Theo Croker and Sullivan FortnerCD / Vinyl / Limited Green Vinyl / digital Theo Croker trumpetSullivan Fortner piano Forget the boxes.Forget the compositions.Forget the market.Forget if people will get it.Forget everything. Let's just PLAY. The album PLAY unites for the first time two of the most important American musicians of the current generation charting new paths in jazz & way beyond: trumpeter Theo Croker and pianist Sullivan Fortner. The two have known each other for more than 20 years, but PLAY is their first recording as joint leaders. Their original idea was to record a collection of modern jazz standards, perhaps including a few versions of popular songs. So Croker and Fortner went into the studio, made a recording… but then discarded it. In its entirety. Theo Croker remembers: ‘As we were playing it, it felt very stale. Not in the sense that the songs weren't any good. But it felt like we were just kind of playing things that had already been recorded many times.’ Sullivan Fortner agrees: ‘We felt it wasn't really us, it felt more like being in school. We had both played a lot of music from the great American songbook in the past. Those are great songs, they were our vehicle for studying. But it wasn't necessarily the music we gravitated towards on gigs. We are always rooted in something that is beyond just jazz. The music we create always tends to reflect the entire diaspora of black American music, as opposed to just one solid genre.”So Croker and Fortner went back into the studio... the very next day. The plan this time: no plan. No compositions (except for the opener A Prayer for Peace). Let’s just PLAY. Theo Croker takes up the story: “We would just come up with spontaneous little ideas: This song we’ll play fast. For this song we pick four notes we were NOT gonna play. This song I play long notes, you play fast notes. I'm gonna come up with a melody and we just see where it goes. In just one hour, we were done.” The process might sound simple in theory, but in reality it has captured the essence of two lifetimes of learning and improvisation. Sullivan Fortner says: “It just felt right, it felt like: this is really us. It pulled inspirationally and spiritually and pulled out a lot of the things we have learned together and in common.” This extraordinary recording, now being released on ACT has an interesting backstory: Theo Croker has already appeared on ACT as the mainstay of quite a few previous releases: first was Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic XII – Sketches of Miles (recorded in 2021) and then Emile Parisien’s transatlantic project Louise (2022), first in the studio and then live. As a result, ACT CEO Andreas Brandis proposed to the trumpeter that he might release a more acoustic, chamber music-influenced album – something very different from his work as a leader, which tends to inhabit the borderlands between jazz, hip hop and pop. Croker’s first instinctive reaction to the suggestion was positive, and to offer a duo recording with Sullivan Fortner. It was an idea which the two musicians had already been considering for a long time. PLAY is one of those unusual occasions when everything has fallen into place. In today’s music business, that’s not just rare, it’s a miracle. No rulebook, no questions about genres, no aiming at target groups...or singles...or suitability for streaming. Just the music. Even though a wide variety of influences have coalesced here, the album has a particularly emblematic and vivid statement to make about what the spirit of jazz is: freedom, interaction, the opportunity to express oneself without restriction and to communicate with one another. Or, as Sullivan Fortner puts it: ‘This is just two brothers playing.’ Credits#1 composed by Theo Croker, all other tracks are improvisationsRecorded June 6, 2023 at The Bunker Studio, Brooklyn, NYRecorded by Todd CarterMixed by Todd CarderMastered by Klaus ScheuermannProduced by Theo Croker & Sullivan FortnerPhoto by @ogata_photoSpiral motif used under license from Giorgio Morara Alamy (vector graphic)Cover design by Siggi Loch

Nils Landgren - Christmas with my Friends IXCD / Purple Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren trombone, vocalsSharon Dyall vocalsJeanette Köhn vocals Jessica Pilnäs vocals Ida Sand vocals, piano Jonas Knutsson saxophones Johan Norberg guitars Clas Lassbo bassTrombones from the Swedish Radio Symphony OrchestraHåkan Björkman, Mikael Oscarsson, James Kent, Martha Eikemo Andersen What would Christmas be without songs? And without friends and family? Trombonist, singer, and producer Nils Landgren had long dreamed of celebrating a musical Christmas with good friends. In 2006, this dream became reality: Christmas With My Friends was released and quickly became one of the most popular and successful Christmas albums in European jazz — and a beloved tradition. Since then, the series has appeared every two years, accompanied by regular tours. Now, with Christmas With My Friends IX, the series enters its ninth round.