Louise Jaunet | Music journalist

With more than 24 hours of music produced over the last ten years, Oli Heffernan might be one of the most prolific and best-kept secret left-field artists of the Yorkshire region. For this restless, impatient, autodidact alchemist, who admits to making music to stop himself from going mad (while not even remembering half of his releases), quantity surprisingly equals quality and his 47th album is here to prove it. From “Opening Bell” to “Closing Bell”, Heffernan creates a thrilling and magnetic sonic kaleidoscope of free jazz that delves deep into his kosmische kingdom. Each listen will make you increasingly appreciate this psychedelic jam until you won’t stop playing the 37-minute long trip on a loop. Try to uncover the hidden teachings of the afro-futurist cosmonaut Sun Ra, of the antitotalitarian novel “Darkness at Noon” or of the unsung heroine of electronic music Delia Derbyshire. These references make this album an “educational recording from the Ivan the Tolerable sound laboratory” and illuminate the mysterious concept of exchanging ideas across the four dimensions of spacetime. If Great Leaders die, sound ideas, however, don’t.

Derived from the German word “Feuerzeug,” Föllakzoid has been building a kind of response to the intuition of the kosmische bands of the 70s and the artists of the trance scene from the Berlin raves of the 90s (The Visions of Shiva, Cosmic Baby). Unlike their previous albums, which were produced in a single take, their latest record was made in a month from over 70 distinct recordings of guitars, bass, drums, synths, and vocals. Without any restrictions or guidelines, producer Atom™, who wasn’t present at the time of the recording, then reorganized everything into four sequences. The result of this collaborative sonic exploration recreates a pulsating transcendental journey of a young researcher seeking a supernatural realm, by attempting to retrace enigmatic moments of dissolved perceptions, where the vision of a dark matter particle altered their imagination. With a futuristic approach towards inner transmutation, V is a unique minimalist experience that tells a complex story about a cosmic energy that inhabits the human body. “We are the dream of the machine and as the bio technology rises, that distinction will no longer apply”, writes Domingæ. Kraftwerk had it right then. “Wir sind die Roboter.”

Since the release of L’eau et les rêves last spring, N NAO has received genuine recognition from the public and the industry thanks to her ritualized, enchanting, almost mystical performances, even earning herself a place on the prestigious long list of the Polaris Prize. Based on an artistic and symbolic ritual that has been happening naturally for millions of years, the album is an ambitious cross-disciplinary and collaborative work, whose subject matter gradually comes to light through documentary research on freshwater. Blending krautrock rhythms, free jazz spontaneity, psychedelic folk improvisation, dream pop effects, and field recordings captured in action, the album as a whole, with its rare authenticity, is an invitation to get lost at the top of a mountain during a daydream, and to come to life next to a source of fresh water that makes life more permeable to unconscious changes. From the subconscious melodies composed on guitar, a gentle vulnerability emerges in her voice, revealing the intimate thoughts of a precious light that fell into the water. Once you take the risk of finding yourself, you discover that love is what transcends death.

Trees Speak are a musical duo based in Tucson, Arizona, composed of Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz. The band’s sound is characterized by a combination of surrealist art, krautrock motoric-beat rhythms, angular New York post-punk attitude, 1960s spy soundtracks, psych, jazz, and 1970s synthesizers. The name Trees Speak reflects their interest in the concept of using technologies to store information and data in trees and plants, with the idea that trees communicate collectively. As with all their previous releases, Mind Maze is influenced by desert landscapes, creating a unique, captivating, experimental, and innovative sound. To fully understand this new album, create in your mind a misty labyrinth of distorting mirrors filled with the excitement of a film noir in which the victim, the murderer, and the detective are the same but do not know each other. If each one says the exact opposite, it is because they are right. You might say that this is a paradox. That is exactly what Trees Speak is talking about, as there is no more classical achievement of surrealism than the ensemble of a machine and the human being standing before it.

Coming out of the “Cavern” from dance-punk band Liquid Liquid during a paranoiac rise of “Kundalini” from post-punk band 23 Skidoo, Holy Tongue is a studio project formed in 2018 out of London’s avant-garde scene. Following a trilogy of critically acclaimed EPs, “Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare” brings together the sought-after drummer and percussionist Valentina Magaletti (Nicolas Jaar, The Oscillation, Tomaga, Vanishing Twin), the techno-schaman Al Wootton (Deadboy) and Japanese bassist Susumu Mukai (Vanishing Twin) with special guest performances from the legendary Steve Beresford on prepared piano, Abraham Parker and David Wootton on brass. Constructed around their appreciation for cathartic improvisations and experiments from the On-U Sounds label (Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge), the tracks celebrate the crossover of genres and range from Andalusian Catholic marching to obscure dub, jazz, post-punk, mystical percussion and techno. This debut album is the band’s most elaborate work, and shows their ambitions to develop innovative approaches that combat the challenges of a curse. Building strong partnerships really does help fight the threat.