Changes at SME and FCMA
Everybody knows Marc Ridet, right? Well, with the turning of the year, our, and our partner organisation FCMA’s, esteemed director has become our much-admired ex-director. Retiring after twenty years at the helm of FCMA, and 16 years with Swiss Music Export, Marc will continue to work in the music world as an independent consultant and […]
Lord Kesseli & the Drums reaching for immortality
Just as well Lord Kesseli hasn’t thought of starting a religious cult yet. With the hypnotic, dark and yet – paradoxically – deeply psychedelic sounds emanating from his alchemically addled brain, a following of Pied Piper of Hamelin proportions would be an absolute certainty. 23 November sees the release of Lord Kesseli & the Drums’ […]
Swiss Focus at Les Rencontres Trans Musicales de Rennes 5. – 9. December 2018
Les Rencontres Trans Musicales de Rennes may be the last great festival of the year, but it certainly isn’t the least. Situated on the edge of one of the most picturesque parts of France, Brittany, Rennes isn’t short of attractive sights. However, during the five days the city hosts this glorious five-day extravaganza of musical […]
Emilie Zoé goes back to the Very Start
Emilie Zoé’s eagerly awaited second album, “The Very Start”, is at last released on 9 November. In turns bracingly honest and sweetly tender, Emilie Zoé has never shied away from difficult emotions in her songs. A little older and a little wiser, she has now harnessed her unique talent in a beguiling album full of […]
Futureman is here!
If the end is nigh, so is the new beginning. „Futureman“ to the rescue! „Futureman“ is the creation of Harvey Rushmore & the Octopus, a collection of humans, instruments, machines and images dedicated to the exploration of the weird and wonderful in us all. „Futureman“ was released on A Tree in a Field Records on 26 October, distributed […]
Hard, heavy and Ølten
Ølten are a three-piece committed to the basic power of guitar, drums, bass – and no vocals. “Ambiance”, released on 2 November on Hummus Records, is their second album. If the title conjures up visions of smoky jazz clubs or even ambient electronica, nothing could be farther from the truth. Ølten’s music is loud, intense […]
Anoraque – not for anoraks!
How this band ever arrived at their cagoule of a name is a mystery. Anoraque are anything but boring. A kaleidoscopic view of everything that’s exciting in contemporary indie, more like. Taking as a starting point the angular dynamics of bands like Alt-J, Anoraque’s feelers are stretched out in all directions, from the glitschy electronica […]
Cortez demand “No more Conquerers”
9 November 2018 sees the release of the third album by the Geneva-based Cortez, “No More Conquerors” on Basement Apes Records (France), Grains of Sand Records (Russia), Cheap Satanism Records (Belgium), Get a Life! Records (Switzerland) and WOOAAARGH (rest of the world). It was produced by Raphael Bovey (Zatokrev, Impure Wilhelmina, Convulsif, etc.). Cortez will need no introduction […]
A lovely-dubby Christmas to all!
Dub Spencer & Trance Hill have done it again: their tenth album “Christmas in Dub” is another mind-bending, expectation-confounding collection of the bizarrely brilliant and the brilliantly bizarre. Having already brought their talents to bear on the works of William S. Burroughs, Lee Perry, Dieter Meier and Ken Booth (amongst others), the dub reggae outfit […]
Us & Sparkles damn the rich
The Zurich-based production duo Us & Sparkles – Roland Vollenweider aka steinklopfer, and Philipp Cron aka paws – have released EP volume four of excerpts from their “Damn Rich” series of experiments with space and ambient sound and rhythm. Us & Sparkles are perhaps better known for their deep and heavy downbeats, turned into a […]
