SHALOSH: What We Are Made OfCD / Vinyl (LP, 180g) / digital Gadi Stern pianoDavid Michaeli double bassMatan Assayag drums“From the very start of SHALOSH, we have always said that we would never commit to any one genre but keep our music as open as possible,” drummer Matan Assayag says. “It’s the best way to bring ourselves fully to each song and the only way to stay truly authentic.” In more than a decade since its founding, the trio has made its signature this freewheeling, energetic and deeply-felt blend of jazz improvisation with everything from rock to Arabic music, western classical composition and pop melodics. Theirs is a journeying and infectiously engaging sound that has won fans from across the globe. What We Are Made Of, the band’s fourth album for ACT, impressively brings together all the influences that shape SHALOSH’s unmistakable overall sound.” Featuring a dazzlingly imaginative takes on ‘90s Europop anthem Barbie Girl, Oasis’ Don’t Look Back in Anger, Natalie Imbruglia’s early-noughties hit ballad Torn, Muses’ heavily rocking Hysteria and their own intricate, original compositions, the record is the group’s most open to date. It also marks the first time they have collaborated with a producer, ACT’s director, Andreas Brandis.“We’re a piano trio in a world of piano trios and with six albums already under our belt we wanted to make sure we kept pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone,” pianist Gadi Stern says. “That resulted in bringing outside compositions into the group that we could reimagine. It also meant enlisting Andreas, who we have known and valued for years, as our first producer. He really encouraged our approach and the result was immensely creative.” Workshopping their ideas across a week of intense rehearsals with Brandis in Berlin, the group honed their cover versions and originals into the nine final tracks on the album.“When I approach a cover I always look for something lacking in the performance that the composition has,” Stern says. “With Barbie Girl, it’s a brilliantly cynical song with great lyrics, it’s minor and has a melancholic melodic element to it but the performance is ‘90s Europop. I broke down all the elements to see how we could put it back together and make it more faithful to the essence of the song. While on Don’t Look Back in Anger I was on a walk during a trip to Tashkent in Uzbekistan and the groove for it just popped into my head. I recorded it on my phone and the whole idea only took 15 minutes.” Other tracks took longer to gestate, like the trio’s modernist jazz version of Torn. “We had previously recorded it for an album in 2018 but it didn’t make the cut because it was 12 minutes long and so messy,” bassist David Michaeli says. “We played it to Andreas during the Berlin sessions and he was great at telling us what to delete and what to keep and suddenly it made sense.” The trio’s originals, meanwhile, take shape in the achingly beautiful downtempo melodics of Ella Plays, which was inspired by Stern’s daughter Ella and the poetry of Khalil Gibran, the dark, swirling groove and vamping piano phrases of Point of Gravity and the meditative harmonics of Circle.“The band is ultimately a safe space for the three of us to freely express ourselves and share our opinions and ideas,” Mahan Assayag says. “We accept each other and all of our songs are a collective effort, which is what you hear in the finished music – the variety of influence and experience that makes us who we are. It’s why we called the album What We Are Made Of.“ SHALOSH celebrate freedom, the beauty of contrasts, the value of truly listening to one another, and the deeply human process of creative searching and finding — qualities that seem especially important right now.”„CreditsRecorded September 10–11, 2025Recorded by Klaus ScheuermannMixed and mastered by Klaus ScheuermannProduced by Andreas BrandisCover art by Ross Bleckner, used by kind permission of the artistDesign by Siggi Loch

Peter Somuah: Walking Distance CD / Vinyl (LP, 180g) / digital  Peter Somuah trumpet, flugelhorn                    Anton de Bruin rhodes, organ, keys Jens Meijer drumsMarijn van de Ven bassDanny Rombout percussion Heleen Vellekoop flute on #2Nia Ralinova cello on #2, 3 Since the release of his ACT debut Letter to the Universe (2023) and its follow-up Highlife (2024), Ghanaian-born trumpeter Peter Somuah, now based in Rotterdam, has established himself as a bridge-builder between cultures and continents. “An excellent musician and jazz at its most international,” notes the BBC. For the globetrotting Peter Somuah, musical influences from geographically distant cultures are always just a step away. This is precisely what his new album Walking Distance is about. Walking Distance is an exploration of musical unity — a journey through diverse genres that, despite their differences, remain deeply interconnected. The album blends elements of post-bop jazz, Arab music, Latin grooves, blues, funk, and the influences of Ghanaian music, resulting in a sonic reflection of the idea that cultural boundaries are far closer than they appear. They are, quite literally, just walking distance away. Drawing on this broad range of influences, the album’s pieces tell stories of everyday experiences: of being on the move in the bustle of life, of setting out and arriving, of universal actions that connect all people. This sense of “storytelling” once again proves to be one of Peter Somuah’s great strengths on Walking Distance, as it was on his previous albums. With a tone that is at times radiant, at times fragile, he takes listeners along on a deeply personal journey – from Ghana’s capital Accra with its vibrant highlife scene, via stations in Asia, all the way to Europe. The music is carried by the groove and vibe of Somuah’s multinational band, which he assembled in Rotterdam. The band, too, embodies the openness of its leader: the belief that all musicians, regardless of their background, are capable of playing any music in the world, provided they engage attentively and respectfully with its vocabulary and history. Peter Somuah explains: “I want listeners to feel both grounded and uplifted, reconnecting with themselves and the world around them through sound. Walking Distance represents my search between tradition and innovation. It’s a story of exploring the space between, finding unity in diversity, and using music as a bridge to bring us all closer together.” The way the 29-year-old does this is a reflection of his personality: assured, relaxed, sincere, fearless – and always with a smile.CreditsRecorded between 25 and 27 August 2025 at The Womb Studios, The Hague, NetherlandsRecorded by Tijmen van WageningenMixed by Anton de BruinMastered by Stuart HawkesProduced by Peter Somuah, Anton de BruinComposed by Peter Somuah

