From Peru to Lithuania: Four Records You Need to Hear This Week
As spring comes to an end, we look back on the albums we released during the first half of the year. Breathtaking stuff, if we may say so ourselves.
Michael Griffiths - Things of the Dark
After a two-year break and spending time living in Iceland, the Polish composer returns with a sorrow-filled collection of compositions for piano, synthesizers and drums that reflect on some of the darkest parts of life. The album is his attempt to find comfort but also meaning in music while going through the hardest of times he had experienced. “To me, it's not really an album, but more of a compilation of memories,” Griffiths explains.
This record follows a chronological order of finding acceptance in struggle. This process is reflected in pieces such as Yfir, Soma Vol. 2 and Mokka, which depict being at one's lowest, but also Home, Spring and Morning (Mountain Across the Peninsula), which express the feeling of relief and gratefulness.
Fil Uno - Suite Nipples
Peruvian cellist and composer Fil Uno debuts on piano and coffee records with Suite Nipples, an enthralling collection of pieces for violoncello, recorded last September in Mexico City.
Suite Nipples, Fil Uno’s fourth album, was born in 2019 from pieces written for an audiovisual project commissioned by Lucy Hayes and inspired by the life of choreographer Gillian Lynne. The Peruvian musician, who is now based in Mexico’s capital, rediscovered the pieces during the second year of the pandemic. Between 2021 and 2022, he worked on them until they became his own and complemented them with even older compositions, from the days of his first album Violonchelo Solo.
Suite Nipples is about the body as a territory in common and not in dispute, and about eroticism as an act of resistance — nothing more contrary to war. Nowadays, nipples are symbolically a place of dispute: they are a common element between humans, however, a battlefield to exalt differences. Affections and emotions are common territory, but it is difficult for us to understand that others also experience joy and pain, hope and sorrow, which is why barbarism is possible.
Klangriket and Sjors Mans - Origami Birds
Six years after the release of their celebrated debut EP The Amsterdam Sessions, long-term collaborators Fabian Rosenberg (aka Klangriket) and Sjors Mans return with an enthralling full-length record titled Origami Birds.
At the heart of this album lies the poignant legend of the thousand origami birds, a narrative inspired by the resilience of Sadako Sasaki, a survivor of the Hiroshima tragedy. It unfolds as a poem penned by Fabian, eloquently translated into both English and Swedish, and narrated by three generations of women, weaving a world around the delicate folds, ascents, and descents of paper origami cranes.
The music in Origami Birds is a tapestry of emotions—heartfelt and perhaps even naive, with dark and ambient undertones, yet it displays a profound sense of hope. The album encapsulates a journey both musically and thematically, exploring the intricate interplay of light and shadow, despair and optimism.
Justina Jaruševičiūtė - Silhouettes
To celebrate the third anniversary of Justina Jaruševičiūtė’s critically acclaimed debut album, Silhouettes, we released a remastered edition, which includes two exclusive new tracks: Ben Chatwin’s Haunted Mix of Prayer and an orchestral version of Distant Star, performed by Lithuania’s Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra. A new limited CD edition is also available, with revisited artwork and more elegant packaging, thoughtfully designed by Celia Bayo.
Selected pieces from our label's catalogue — in chronological order. Featuring Vargkvint, Cedric Vermue, Sergio Díaz De Rojas, Justina Jaruseviciute, Trio Ramberget, and many more.