“Someone once asked me: is there not an end to Christmas songs?” recalls Nils Landgren. His answer is simple: “The answer is simple: no, there is not. As long as we celebrate Christmas, there will be songs celebrating the occasion in one way or the other.” For Landgren and his fellow musicians, both the recordings and the concerts are a special joy: “There is no way I can describe the feeling when another recording session is finished. We all put our heart and soul into each and every Christmas album we make, and over the years we have become a very tight bunch of people, and we know each other quite well by now — after 8 albums and 10 long tours over the past decades.” As in every edition, Landgren & Friends also gathered over coffee and cinnamon buns for the ninth installment of Christmas to discuss and try out a selection of classic European and American Christmas songs across styles and eras, as well as new compositions. The lineup once again features Jonas Knutsson (saxophone), Johan Norberg (guitar), Clas Lassbo (bass), and Ida Sand (piano, vocals), along with vocalists Sharon Dyall, Jessica Pilnäs, and Jeanette Köhn. Traditionally, the recordings took place at the renowned Atlantis Studios in Stockholm – under the direction of Nils Landgren and co-producer Johan Norberg. As a special treat this time, Landgren invited the trombone section of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra to perform on some particularly moving chorales. The variety of voices, the close familiarity among all the musicians, and the warm, acoustic character – both festive and intimate – shape the unmistakable charm of this music. Christmas With My Friends IX is a celebration of friendship, peace, and joy – a musical Christmas story that Nils Landgren and his friends share with their audience. Credits Recorded March 3–4, 2025, at Atlantis Studios, Stockholm Recorded by Niclas Lindström Trombones on #1 recorded by Hans Gardemar at KMH Kungasalen Stockholm Mixed by Johan Norberg Mastered by Klaus ScheuermannProduced by Nils Landgren & Johan Norberg

Emma Rawicz - INKYRACD / Vinyl / Limited Purple Vinyl / digitalEmma Rawicz tenor, soprano saxophonesGareth Lockrane flute, alto flute, bass flute, piccolo David Preston guitar Scottie Thompson Rhodes, piano, Prophet Kevin Glasgow electric bassJamie Murray drums‘In jazz, there’s always more to learn,’ says saxophonist Emma Rawicz. Since the release of her ACT debut album Chroma in August 2023, she has emerged as one of the most acclaimed and in-demand European jazz musicians of her generation. For Emma Rawicz, jazz is above all a never-ending source of creative inspiration. ‘There's always something new to discover,’ she says. ‘While you practise, there are so many new things which can be developed.’ Emma Rawicz sets herself a gruelling work schedule. During the coronavirus pandemic, she started documenting her practice routines on Instagram, which has led to tens of thousands of people keeping track of her development ever since. She tours throughout Europe, playing in major concert halls, headlining at important festivals, while also constantly writing new music. She leads her own Emma Rawicz Jazz Orchestra, and recently became a BBC New Generation Artist – joining the uniquely prestigious scheme through which the BBC supports ‘some of the world’s most promising new talent’, across several genres of music. As The Guardian has written: ‘Emma Rawicz hit the ground running – and the warp speed of her evolution is showing no sign of slowing.’Emma Rawicz is never one to seek out the easy paths, and her desire to challenge audiences is also something fundamental. And yet...she always does it with a smile. Confrontation doesn’t interest her, but rather the discovery and the experience of new music which has never previously been heard, and which can transcend everyday clichés. The album Inkyra, recorded with the sextet Gareth Lockrane (flute), David Preston (guitar), Scottie Thompson (keys), Kevin Glasgow (electric bass) and Jamie Murray (drums), breaks boundaries in many ways. It is completely alive with energy, ideas, colours and rhythmic and harmonic complexity. Rawicz herself impresses here, with a tone that is as weighty as it is agile, deep musical intellect paired with great sensuality and a feel for subtle nuances, and gradations of textures. Rawicz and her band tried out the new music for the first time in a small, standing-only London venue – and in front of a very diverse audience. There is something of a statement here: the first trial of new music is not about seeing how it will fit under the players’ fingers, but rather whether an audience can “get it” and be carried along by it, about whether the people in the room are going to be moved emotionally by the music – and are also going to move physically with it.‘This album means a lot to me. It's something special,’ says Rawicz about Inkyra. ‘I've been playing with this band for more than three years. We've worked very intensively on this music. After the first concert last summer, we all invested a lot of time, practised and developed the programme further in workshops. So everyone has left their mark on it.‘ The influences on the music come from many sources – including some you might not immediately expect: ‘Some of the inspiration for the music comes from Joni Mitchell. That might sound strange at first, because the pieces don't sound like singer/songwriter music. Nevertheless, I immersed myself in her music before composing the programme. I am fascinated by her way of structuring melodies, her use of harmony, unusual tunings and unfamiliar chords that you don't hear in jazz. That influenced me on the piano and in turn shaped my work as a composer. The result is a unique identity. I also took inspiration from the lyrics, which appear in the titles of the pieces and have also inspired the fantasy name of the album.’ “The music of Inkyra sounds at least as colorful as Rawicz’s ACT debut Chroma (from the Greek for colour and a nod to Emma Rawicz’s unique perception of sound and color as a synesthete). ”The anthemic intro, for example, has its roots in the spiritual sound of the sixties. There are dense, towering textures that reach into prog rock, as in Moondrawn (dreaming), or references to Brazilian rhythmic roots, as in Marshmallow Tree. Some tracks - Anima Rising for example sound like, as if not just a sextet but an entire jazz orchestra is playing; other parts – such as Time, And Other Thieves – sound like a mixture of heavy indie beat and shimmering psychedelia, especially thanks to Gareth Lockrane's expansive and authoritative flute playing. The album somehow brings to mind the image of a spaceship, one in which Emma Rawicz – who currently lives in Berlin having spent several years in London – is definitely heading in new directions: ‘Sometimes it felt like we were leaving orbit, boundless in our improvisations. Like we could just take off and leave the rest behind. For me, it's like a cosmic journey. We don't know where we're going to land – only that when we do, it will be together.’CreditsAll music composed by Emma RawiczProduced by Emma Rawicz, co-produced by David PrestonRecorded at Livingston Studios, on the 7th, 8th and 9th of October 2024Recorded by Sonny Johns Mixed by Alex KillpartrickMastered by Klaus ScheuermannCover art by Yukimasa Ida, Flowers (2022) © Yukimasa Ida, courtesy of Mariane Ibrahim Gallery

Bugge Wesseltoft - It's still snowing on my pianoLiveCD / Vinyl / Limited Sky Blue Vinyl / digital Bugge Wesseltoft pianoBugge Wesseltoft’s solo piano album It's Snowing On My Piano (1997) is one of the most successful albums that the ACT label has ever released. For many people – especially in Germany and Norway – this music, made with such care and love by the affable and generous-spirited Norwegian, has become an essential part of their holiday season. And yet, for a Christmas album, it is anything but typical. From the very first note, the meditative strength of the music is palpable. Wesseltoft creates a locus of peace and tranquillity – a state of being which seems even more precious today than it did when the album first appeared. In the intervening years, Bugge Wesseltoft has played the music from the album many times in concert. Each time, he reinterprets the music afresh, with the compositions and melodies serving as points of departure for musical meditations shaped in the moment. After almost 20 years of these performances, the time is now right to document and indeed to celebrate this aspect of Wesseltoft’s patient but continuing creative evolution through the release of It's still snowing on my piano. This new, live version of the much-loved album was recorded at five concerts in cultural centres and churches in Norway. When Bugge Wesseltoft played the music from Snowing live for the very first time almost 20 years ago at Kalkmølla, an intimate hall in a cultural centre outside Oslo, he had strong doubts as to whether it would be possible to recreate the magical atmosphere of the studio recording. He recalls: “There were about a hundred people seated in a small acoustic space. I started playing quietly and slowly, just like on the album. After a few songs, I started to hear deep breathing coming from somewhere in the audience. ‘Oh God, this must be so boring for them,’ I thought... I was sure they would all leave during the interval.” Of course, his fears were unfounded – not a single person left. In fact, quite the opposite: “After the concert, everyone told me what a great experience it had been. Since then, I have been playing this music every December in Norway in front of large audiences. It's incredible to feel the collective energy that this music and the presence of an audience in a concert hall can create together.” When Siggi Loch, the founder of ACT, originally suggested that Wesseltoft might record a Christmas album in 1997, the pianist was initially less than enthusiastic. He can still remember why: “I'm not a big fan of the frenzy of Christmas shopping, all that enforced happiness...In the early nineties I worked in a psychiatric clinic and was shocked to discover that Christmas was a peak season for depression, nervous breakdowns and family problems. I counted myself lucky, because I grew up in a family where Christmas Eve was a heart-warming, peaceful evening spent with my closest family." This eventually inspired Wesseltoft to record a Christmas album in this spirit — one that his then two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Maren might one day come to love: "Calm, slow, with an emphasis on fond childhood memories, on the songs we sang while holding hands around the Christmas tree," as he describes it. There was no particular reason to expect that the recording would do well when it was released before Christmas 1997. And at first, not much happened at all. But in the following year, word spread about this very special Christmas music, people took the album to their hearts, recommended it and gave it as a gift again and again, something which continues right up to the present day. The live recording It's still