Limited test pressings of the ACT debut album by Peter Somuah. Album: Walking DistanceRelease: 13.03.2026A rare collector's item: A test pressing is the very first sample disc of an album and is used for quality control before the final pressing. It does not always match the sound of the later release exactly, which makes each copy a distinctive collectible with its own history. Every test pressing is a limited edition: ideal for collectors and for anyone who appreciates jazz vinyl, rarities and exclusive editions. Your ACT test pressing package includes:  1 Bio-Vinyl test pressing in its original white sleeve. A beautifully designed card, featuring hand-written key details about the release such as artist names, album title, production year, number of test pressings. Album booklet in PDF format. This sheet provides an in-depth look at the album and includes: The cover artwork, a thoughtfully written text about the album, tracklist, full credits for production and performance,  instrumentation details. Test Pressing Authentication Certificate. This certificate confirms the authenticity of this test pressing, which was produced as part of the quality control process before the final vinyl pressing. Test pressings are made in limited quantities to ensure the highest audio fidelity and manufacturing standards. Each test pressing is carefully inspected and approved by our team before production proceeds. This document serves as verification of its authenticity and uniqueness. For official validation, this certificate bears the company stamp.Please note: A test pressing is a preliminary version of the vinyl record used to evaluate the quality of the pressing before full production. The audio quality may not be identical to the final version and may include some imperfections inherent to the test process. It holds historical significance as part of the production process.

Limited test pressings of the ACT debut album by SHALOSH. Album: What We Are Made OfRelease: 27.03.2026A rare collector's item: A test pressing is the very first sample disc of an album and is used for quality control before the final pressing. It does not always match the sound of the later release exactly, which makes each copy a distinctive collectible with its own history. Every test pressing is a limited edition: ideal for collectors and for anyone who appreciates jazz vinyl, rarities and exclusive editions. Your ACT test pressing package includes:  1 Bio-Vinyl test pressing in its original white sleeve. A beautifully designed card, featuring hand-written key details about the release such as artist names, album title, production year, number of test pressings. Album booklet in PDF format. This sheet provides an in-depth look at the album and includes: The cover artwork, a thoughtfully written text about the album, tracklist, full credits for production and performance,  instrumentation details. Test Pressing Authentication Certificate. This certificate confirms the authenticity of this test pressing, which was produced as part of the quality control process before the final vinyl pressing. Test pressings are made in limited quantities to ensure the highest audio fidelity and manufacturing standards. Each test pressing is carefully inspected and approved by our team before production proceeds. This document serves as verification of its authenticity and uniqueness. For official validation, this certificate bears the company stamp.Please note: A test pressing is a preliminary version of the vinyl record used to evaluate the quality of the pressing before full production. The audio quality may not be identical to the final version and may include some imperfections inherent to the test process. It holds historical significance as part of the production process.

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

Limited test pressings of the album by Bill Laurance. Only 4 test pressings are available, making it a rare collector's item!Album: LumenRelease: 12.09.2025These test pressings were used to ensure the highest audio quality before mass production.Your ACT test pressing package includes:  1 Bio-Vinyl test pressing in its original white sleeve. A beautifully designed card, featuring hand-written key details about the release such as artist names, album title, production year, number of test pressings. Album booklet in PDF format. This sheet provides an in-depth look at the album and includes: The cover artwork, a thoughtfully written text about the album, tracklist, full credits for production and performance,  instrumentation details. Test Pressing Authentication Certificate. This certificate confirms the authenticity of this test pressing, which was produced as part of the quality control process before the final vinyl pressing. Test pressings are made in limited quantities to ensure the highest audio fidelity and manufacturing standards. Each test pressing is carefully inspected and approved by our team before production proceeds. This document serves as verification of its authenticity and uniqueness. For official validation, this certificate bears the company stamp.Please note: A test pressing is a preliminary version of the vinyl record used to evaluate the quality of the pressing before full production. The audio quality may not be identical to the final version and may include some imperfections inherent to the test process. It holds historical significance as part of the production process. During the quality inspection of Lumen, a microscopic physical irregularity on B side was found. It’s barely visible to the eye and almost impossible to hear. Still, we made sure it’s properly handled in the production run to ensure the highest quality.

