener a sense of continuity. The album makes heavy use of synth, drums, electric instruments, and the piano. The tender ‘VVV’ Rerework‘ offers a small but soothing moment of calm. ‘The Right Side of the Escalator‘ and ‘Fifth Life‘ hit with undeniable force, melodically radiant, full of lift, and bursting with joyful momentum. Each piece has a unique sound and rhythm, yet it matches the album’s overall theme and feels essential to its message. The final track, ‘Epiblast(Outerlude)‘, almost mirrors the opening track, using the same instruments and nearly the same melodies, but with a faster pace. The album, for the most part, sounds “busier” as the tracklist progresses, reflecting life’s nature. Listen with open ears and mind. -AR
Fumitake Tamura – Miijn
With Mijin, Fumitake Tamura (also known as BUN) turns away from beat-heavy hip-hop and toward environmental music and sparse instrumentals. The title refers to the Japanese word meaning very fine particles, and that idea shapes the whole album. Interstice opens with delicate, widely spaced piano chords that hang and hover in reverberant air. Ostinato, featuring Sam Gendel, threads soft saxophone through repeating figures. It feels like watching dust drift in a shaft of light. Duration stretches the concept further, letting small motifs accrue weight through patience rather than volume. On Resonance, Saul Williams’ voice appears in fragmentary form. His lines become another texture inside the floating mix rather than a focal point. Later tracks like Particles, Offset, and Oscillation deepen the focus on near-silence and microscopic change. Sounds appear, linger, and then dissolve back into the room. The result is an album where space and silence carry as much meaning as any note, inviting you to listen at a much finer resolution. – IA
Antônio Neves & Thiaguinho Silva – Ladeiras De Santa Teresa
Ladeiras De Santa Teresa brings together Rio-jazz maverick Antonio Neves and percussion master Thiaguinho Silva for what might be the first Brazilian jazz album centred on two drummers. The result is uncompromisingly groove-rich and steeped in samba tradition. Das Neves opens with an immediate rhythmic bite. The drums converse in accents and counter-accents while brass rides on top. Roménia stretches into a looser, more exploratory zone but never loses its pocket. Fendas Vocais draws on voice-like phrasing and shows how the drums can lead the melody as much as the rhythm. Morro Dos Prazeres and Viagem de Trem push the cinematic side. You can almost see hillsides, rail lines, and fast-moving city scenes. The feature from Joca on Viagem de Trem adds extra narrative colour. Misericórdia closes with a powerful, almost processional energy. Throughout, brass arrangements and bass lines amplify the drum conversations rather than compete with them. The album feels deeply rooted in Rio yet aimed at global ears that crave rhythm-first jazz. – IA
Rejoicer – California Space Craft
New music from Yuvi Havkin, better known as Rejoicer, is always a big (YES!) from me, as most readers likely know by now. If you’re new around here and not familiar with Rejoicer, he’s a London-born, Tel-Aviv-raised producer who stitches together funk, hip‑hop, ambient and jazz into his own unmistakable sound. He’s been a key force in shaping Israel’s modern beat scene and building the community around his Raw Tapes label. He’s also part of the jazz‑psych outfit Apifera and the Buttering Trio. He’s just released the perfectly entitled California Space Craft album. Now residing in the Golden State, he joins forces with seasoned LA bass polymath Sam Wilkes and drummer Tamir Barzilay, completing the LA-connected trifecta alongside a select few featured guests. The album opens with ‘Traveling Light‘, a mix of space‑echo rhythms à la Sly & Robbie and the dreamy kosmische guitar textures that recall early‑2000s Tortoise. ‘Ritual in G#‘ deepens the spell, Havkin’s bright Rhodes lines cutting through an ever‑evolving psychedelic haze. Avishai Cohen’s trumpet lifts the Afrobeat‑infused ‘Lion Water‘, Barzilay channelling classic Tony Allen. ‘Further (with you)‘ with Nitai Hershkovits nails the album’s vibe, Cali warmth, sci‑fi glow, Rejoicer futurism. ‘Her Hair in the Air‘ brings tight polyrhythms and trio chemistry, and ‘Early Porpoises‘ plus the closer ‘Oceanic Friends‘ glide out like a sunset‑bound ride. Excellent album. – CFS
Nitai Hershkovits & Daniel Dor – Found & Found
Found & Found continues the intimate piano-and-drums dialogue that Nitai Hershkovits (him again) and Daniel Dor began on The Garden Suite. The new album feels lighter in touch but no less deep. Pasque, Still opens with a brief, tender sketch. Piano and cymbals move like two halves of the same breath. The Sprite and the Bride follows with dancing lines and quick, conversational rhythm. It feels playful yet carefully balanced. The centrepiece, Dark Leaves Fall Heavy, stretches past six minutes. Here, the duo lean into suspended harmonies and spacious drumming, letting the melody sink in slowly. Elsewhere brings a sense of searching travel. Motifs appear, vanish, and then return in altered form. Later, pieces like II Fascino Del Gatto and Psoglavian Truth add a slightly mysterious edge, while My Wish and La Foglia Si Fonde Sulla Foglia offer lyrical release. The closing title track gathers all of this into a gentle farewell. It is a concise record, but the conversation inside it feels wide open. – IA
Ilan Salem – Songs of the Willows
One of Israel’s foremost jazz flautists, composers, and educators, Ilan Salem is widely regarded as a leading voice in the country’s jazz scene. Songs of the Willows captures his virtuosity at its most striking. Reconnecting fifteen years after Wild, Salem and Nitai Hershkovits sound like old collaborators picking up where they left off, two kindred spirits arriving at a deeper, richer language. With Hershkovits’ elegant production and writing shared between the pair, the album moves with a luminous sense of purpose. Backed by the supple rhythm section of Barak Mori and Daniel Dor, and lifted by Hillel Salem’s trumpet, these pieces glow with warmth and restraint. Of course, we also get to enjoy Hershkovits’s light, elegant touch on the piano. Tracks like ‘All Beacon’s Dim‘ and ‘Decorum in Silence‘ set the tone with a restrained beauty, while ‘One Sees What May Be Hills (Or Perhaps They Mayn’t)‘ unfolds with a lovely sense of wonder. ‘Paloma, Guia El Camino‘, ‘Where Nestlings Play‘ and ‘The Willow’s Seranade‘ deepen that feeling, moving with warmth, grace and an unforced sense of transcendence. Songs of the Willows is ear-pleasing and well worth investigating. – BT