snowing on my piano feels familiar – but at the same time it is new. The melodies of the compositions, originals but in traditional vein, remain intact. Wesseltoft's approach to the songs is neither of deconstruction nor of recomposition, but rather one of gently wandering and exploring the spaces between the notes. And yet it is precisely in this way that completely new music emerges within the songs. It seems as if each preceding note is paving the way for the next, as if each new twist and turn leads on to another. It can often seem that Wesseltoft himself is both player and listener. During the recording of the original album, his daughter Maren sat on his lap – not a typical artist-audience relationship, but rather one of listening and feeling being shared. And that is the spirit which pervades Snowing whether it is heard in concert or at home. It is the ever-present feeling of connection between musician and listener that makes this evergreen music so completely magical. CreditsMusic arranged and produced by Bugge Wesseltoft Mixed and mastered by Klaus ScheuermannCover art by Ardy Strüwer

Bill Laurance - LumenCD / Vinyl / Limited turquoise Vinyl / digitalBill Laurance Yamaha CFX2 grand pianoYamaha UX3 upright piano with feltFor a couple of days and nights, Bill Laurance went into hiding. He locked himself away in a place where he could be alone at the piano, lost in music, could allow himself to drift, sometimes guided by existing compositions, sometimes less so. Around him the solid brick walls of St Faith's Church in Dulwich in South London provided a buffer from the outside world, creating a spiritual backdrop for the music. ‘I'm not a very religious person,’ recalls Laurance as he thinks back to the recording situation in early April of this year. ‘But it was special to play there while everyday life was on hold. And it's different when you're in that kind of setting, just communicating with yourself. I wanted to capture the freedom in music that arises at moments like that.’With his latest solo recording, Bill Laurance, who often experiments with acoustic and electric sounds, is passionate about exploring the full sonic and musical spectrum of an accoustic concert grand piano - and to inhabit the realm between composition and freedom: "When you play solo, you have a unique opportunity to explore that. Recording in a church was the perfect setting and let me fully surrenders to the music. The superb guitarist Isaiah Sharkey once said to me that it’s the music itself which tells him what to play. That idea really left its mark on me. We are usually trained to control everything, to practice until it’s perfect. But I think I've got to a point where I just want to let it flow. Do the opposite, let the music take the lead." It would be wrong, however, to infer that Bill Laurance has suddenly thrown away the rulebook completely. Whereas many pieces on ‘Lumen’ have a strong improvisational component, others are composed and have clearly defined structures. The 44-year-old pianist, composer and bandleader is not interested in heading in the direction of resolution and completion, but rather in the power that arises from contrast. He has several projects in which he communicates extensively with musical partners. For example, in the duo with Michael League, in his own trio, with Snarky Puppy, or his orchestral collaborations such as “Bloom” with The Untold Orchestra. These are situations in which one becomes part of a greater entity, and can be carried forwards by the flow, the teamwork. Solo piano, on the other hand, works very differently. You see yourself in the mirror, set the rules – but can also break away from them: "I really immersed myself in the moment. For me, it felt like a solo pilgrimage. Something happened, I recorded about three hours of music in total and then had to decide which bits to leave out. At its core, however, it was a spiritual experience for me, a process of arriving, a question of trust. A bit like Indiana Jones in “The Last Crusade” when he takes that jump into the abyss – a leap into the unknown. I couldn't have exposed more of who I am than I did with this music. I used to be surrounded by a load of synthesizers, drum machines, all kinds of things, even when I was playing solo. But as an artist, I now feel ready to leave all that behind me, the idea here is to be more organic, pure, direct." As well as the conventional grand piano, Bill Laurance also used a piano with felt dampers, at the opposite end of the scale from the big resonance of the grand piano. With the felt dampeners, the attack of the piano is reduced allowing for a more inviting and intimate tone. The “felted piano” is tonal, melodic percussion and a contrast with the large, more public space which the church offered. He used it discreetly to give the ten pieces of ‘Lumen’ additional colour, for example as the melodically bold and dramatic intro to ‘Mantra,’ which gradually and almost imperceptibly transitions from a tiny motif into the full opulent sound of the grand piano. The title track, on the other hand, has an impressionistic character and seems like a newly discovered prelude, while ‘Dove’ becomes a version of modern stride piano with lots of cheerful interplay, but also a bluesy nonchalance. The album ‘Lumen’ opens doors into a vast world of imagination. It feels like just the captivating beginning, in which