Nesrine - Kan Ya MakanCD / Vinyl / digital Nesrine vocals, cello Vincent Huma guitar Grégoire Musso bass, keyboards Anissa Nehari percussion Rhani Krija percussion Paco Soler trombone Franco-Algerian singer, cellist and songwriter Nesrine is a storyteller, a ‘Scheherazade’, for our times. And her album ‘Kan Ya Makan’ – the Arabic for ‘once upon a time’ – has something of the aura of a modern ‘Tales from the Arabian Nights’. The Times newspaper (UK) has called Nesrine ‘an incandescent, multilingual talent’, Rolling Stone Magazine is fascinated by her ‘musical world without borders’. Her songs in Arabic, French and English have the character of a personal biography, encompassing both Algeria, the country in which her family originated, and her current home town, Paris.Nesrine's ingeniously crafted and multifaceted songs are also a reflection of quite how diverse her musical career has been: she played as a classical cellist in Daniel Barenboim's East-Western Divan Orchestra and in the orchestra of the Valencia Opera under conductors including Lorin Maazel – but has also performed as a guest star with Cirque du Soleil. She gave up the safe path of being a classical orchestral musician in favour of a solo career – and has made a major success of the shift: she now regularly performs at Philharmonies, other concert halls and at festivals throughout Europe and the USA, and her two albums on ACT have received international acclaim. A digital EP was also released at the beginning of 2024, featuring Nesrine performing her music with the renowned Metropol Orkest.Whereas Nesrine's previous albums, ‘Ahlam’ with the trio NES (2018) and her solo debut ‘Nesrine’ (2020) took a broader perspective, ‘Kan Ya Makan’ now zooms in close: “My previous albums were more about my view of the world,” says Nesrine. “This one is about my personal story. Many of the pieces are about close relationships between me and other people. But also about me. In ”Dunia’ – the Arabic for ‘life’ – I tell my whole life story, from childhood to the present day.’ And what is abundantly clear is how close and how unified the very disparate musical and personal influences on Nesrine have now become. For the first time, she also sings in two different languages, Arabic and French, within the same song. She says: ‘I firmly believe in this kind of connection and the possibilities it opens up. It's a real reflection of myself and a liberation. I don't have to choose one side; I can just be both.’This reconciliation of apparent contradictions is also reflected in the music. For example, the cello part in the song ‘Bonnie & Clyde’, quotes the prelude from the Cello Suite No. 1 by Johann Sebastian Bach, while elsewhere there are references to Serge Gainsbourg combined with Arabic rhythms; stylistically confident and vocal passages with some judicious vocal processing are blended in to the complexity of layered cello patterns. Nesrine uses the classical heritage of her instrument in a wide variety of ways, creating bass lines, pads, arpeggios, melody lines – and layering them into elaborate structures of complex clarity. ‘The cello is my constant companion,’ explains Nesrine. ‘It usually forms the starting point when I’m composing; everything else builds on it. Only sometimes do I have a vocal melody in my head, and only then do I bring in the cello.’Despite the complexity of her music, writing is first and foremost a sensual, intuitive process for Nesrine: ‘It's like capturing information that already exists. I don't write much music. Whatever I write is just there and that's it. For the current album, I only had these nine songs. That's how I always work, my whole working process is very focussed.’ Together with her producers and fellow musicians Vincent Huma and Grégoire Musso, Nesrine has distilled her ideas into compact, three- to four-minute formats. They were joined by friends such as Rhani Krija and Anissa Nehari on percussion, plus trombonist Paco Soler – and cellist and singer Juliette Saumagne, her female Clyde in the song ‘Bonnie & Clyde’. Even though Nesrine mainly talks about herself, her life and her personal connections to other people and things in the songs on ‘Kan Ya Makan’, the album also conveys her view of the world and our time: "If my grandfather hadn't left Algeria at some point and come to France, I wouldn't be the person I am today, I wouldn't be making the music I make. I want my listeners to feel that it's not primarily a problem when people move from one country to another – it's a beautiful thing. The current political debates are all about extremes. I don't think that will get us anywhere. What gives me confidence and strength are the people who listen to my music and my stories. We only see what we want to see. And I want to open people's eyes with my music." In the title track she sings: Kan Ya Makan....once upon a time: love, art and beauty. "Nesrine lets us hear the beauty of the world." (André Manoukian, Radio France) Credits: Produced by Nesrine, Grégoire Musso, Vincent Huma

