On 15 March, symphonic electronic group The Cinematic Orchestra released To Believe, their first album in 12 years. This welcome news followed that of two track launches—and a US performance announcement (their first in a decade). For those already transfixed by the vision of Jason Swinscoe and Dominic Smith, the guiding forces behind The Cinematic Orchestra, the releases of “A Promise” (featuring vocalist Heidi Vogeler) …
With The Peyote Dance, Patti Smith joins experimental sound outfit Soundwalk Collective in a work in tribute of French poet Antonin Artaud. Soundwalk Collective’s founder Stéphan Crasneanscki traveled to the Norogachi municipality of Mexico’s Sierra Tarahumara (otherwise known as the Copper Canyon), where Artaud himself traveled in 1936—curious to know whether a peyote shaman from the Rarámuri people could free him of an opioid addiction. Soundwalk …
An ode to Ruben Um Nyobé, the anti-colonialist leader of the Popular Union of Cameroon, Blick Bassy’s latest track grapples with the telling of a historic tale. Sung in Bassa, Bassy’s ancestral language, “Ngwa” reclaims an important moment for Cameroon and does so with the utmost beauty and honesty. As the narrative (usually told and taught from the opposing, French perspective) unfolds amidst the spectacular natural landscapes of …