the chance to explore and to dig into his heritage and into himself has led Bill Laurance to create music which is grounded in melody, but also lives and breathes the allure of freedom. And it makes you want to accompany Bill Laurance on the next stages of his solo piano journey. CreditsAll music composed by Bill Laurance Published by Flint Music, administered by BMG PublishingRecorded at St Faith’s Church, Dulwich, London on the 3rd and 4th April 2025 Recorded by Camilo SalazarMixed by Steve Poppleton and Bill LauranceProduced by Bill LauranceMastered by Christoph Stickel @csmastering.com Bill Laurance is managed by Mike Chadwick for Mike Chadwick Management Cover art by Michael Kidner, Butterfly Wings, 1966 Oil on canvas, 168 x 183 cm (Image has been adjusted for print) © Estate of Michael Kidner, courtesy of Flowers Gallery

Vincent Peirani - Living Being IVCD / Vinyl / limited red transparent Vinyl / digital Vincent Peirani accordion, accordina Emile Parisien soprano saxophone  Julien Herne bass Tony Paeleman piano, keyboards, Fender Rhodes Yoann Serra drums Yesterday, 2011: Vincent, Yoann, Tony, Julien... and one more. A group of pals, each one having left Nice independently and ended up in Paris. They adopt Émile, also from Southern France, but from further west. Today: natural affinities, a leader who calls the shots, and they use jazz to embrace a wide musical spectrum, from Baroque music to teen pop, from traditions of the Balkans to sounds of Africa. Tomorrow: with their flair for narrative, for creating a scenario, and their mastery of dynamics, every concert is and will be a celebration of excellence.    Listening to “Living Being IV: Time Reflections”, we are immediately struck by the range of dynamics, the intimacy and extroversion at play in every detail, the rich textures, and the arrangements that allow for riveting moments of surprise. It’s worth remembering that, from the outset with Living Being, Vincent Peirani brought to the fore the concept of chamber music: a small number of performers, with each one playing a unique part, but with the emphasis on the collective rather than the individual.From the start, with Le Cabinet des énigmes, the melodic intelligibility is impressive. A sort of children’s song sublimated by the art of superimposing transparencies. Everything is played out in a myriad of details that create a perpetual motion. Further on, in Better Days, the motif heard – it came to Vincent Peirani while improvising during one of the COVID-19 lockdowns – conveys the fragility of a slow waltz emerging from the darkness to provide a glimpse of a radiant future. Three of the tracks, Clessidra, Inner Pulse and Bremain Suite, are much longer than any of the pieces on Living Being’s previous albums. The narrative and the distribution of the parts made this inevitable. We can feel here the trust that has been built up over the years, so natural, and without the slightest tension. With different colours, they all tell the same story.This album represents perhaps Vincent Peirani’s most faithful self-portrait to date. It has as its centrepiece Time Reflections, a suite in three movements, Clessidra, Better Days and Inner Pulse, each of which is also a suite (in 3, 3, and 4 parts, respectively). This nested construction is totally in keeping with Vincent’s true nature: he is an architect, constantly mindful of even the smallest details. Back to the future for Phantom Resonanz. An unlikely encounter between the sixteenth-century polyphony of the Franco-Flemish composer Cipriano de Rore and the contemporary approach of German pianist Michael Wollny. The result is disarming in its simplicity, and all the more convincing since the accordion plays a pivotal role. In both L.L. and Bremain Suite, variations in tempo play a major role. L.L., a tribute to Lionel Loueke, presents a Cubist portrait of the Beninese guitarist. The first half of the piece focuses on his tenderness and sensitivity, the second on his dazzling rhythms. With Bremain Suite Vincent Peirani returns to his love for putting his own spin on pop and rock songs written and recorded by other artists. After hesitating between Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie, Portishead’s Glory Box and The Beatles’ I Want You (She’s So Heavy), he decided in the end to bring all three together, shaking up their tempos and bringing out a family resemblance already spotted as a teenager. Note Émile Parisien’s bravura piece on I Want You.Vincent Peirani’s spreads his antennae so far and wide that his four companions have to be prepared for anything when he comes up with new pieces for the repertoire. A dub with an irresistible beat, such as Physical Attraction, inspired by voguing. And Nach e Vlado, reflecting a soft spot for the traditional melodies of the Balkans, especially Macedonia. In both cases, tradition is propelled into a form of expression that is infused with a fantastic appetite for every type of music.Living Being? Five living beings, together forming one vibrant entity.    Credits: All tracks composed by Vincent Peirani except #8 – medley from Under Pressure, Glory Box & I Want You Under Pressure composed by Freddie Mercury, David Bowie Glory Box composed by Isaac Lee Hayes, Geoff Barrow, Adrian Utley, Beth Gibbons I Want You composed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney L.L is dedicated to Lionel Loueke Phantom Resonanz is dedicated to Céline Foucaut Recorded by Boris Darley at Studio des Bruères, France Produced by Amélie Salembier & Vincent Peirani / Yes les Guy’zz Mixed by Nic Hard Mastered by Dave McNair Artwork by Jérôme Witz Band photo by Elisa Ramirez Cover photo by Frank Siemers With the support of SCPP, CNM