Bill Laurance & Michael League - Keeping Company CD / Vinyl / digital Bill Laurance piano Michael League oud, fretless bass, vocals “For us to take a common project and drive it forwards together is an affirmation of who we are: we're just good friends and we're celebrating that with this album.” Bill Laurance There are some duos which can seem as if they have been patched together. And there are others which come into being naturally and completely of their own accord. The pairing of pianist Bill Laurance and bassist/oud player Michael League is very much one of the latter; the two musicians have known each other since student days. During a chance meeting in Leeds, England, as sidemen on a one-off project, the two quickly formed a musical bond that would grow through the formation of Snarky Puppy in 2004 and its development over years of touring together, a number of solo albums and collaborations, and finally, in 2020, the birth of their duo. Bill Laurance and Michael League’s new duo album, “Keeping Company,” is at the opposite end of the spectrum from all the extraversion, large scale and sheer oomph of Snarky Puppy; the focus here is on a shared inner perspective. That much is apparent immediately from the choice of instruments. Laurance has cast aside electronic keyboards and concentrates on piano, acoustic in sound although the piano strings have been occasionally and lightly prepared. Michael League chooses a fretless acoustic bass guitar and the oud. An extreme contrast to the pure groove of Snarky Puppy, here he goes for a transparently sparse but atmospherically rich sound. They do just fine without the band, creating a special freedom for both participants. “The oud in itself has a specific associative space,” says Bill Laurance from the orchestral perspective of the piano. “When I compose, my aim is to transport the listener. That works with the sound of the oud. It's not a guitar, it has something exotic about it. It's a canvas on which you can paint a lot of things. On the first album, we discussed whether Michael should play a fretless nylon string guitar. He tried it out, but it didn't produce the same emotion as the oud. Due to the oud being fretless, it can access a whole new world of expression and created new colours for the duo. That fascinated us.” Their curiosity is undimmed. “Keeping Company” is the duo's second album after the internationally acclaimed “Where You Wish You Were,” released in January 2023. The preparation phase was extremely productive. Both musicians wrote numerous sketches and compositions, with Bill Laurance alone writing up to three ideas a day for weeks on end. Finally, the abundance of new material had to be whittled down. “The first album was more about establishing a sound and exploring the dynamics. Now we want to delve deeper. There's even more personality in the music. We also wanted to try out things we hadn't explored before in this format, a touch of soul jazz, for example. We also made it a priority to record practically everything live, without unnecessary overdubbing. We have found a particular beauty in concentrating on what happens organically without too much extraneous thought or effort. The whole idea of broadening horizons by taking excursions into the unknown is second nature in this partnership. Michael League, for example, has never formally studied the oud in a classical context. He knows the instrument largely from his brother, who studied it while living in Greece in the early 2000s, and is mentored by Ara Dinkjian, one of the world’s most respected masters of the instrument. But he himself has explored the short-necked lute largely from his own perspective (as encouraged to do so by Dinkjian) and therefore ornaments differently, intuitively, and with a unique accent. Bill Laurance, on the other hand, dispenses with the expansive and grand-standing aspects of the piano. He prefers cantabile melodies, rhythmically clever, clear accompaniments, and compact improvisations. The pieces themselves seem like miniatures- hints at ideas rather than final or definitive statements. And that, as a duo still making discoveries, is all that they need to do here. “Keeping Company” is a snapshot of an unusual team, catching moments like a collection of Polaroids in sound. Bill Laurance and Michael League are still in the wonderfully inspiring phase of joint exploration. Everything is open. The music sounds spontaneous and intuitive. It has the power of the personal and builds on a friendship in which shared humour is a part of what happens naturally. Perhaps one day other players will join in. But for the time being, this intimate musical dialogue is the ideal form of artistic conversation for Bill Laurance and Michael League.Credits: Produced by Bill Laurance, Michael League & Nic Hard

The story of Peter Somuah is a story about travelling. Firstly in the literal sense that his festival appearances have taken him to places as far-flung as Stockholm and Beijing. But there is more: the Ghanaian trumpeter's music has been forged by his unique journey, encompassing both his origins in Accra in Ghana and his adopted home of Rotterdam. This means the story that Somuah tells through his music is his and his alone. And whereas it brings together disparate role models from jazz such as Miles Davis, Freddy Hubbard and Roy Hargrove, he is also deeply embedded in the Ghanaian ‘highlife’ rhythms of the 1960s. Somuah took that broad canvas and gave us an ambitious biographical mosaic in his memorable ACT debut album ‘Letter to the Universe’, a cosmopolitan fusion of his many influences, which led the respected German broadsheet the Süddeutsche Zeitung to note that the disc ‘gave proof of the complexity of jazz as a world language.’With his follow-up album, ‘Highlife’, Peter Somuah, this young man with the world at his feet, has returned to his origins and to his first musical love. He has been playing ‘highlife’, the iconic music from his homeland – which is strongly rumoured to be joining UNESCO’s worldwide Intangible Cultural Heritage register in 2025 – ever since childhood. In his youth he regularly performed four nights a week in the highlife bands. The audience would dance away as he plied and developed his craft. ‘Highlife has fundamentally influenced the way I play the trumpet, the way I listen to music and compose,’ says Somuah. It is also reflected in his very own trumpet sound: the sometimes radiant, sometimes nuanced and brittle tone that he heard as a young man on the records of highlife icons such as ‘ET Mensah’ or ‘The Ramblers’. Now he sees himself as a connector between two worlds which are clearly related: he has one foot in modern jazz, the other in a traditional highlife bar. His band consists of Dutch musicians alongside a Dutch-Surinamese percussionist. ‘My fellow players didn't grow up in Ghana,’ says Somuah. ‘But that doesn't matter at all. Their deep passion for highlife and afrobeat and the feeling they have developed for this music are the most important things.’ The album was recorded in a small backyard studio in Berlin-Neukölln using vintage analogue equipment, which brings the listener directly in touch with the kind of earthy sound typical for the historic highlife recordings of the 50s and 60s. ‘I wanted to bring this very special sound back to life. Its warmth, its grit, its exuberant joy’. Peter then flew to Ghana with the instrumental tracks and visited some of the heroes of the old highlife genre such as Pat Thomas and Gyedu Blay-Ambolley. ‘During my childhood, I used to hear their songs on the radio all the time. Back then, I would never have dreamed that I would one day be sitting in their living rooms to record them for my album.’ The album ‘Highlife” begins with a history lesson. For ‘The Rhythm’, Peter Somuah visited highlife legend Koo-Nimo in Kumasi and encouraged the veteran to talk about the origins of the music. Back when the British colonial rulers employed bands of Ghanaian musicians, and asked them to perform waltz, samba and Western popular music, it was played exclusively in British clubs and casinos for the pleasure of the upper classes – hence the name ‘highlife’. Most locals, on the other hand, were only allowed to admire the music from the outside: ‘Later,’ says Somuah, ‘the musicians brewed their own mixture. They combined Western instruments with older Ghanaian styles such as palm wine music.’ They brought dancing highlife guitar riffs into play, and other offbeat rhythmic patterns too, notably the ubiquitous clave. Peter Somuah is now taking the journey and the alchemical progress of ‘highlife’ further – as he leads the music to completely new shores more than half a century after its golden age. ‘In the meantime, the original highlife had lost it’s popularity, especially with a new generation,’ says Somuah. ‘Many of the young people no longer know it.’ President Kwame Nkrumah had declared highlife the national dance after Ghana's independence, and bands like that of ET Mensah, the ‘King of Highlife’, toured throughout Africa. But in the 1980s, a military coup destroyed Accra's vibrant music scene. The months-long evening curfew led to the closure of all clubs. Most of the musicians went into exile. ‘From here, the music took on completely new influences,’ explains Somuah. ‘Rock, funk and, above all, disco influences were incorporated, studio-produced tracks and keyboards replaced the big orchestras’. Among the Ghanaian exile community in Hamburg arose a new style, which was known as ‘burger highlife’. Somuah himself became involved with this popular highlife style as part of various bands, before following his passion for jazz. The spark came from Miles Davis whom Somuah discovered through a friend. He fell in love with the language of the African-American jazz revolutionary straight away: ‘I jammed in Accra's only jazz club, imitating Miles and later also Freddie Hubbard –but at the same time tried to bring my own style into it.’ The way Somuah brought jazz awakening and tradition together was unheard of. The move to Rotterdam opened many doors for him and his Dutch quintet worldwide. On the other hand, the distance from his home soil now gives Somuah a new perspective on highlife. It's not only the sounds but also the narrative tradition of this music that interests Peter Somuah: ‘Typically, it deals with everyday stories, it tells of love, friendship and family, combined with a certain morality’ The bandleader himself also sings on “Mental Slavery” – following in the footsteps of Fela Kuti, another of Somuah's long-standing idols and sources of ideas. ‘I'm talking about the enduring legacy of the colonial era: many Ghanaians are still mentally enslaved, see themselves as inferior. They don't dare to proudly present themselves and to contribute their skills’. Somuah's ‘Highlife’ album seems like an antidote to this. The new album is a powerful combination of musical freedom and taking the courage to stand up for yourself. For the trumpeter, the two belong together: dancing to the rhythms of his grandparents, while at the same time looking to and being part of – the future of jazz.