daoud - okCD / colored Vinyl (pink) / digital daoud trumpet, flugelhorn, synthesizers, ondes MartenotSilvan Strauss drums, percussionsLouis Navarro double bassLeo Colman synthesizers, piano, Fender RhodesJules Minck synthesizers, electric bass, electric guitarQuentin Braine additional percussionsKuz additional keyboards, sound design, additional production Special guests: corto.alto trombone, Mehdi Nassouli guembri, Charlie Burg tenor saxophone, Teis Semey electric guitar, Kuba Więcek alto saxophone, Julien Fillion tenor saxophone, Ludivine Issambourg flutes, Rosie Frater-Taylor vocals / electric guitar With “ok”, his new album and ACT debut, French trumpeter ‘daoud’ offers a quiet manifesto - a record shaped by contrast and contradiction, by collapse and the stubborn act of beginning again. Built around the idea of accepting what cannot be changed. He explains: “The whole record is built around the concept of reluctant acceptance of things that you can’t control. All right, fuck it, fine, I guess.” The album explores failure, loss, repetition, and the soft absurdity of pretending everything’s fine. Across 14 tracks, daoud weaves tragedy and humor, chaos and tenderness, melody and noise into a rich and emotionally charged soundscape.At its core, “ok” is a jazz record treated like anything but a jazz record. The foundation of the music was created live in the studio, together with keyboardist Leo Colman, double bassist Louis Navarro, drummer Silvan Strauss, electric bassist/guitarist/keyboardist Jules Minck and keyboardist Kuz. The editing of these recordings was more akin to a pop production, yet the sounds, pads and textures added afterwards are subtle and refined. The elaborate production is topped by a striking line-up of international musical guests who lend the music even more facets and emotions: corto.alto (trombone / GB), Rosie Frater-Taylor (guitar & vocals / UK), Mehdi Nassouli (guembri / MOR), Ludivine Issambourg (flute / FR), Teis Semey (guitar / NL), Kuba Więcek (alto saxophone / PL) and Julien Fillion (tenor saxophone / CA). The result sounds organic and immediate, as if you feel the production more than hear it. The album blends jazz, hip-hop, rock, disco, Afrobeat and drum’n’bass - not as genres to explore, but as emotional textures in a broader narrative.What emerges is a tone both satirical and melancholic, where humor masks deeper sadness, and childish playfulness veils inner tension. “ok” is an album of contradictions: lightness built on weight, sincerity laced with irony, warmth streaked with anxiety. There’s a deep sense of emotional dissonance — exposing what hides behind the act of saying “ok” when you’re not. It’s the sound of things breaking quietly, of resilience masked by routine. This duality runs through everything daoud creates - including the visual world of “ok”. The album cover features a childhood photo of him, capturing the vulnerability and raw innocence that echo throughout the music, the covers of the digital singles are illustrated with simple, childlike black marker drawings. The aesthetic draws on fragility, impermanence, and the bittersweet tension between playfulness and pain.And behind it all stands daoud. “I've been obsessed with the idea of being a circus clown since I was like 3 years old”, he recalls the starting point of his life as a musician. “I must have seen a clown on TV or somewhere else playing the trumpet and thought that this was the instrument that a clown had to play. So that's how I picked the trumpet - not out of classical ambition, but for its absurd theatricality.” That tension in the figure of the clown - between the comic and the tragic, the graceful and the ridiculous - has defined daoud’s relationship with music ever since.After a few early attempts at classical and jazz training, he dropped out. He wandered across Europe and the U.S., lived in backrooms, delivered pizzas, worked at a funeral home, played football and boxed obsessively. He quit music altogether more than once. “I think I gave up playing music because it meant so much to me that I needed to prove I could still exist without it.” Eventually, he returned to music — on his own terms. Trumpeter, producer, beatmaker, composer, engineer — he taught himself everything. “I’m so grateful I’m alive during the Internet era. If you want to learn something, you just can.” He works 18 hours a day, seven days a week. His self-produced 2024 debut “GOOD BOY”, recorded in just three days, drew immediate attention for its emotional force and genre-defying clarity. Since then, daoud has produced and written for other artists in pop and hip-hop, while continuing to refine his own singular voice.“ok” is the distilled essence of that journey — sonically, emotionally, and spiritually. ‘’Contrasts and contradictions shove us and rattle us and make us feel things in the way that homogeneous environments don't.” says daoud. “For me, this is where human emotions live.“ It is the scope and depth of emotions that make the album so extraordinary. It doesn’t offer clarity. It doesn’t pretend things are fine. It asks what it means to carry on anyway. Credits:All tracks composed by daoud Produced and arranged by daoud & Jules Minck, additional production by Kuz Recorded by Julien Couralet at Studio Capitole, mixed by Olivier Cussac, mastered by Alexis Bardinet at Globe Audio Mastering Cover art by daoud

Nils Kugelmann - Life ScoreCD / Vinyl / digitalNils Kugelmann double bassLuca Zambito pianoSebastian Wolfgruber drumsNils Kugelmann likes telling stories. That much is clear from the titles of his compositions...from the way he talks when he introduces them at concerts...and – naturally – from the music itself. ‘For me, making the connection between music and stories, feelings and situations is so important,’ says the bassist/ composer/ bandleader, now based in Berlin. ‘At concerts I consciously talk to the audience and go into the background of each piece in some detail. It’s something I enjoy. I can hardly imagine presenting music on stage without having this kind of communication.’ Above all, however, the music which Nils Kugelmann plays and composes has real urgency, strong energy and hypnotic power. As an artist he has broken through in a way that no other double bassist of the under-30 generation in Germany has done, in particular his way of making his instrument the central feature of his music. Immediately after completing his master's degree in 2022, Kugelmann launched his debut album ‘Stormy Beauty’ on ACT. German media called him a ‘bass berserker’ and a ‘mega-talent.’ Awards, sold-out concerts duly followed. Kugelmann has a core trio, but beyond that he is free to play in the contexts and styles he likes – first and foremost in a duo and quartet with pianist and composer Shuteen Erdenebaatar.There are so many dimensions to Kugelmann’s musical personality, something which the trio he leads with pianist Luca Zambito and drummer Sebastian Wolfgruber gives him the freedom to express. ‘Life Score’ is in many ways a further development and concentration of the qualities of the band and its leader. ‘Our first album was still from the Corona period. We hardly had a chance to play live and the studio recordings were the first real opportunity to try out the pieces,’ Kugelmann recalls. ‘With ”Life Score’ it's completely different. We have now played a lot of concerts and as a trio we have grown together and got closer. The pieces seem much more compact and concrete.’ ACT CEO and producer Andreas Brandis has played a significant role in this. The trio did try-outs of the new repertoire written by Nils Kugelmann over the course of several live concerts. This was followed by intensive, collective discussions about the selection of pieces, arrangements, sound and dynamics. This meant that the trio was able to go into the studio perfectly prepared and, together with their producer, concentrate on the finer details and find the ideal versions of the pieces for the album. Andreas Brandis says: ‘Nils Kugelmann is not only an incredible bassist, but above all a great songwriter. And precisely because his music is so concise and catchy, it was important to reduce the pieces to their essence.’ All the compositions on the album have a cinematic quality, they are like short films about the lives of their protagonists. These ‘life scores’ draw inspiration from experiences on tour, such as a visit to the Galapagos Islands, but also from moods inspired by balmy summer evenings, the scent of the night, or the incomparable experience of love. These stories are there compositions, in clear, present melodies, in the groovy, flowing rhythm of a homogenous-sounding trio and also in the naturalness of melodic music. Because Nils Kugelmann not only wants to tell stories. He also wants to be heard and understood – by a broad audience and also by listeners of his own generation. ‘Life Score’ is a complex and captivating blueprint, showing us a new kind of film-like Gen Z jazz.CreditsRecorded by Klaus Scheuermann, on September 24–25, 2024, at Soundfabrik in Berlin, Germany Mixed and mastered by Klaus ScheuermannCover art by Bernd Zimmer, “Cosmos”, 2003

Adam Bałdych & Leszek Możdżer - Passacaglia CD / Vinyl / digital Adam Bałdych violin, renaissance violin Leszek Możdżer piano Passacaglia is a multi-colored musical dialogue between two unique characters who are leading figures in European jazz and contemporary music, Adam Bałdych and Leszek Możdżer. The repertoire ranges from free improvisations over works co-written by the musicians themselves to their very personal interpretations of themes by Erik Satie, Josquin des Prez and others.The album features a highly unusual combination of instruments: a Renaissance violin, two grand pianos - one tuned to 442 Hz and the other 432 Hz - and a prepared upright piano. This setup allows an infinitely varied palette of musical expression, which defies styles, genres and even tonal and harmonic convention. The world that Bałdych and Możdżer create is one of well-balanced beauty, expressed in the noble form of chamber music, but it is also one of turbulent and intensely emotional improvisation. Like all great art, it draws you in and leaves you intrigued at the same time – and also makes you want to come back and explore it all over again.Credits: Produced by the artists