Limited test pressings of the album by Bill Laurance & Michael League.Only 4 test pressings are available, making it a rare collector's item!Album: Keeping CompanyRelease: 31.10.2024A test pressing is the very first sample disc of an album and is used for quality control before the final pressing. It does not always match the sound of the later release exactly, which makes each copy a distinctive collectible with its own history. Every test pressing is a limited edition: ideal for collectors and for anyone who appreciates jazz vinyl, rarities and exclusive editions. Your ACT test pressing package includes:  1 Bio-Vinyl test pressing in its original white sleeve. A beautifully designed card, featuring hand-written key details about the release such as artist names, album title, production year, number of test pressings. Album booklet in PDF format. This sheet provides an in-depth look at the album and includes: The cover artwork, a thoughtfully written text about the album, tracklist, full credits for production and performance,  instrumentation details. Test Pressing Authentication Certificate. This certificate confirms the authenticity of this test pressing, which was produced as part of the quality control process before the final vinyl pressing. Test pressings are made in limited quantities to ensure the highest audio fidelity and manufacturing standards. Each test pressing is carefully inspected and approved by our team before production proceeds. This document serves as verification of its authenticity and uniqueness. For official validation, this certificate bears the company stamp.Please note: A test pressing is a preliminary version of the vinyl record used to evaluate the quality of the pressing before full production. The audio quality may not be identical to the final version and may include some imperfections inherent to the test process. It holds historical significance as part of the production process.

Daniel García - WonderlandCD / Vinyl / digital Daniel García piano, vocals on #10 Reinier “El Negrón” double bass Michael Olivera drums, vocals on #6 special guests Gilad Hekselman guitar on #3 Lau Noah vocals on #7 Verónica Ferreiro vocals on #11 Something very special indeed is happening in the Spanish jazz scene. For a long time, its lively centres of Madrid, Barcelona and Seville tended to stay somewhat detached from the international jazz world. But in recent years a whole generation of Spanish jazz musicians has been rising to international renown: it is more than a cohort, it is starting to feel like a movement. And one key figure in it is pianist Daníel Garcia, born in Salamanca in 1983. With his trio he has made a name for himself as one of the most important representatives of jazz in his home country – playing over 300 concerts throughout Europe and as far away as Japan. The band's line-up demonstrates another important aspect of the Spanish scene: many musicians from Cuba found a second home there due to the common language - and brought their outstanding musical training and influences with them. This is certainly the case for bassist Reinier "El Negron" and drummer Michael Olivera, who form the rhythm section of the Daniel García Trio. Together, they are a tight unit with an instinctive feel, and who after seven years together are completely played-in. "Wonderland" is the Daniel García Trio's third album on ACT. And whereas the previous albums "Travesuras" (2019) and "Vía de la Plata" (2021) were still characterised by clear influences from flamenco and traditional Spanish music, García has now cast his net wider. There are flamenco borrowings on "Wonderland", but they are more subtle and sit alongside a whole range of inspirations from modern jazz, classical music, pop, together with influences from the Caribbean and the Middle East. At the same time, "Wonderland" is also about the inner search: Daníel Garcia quotes Swiss psychologist Carl Jung in the liner notes: "Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” García invites his listeners to explore their own feelings and thoughts - in “this secret haven where our deepest illusions and most fervent hopes reside, guiding us through the labyrinth of life.” In the twelve songs on the album, Daniel García traverses many different places in the soul, and creates a coherent narrative from them. We enter the emotional landscape with the powerful "Gates to the Lands of Wonders". This is followed by the title track, in which the Israeli guitarist Gilad Hekselman, a guest on the album, plays a cheerful melody in unison with the bandleader. "I love his sound and his compositions," says García. "Such a creative force! I like guitarists who speak through their instrument in such a human way". García has dedicated the gentle "Mi Bolita" to his new-born nephew; it represents the importance of family in the pianist's life, while the playfully energetic "Witness the Smile" shows García leaning into empathy and generosity, its catchy melody showing the pianist's Cuban influences - and, of course, those of his bandmates Reinier "El Negron" and Michael Olivera. "They are my brothers," enthuses García. "If I could choose two musicians from anyone in the world, I would still choose these two! Together, we are one unit." "I find it hard to put my music in any one category," says García. "It feels like trying to put the sea in a box - it just overflows! I love classical music, I love Middle Eastern music, I love rock, I love singer/songwriters! Inspiration can come from anywhere. The intro to 'The Gathering', for example, was inspired by a melody I heard on the streets of Salamanca." Two remarkable voices round off the album, the A Coruña- born and Madrid-based singer Verónica Ferreiro and the Catalan singer Lau Noah, who is based in New York. In "You and Me" she sings: "Take my hands/Now, come and dance/Time to forget the wounds/All the scars, the pain". An invitation to forget the pain in dance - and for Daniel a way to make the world a better place, if only for a moment. He says "There are so many tragedies happening around us. There is little we can do except believe in ourselves and be good to others." The power of music to improve the world may sound utopian. But Daníel Garcia, a soft-spoken man, warm-hearted and always smiling, will make you believe it. Take the opportunity to go with him as he travels through his "wonderland". The journey is fulfilling, worthwhile and memorable.Credits: Produced and composed by Daniel García except #11, traditional Cover art (Detail) by Alice Baber (1928 - 1982) Courtesy Berry Campbell Gallery, New York

Grégoire Maret - EnnioCD / digital Grégoire Maret chromatic harmonica Romain Collin steinway piano & keyboards Marcus Gilmore drums Burniss Earl Travis II bass Marvin Sewell guitar Alexandra Sopp flute Special guests: Cassandra Wilson vocals Gregory Porter vocals How do you follow up a successful album like “Americana”? Released in April 2020, it not only received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, it has also registered streaming statistics approaching ten million. It brought together harmonica player Grégoire Maret and pianist Romain Collin, performing in a trio with Bill Frisell in which the three found happy common ground in their “shared love of jazz, song and pure melody” (Jazziz), and offered listeners a "gorgeous meditation on the American Dream." (Bill Milkowski).“Americana” and Maret and Collin's subsequent work together helped to cement a friendship between these two fine New York-based musicians with Francophone origins (Geneva and Antibes respectively). As Collin says: “There is something about the way we work together that feels very fluid and natural.” Maret and Collin established quickly that watching films featuring the music of Ennio Morricone had been an important part of family life for both of them, and a strong part of what had initially drawn them towards music. “Those movies, and the way they incorporated the music really stayed in my mind.” remembers Maret. And when the great man died in July 2020 at the age of 91, it affected them both deeply. Maret, for example, was to regret that a plan to include him in some of Morricone’s later concerts had sadly never come to fruition. But above all, the musicians felt a deep affinity for Morricone’s music: “We are both naturally drawn to the European sensitivities, the romantic language,” says Collin. Collin remembers experiencing a certain caution as they started to think about following this thread running so deeply through both their musical pasts, and making an album: “If we’re going to do it, it has to really add something,” he remembers thinking. So they both started to research Morricone’s oeuvre intensively and to immerse themselves in it. “We really wanted to find out what he was really like as a person and a musician,” Maret remembers. This led to them contacting Morricone’s official biographer Alessandro De Rosa. They had several conversations with him during the pandemic. De Rosa has written an illuminating sleeve note in praise of the album. “We wanted as many sounds and colours as we could possibly get, because this is such a part of Ennio Morricone’s music,” says Maret. The sheer range of Morricone’s work comes across vividly in “Ennio”.The unmistakably personal is certainly there: a track where strong emotions from the musicians’ childhoods come through vividly is“Chi Mai” from the film the film “Le Professionel”. Both recall watching the film as children. So, logically, it is performed as a duet for harmonica and piano, but a careful listen reveals another sound in the bass: the subliminal resonances of Collin playing an antique pedal harmonium.“Once Upon a Time in the West” - a film score which, unusually, was composed before the filming - and the other Sergio Leone “Spaghetti Westerns” are also there. And perhaps the least surprising thing about “Ennio” is quite how well the Italian’s music suits Maret’s “big-hearted sound” (Ottawa Citizen): Maret has been advised by countless people, and for longer than he can remember...that it would. And yet a careful listen to this collection reveals unexpected treats and gifts which never seem to stop. Surprises, for example, come from the stellar array of guest musicians. Maret says he felt truly blessed to hear from Cassandra Wilson that she liked the idea of writing new English words for Mina’s “Se Telefonando” a ‘labour of love’ – Maret has been in her band for a decade. And he was just as thrilled when Gregory Porter agreed to do the song as a duet with her. And the other instrumentalists bring magic too: drummer Marcus Gilmore “can do just about anything and he is an amazing person,” says Maret. Guitarist Marvin Sewell and bassist Burniss Earl Travis II are also Maret's colleagues from Cassandra Wilson's band and they make all kinds of intriguing sounds. And Collin has tricks up his sleeve as well: for example, he complements Maret’s sound on “Man with a Harmonica” with the eerieness of 1970s/80s rarities: a MoogCordovox White Elephant and a foot-operated analog synth, a Taurus. Alessandro De Rosa’s sleeve note for “Ennio” sums up the album very well: it “takes the listener through the complexity of Morricone’s multifaceted oeuvre and vividly portrays the emotional impact it has had on them. It is a journey that re-imagines and narrates this immensely significant contemporary composer in a way which is both new and authentic.”