Nils Landgren - Funk is my ReligionCD / Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren trombone &vocals Magnum Coltrane Price bass, vocals & additional keyboards Jonas Wall tenor saxophone & vocals Andy Pfeiler guitar & vocals Petter Bergander keyboards & vocals Robert Ikiz drums Back in 1994 when Nils Landgren started up his Funk Unit, there were those who asked whether there was actually any need for Swedish funk. After seventeen years, ten albums and several hundreds of concerts, the question has basically answered itself: to find the most fired-up take on this music anywhere, a sound which is inextricably welded into soul, rhythm and blues and jazz, and in which all of the instruments – and the vocals too – have an irresistible rhythmic ur-gency about them, this is definitely the band to see and hear. And if one turns to the pioneers, godfathers and grandees of the funk world – Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley, the musical prime movers behind James Brown, Ray Parker Jr., or Joe Sample from the Crusaders – then there’s no need to look any further: each and every one of them has played with the Funk Unit. And the Funk Unit’s story is far from over. Not even this pandemic was going to hold back their eleventh album. "Originally we wanted to record at Palma Studios in Mallorca, but Corona put a stop to that," Nils Landgren explains. "Then we decided we’d record at "Redhorn District" in Bad Meinberg, but nothing was working in Germany either. So what should we do. Give up? The Funk Unit? No chance! I asked my friend Björn Yttling if we could go to his Ingrid Studio in Stockholm, and he said ‘No problem.’ A few days before the session, the Swedish authorities decided that no more than eight people could assemble indoors at once. So, with the six of us plus just one sound engineer, we managed to stay under the limit."So it is the core members of the Funk Unit who are to be heard on this album. Together, they form a close-knit clan from the "Stockholm Underground". Apart from Landgren himself, there is Magnum Coltrane Price on bass – he has been a member of the band right from the beginning, and also has a producer credit here. The others, who have gradually become part of the fabric of the band, are Jonas Wall on tenor saxophone, Andy Pfeiler on guitar, Petter Bergander on keyboards and Robert Ikiz on drums. What unites them is best ex-pressed through the title of the new album: "Funk Is My Religion". And it is indeed that veneration of the great idols, combined with their own qualities – personal, individual, and European – which lie at the heart of the unparalleled success of the Nils Landgren Funk Unit, and may also be the secret behind its remarkable and possibly unique longevity. Everything that goes to make up superb funk is to be found on "Funk Is My Religion" – and more. It starts with the warm soul of the open-er "Amanda", in which gentle keyboards, asoft brass section and a dreamy trombone solo all set the tone. Then we move into funk which is still calm but also hard-hitting on "Anyway You Want It". The tempo picks up a lot with "See Ya In Court", then settles into a bouncy groove in the title track and also shows the melancholic, bluesy side on "ES In Memory". Classic, gospelly synco-pated funk to get people singing and bopping along to is there in "Doing It For The People"; we’re into a thrilling reminiscence of James Brown in "Play Funk", the jazz soloists have their way with "Brand New Funk" and then on into the exuberant final anthem. We have some great basslines, some slick and energetic back-and-forth between in instrumentals and vocals. As the title of their 2013 album reminds us, there is some top-notch "Teamwork" going on here: as well as Landgren, the album has numbers composed by Price, Pfeiler and Wall. "Each of the pieces tells a story," says Nils Landgren. "Sometimes they are about people who have inspired us or whom we admire, sometimes they are simply things that need saying - in the same clear way that the title of the album sums up what it’s all about." Among the people remembered here is the great Esbjörn Svensson, who tragically died, and far too young. He helped to launch the Funk Unit, and here Landgren plays "ES In Memoriam", a beautiful, sad melody on trombone. Another hallmark of Landgren is his admiration for strong women. So, on this album, young poet Amanda Gorman, "who made such a strong impression at the inauguration of Joe Biden", and Kamala Harris, the first female, black and Asian-American vice-president are both dedicatees of songs which express respect and admiration, soulfulness and love. The album is in part a celebration of the USA as "the largest and most important democracy. I keep in touch with events there in spite of the pandemic and want to pay tribute to those who have fought for its founding principles," says Landgren. It is also the country which allowed him to find the musical roots which he has gone on to deve-lop. "Without my father playing jazz trumpet, and without the soul records my older brother played me, what we do wouldn't exist. This is such a tasty soup with so many ingredients." In essence, "Funk Is My Religion" also carries the legacy of many predecessors and role models for this incomparably physical and vital music: "It's fantastic. It’s no plastic!", as the lyrics of "Play Funk" describe it. What started in Sweden can reach out to the whole world. As the title of the closing track makes unmistakably clear: "NLFU will never stop"!