Bill Laurance & The Untold Orchestra - BloomCD / Vinyl / digital Bill Laurance piano, fender rhodes mk8, osmose expressive, prophet 6 Rory Storm conductor The Untold Orchestra A series of dark, warm string chords opens the curtain on a vista of spaciousness and great sonic depth.Soon after, an intense rhythm develops, classically light and tightly grooving at the same time. A crystalline piano melody develops over everything, leading into an imaginative, hypnotically intensifying improvisation.Bloom sees 5-time Grammy-winning composer and pianist Bill Laurance once more expanding his sonic palette. He has returned to his classical roots, working with arranger Josh Poole and 18 string players from Manchester’s Untold Orchestra to produce an album on a convincingly epic scale. Conceptually, Laurance says the record was largely inspired by his child’s capacity to imagine and create other worlds: “Every decision we take can be traced back to our capacity to imagine, the only limits on what we can achieve are the scale of our dreams. My child’s ability to pull back the curtain of reality and to create a fantasy world ignited all kinds of possibilities for me, and that is what ultimately led to this music.” Combining Laurance’s classical sensibilities with jazz, pop grooves, and powerful orchestral synchronicity, Bloom runs the gamut of emotions and moods. Whether it’s flowing dreamscapes or dramatic crescendos, listeners are taken to exactly where they want to be, without ever veering off into the predictable.

Júlio Resende - Sons of RevolutionCD / digital Júlio Resende piano Bruno Chaveiro portuguese guitar André Rosinha double bass Alexandre Frazão drums Special Guest: Salvador Sobral vocals on 11 "Júlio Resende has the profound ability to reinvent Portugal's trademark deep, emotional music through the piano," says the respected world music magazine Songlines of the Portuguese pianist/composer. Resende's concept of Fado Jazz is a perfect example of how jazz has become a global language for free musical expression – a concept which has been fundamental to ACT ever since its foundation over 30 years ago.Júlio Resende has dedicated his new album "Sons of Revolution" to the Carnation Revolution of 1974 which brought freedom to Portuguese People and shaped their culture and society as it is today. The peaceful overthrow of dictator Salazar not only paved the way for democracy but also marked the end of colonial wars in Mozambique and Angola. "Without the revolution, I wouldn't even exist," says Júlio Resende. "My father is from Angola, he emigrated to Portugal after the revolution, and met my mother. The freedom to express myself is one of the dearest things to me, and jazz is the music that enables that the most – without any borders or restrictions." That is why the idea of blending Fado and jazz was so natural from the beginning. And Resende’s pioneering work is gaining more and more recognition. "Funnily, it was the Fado musicians who liked the approach from the beginning. For them, Fado is a living art form, with deep roots, but constantly evolving. The jazz musicians took a little longer, but I notice that more and more of them dare to let their own traditions flow more into their music." And yet Resende's music does not merely adapt traditional songs, it thrives on his enchanting, melody-driven original compositions which perfectly embody the spirit of both worlds.Nevertheless, there is one interpretation of a classic tune on the album – "Fado Ponciana for Ahmad Jamal", with which Resende for the first time does not bring jazz to fado, but vice versa. And the result sounds so light and natural, as if this connection had always existed. "Sons of Revolution" features Resende's perfectly synchronized quartet of bassist Alexandre Frazão, drummer André Rosinha, and Bruno Chaveiro on the lute-like guitarra portuguesa. The interplay between Resende and Chaveiro – who is the highly sought-after accompanist of Fado luminaries such as Carminho or Ana Moura, as well as Resende himself – reveal a musical colour very rarely heard in jazz. The same goes for the guest appearance of 2017 Eurovision winner Salvador Sobral on the ballad „A Casa Dela / Her House“, who has a strong jazz background and roots in the Portuguese song tradition. All these exceptional yet organic connections reveal the essence of Júlio Resende's music: freedom, depth, emotional truthfulness and maximum expression. Júlio Resende offers a vivid testimony to how deeply-rooted traditions have remained alive into the present day. Credits: Recorded, mixed and mastered by André Tavares in June 2023, Timbuktu Studios, Lisbon Produced by Júlio Resende

Shalosh - Tales of UtopiaCD / Vinyl / digital Gadi Stern piano and keys David Michaeli double bass Matan Assayag drums Once again the groove is catchy, the way of shaping melodies utterly distinctive; these aspects define the sound of Shalosh. And once again, the trio is incredibly tight – after all, the band’s name does mean “three” in Hebrew. "Heavy jazz!", declared German Rolling Stone magazine; The critic from the british Times found them "full of promise". At Deutschlandfunk, there was talk of "jazz in the fast lane", once again reaching "young jazz fans all over Europe". The French magazine Paris Move writes excitedly the band is “indispensable”. The three musicians, each contribute their musical predilections - jazz, classical music, grunge, rock, techno or folk - into the common organism, in which all these elements are rendered into an exciting mixture. And through their inspirational concerts around the globe, there has been constant further refinement. They take audiences with them by challenging them: this is music which aims to appeal to the heart, engage the intellect and get straight through to the dancing feet.Things could have just gone on as they were, but much has changed since 2020's “Broken Balance”. "It's a different world now," says Gadi Stern, "and you can hear that on the new album. Back then everything was fine, there was more or less nothing missing. But now there's a sense of the end of the world all around us." So, on "Tales of Utopia”, Shalosh have taken their music, their way of telling stories through sound, and placed them in a bigger context. Drawing elements from the Old Testament and the Odyssey, they combine Christian and Greek mythology in a way which is individual...rhapsodic. The connecting of world cultures gives a common thread to the album:A young hero is travelling into the unknown. But what is unknown to him is not just the external world, but also the inner self. Every journey also leads to increased self-awareness, and that makes him stronger. "Tales of Utopia" is about how utopian thinking is based on the preoccupation with one's own self, on concentration and meditation. Keeping that focus well honed functions as the antidote to information overkill.Shalosh envisage their music as a place of refuge. In a crisis-ridden world, their aim is to give strength, comfort and inspiration. and provide support against pandemics, tanks and slogans. Using an episodic structure derived from epic theatre, they present an image of arriving in the big city and being deluged with new impressions. The hero has to find his way through a market alive with strange smells, colours and movement. Then, dramatically, he leaves the metropolis at sunset. We witness a boat being rolled by the waves of the ocean, and also three sisters on an island who take care of the hero, their voices intertwining. The king's dreams come unstuck in all the turbulence, he also receives some poor advice. But all then comes to a happy ending in a Moroccan-inspired wedding song, as a band of friends all gather in one room for a party with handclapping and singing. We are propelled through this timeless story by the wonderful Shalosh sound. It is as if the band has found just the right places to insert all of these stories into a vast painting. The chronology of events has been brilliantly adapted to make the musical flow feel natural. The recording process has also been reimagined. Without headphones or amps, the three recorded their song-like stories in physical proximity to each other, as if playing live. It sounded rougher and more direct, because the room had an acoustic which was so alive. What was important was what the lyrics would trigger musically. "Inside the room we could escape the troubles of the world," recalls drummer Matan Assayag. "For three or four hours we focused on the music and formulated our utopia. That way we could block out the external pressures. That's the meaning behind the title. Our previous album reflected the world outside, this one is about inner harmony." "Tales of Utopia" documents a search for poise and peacefulness. Gadi and Matan have recently become fathers. This positive energy has flowed in. "Art makes the world better" is the way they describe their intentions. "We want to bring beauty into the world and create a feeling that people can be happy in themselves. They have to relearn that, and also place themselves in relation to the constant flood of information so that more and more doesn't actually mean less and less. Our children were the best teachers in this because they are fascinated by small things. That's how you can overcome the destructive." There is more going on here than mere everyday pragmatism. This is exciting music, a panoply of colours and timbres. It invites the listener to be enchanted and to focus on its sheer beauty. It also has deep humanity: rather than striving for perfection, it bristles with energy and vitality. Credits: Music composed, arranged and produced by Shalosh Cover art "Blokeret dør, 2000" by Tal R

Peter Somuah - Letter to the UniverseCD / Vinyl / digital Peter Somuah trumpet, vocals (Soft Touch, Odo), guitar (Odo) Jesse Schilderink tenor saxophone Anton de Bruin keyboards & rhodes Marijn van de Ven double bass & electric bass Jens Meijer drums Danny Rombout conga, bells, shakers & djembe Thomas Nii Lantey Botchway dundun, banana bell, talking drum Lisette Ma Neza spoken words (The Universe) Latanya Alberto vocals (Moonlight) Gyedu Blay Ambolley rap vocals (Reincarnation) Stevo Atambire vocals (The Sky) Lydia Stavraki & Inda Duran vocals (The Universe) Strings on Mission on Earth, Soft Touch & Moonlight: Celeste Engel & Luna Hallenga violin Daniela Rivera viola Jasper den Hond cello Ghana has an ancient tradition of story-telling, so the continuance of this great heritage can take many forms... and not just ones that involve the voice or words. Peter Somuah spins tales which come from his instrument: as a young trumpet-player, he embarked on a fascinating search for his identity between the Highlife music of his native country, Miles Davis – his idol – and the cosmopolitan musical language of Holland, the country which is now his home. He tells that story in "Letter to the Universe".When Somuah and his band ended their set and departed the stage at the 2022 North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, it was clear to everyone in the hall that they had witnessed something very special, the arrival of an extraordinary new artist. It was his first big festival appearance; up to then he had only played in clubs. So the question on everyone’s mind was: who is this Ghanaian twenty-something who has just totally amazed and dumbfounded an entire audience? In Accra, Ghana's capital city, Peter Somuah grew up with Highlife music, that swinging combination of big band influences from the colonial era and the sweetness of palm wine. "I took up the trumpet when I was 14," he recalls. "I played Highlife and Afrobeat in a marching band, I listened to the records of musicians like E.T.Mensah and transcribed their solos." But there was another key experience which turned Somuah to a different era of jazz: when the name Miles Davis is mentioned, a warm radiance suddenly flashes across his face. He remembers how one day a buddy brought him a video of Miles. Somuah was mesmerised: "I really wanted to be able to play like that. I had no idea what he was doing or how he was doing it, I just tried to pick out the notes and imitate him. We are connected to the African-Americans via the history of slavery, so I was able to make a spiritual connection with Miles through that commonality." Somuah went on to listen through all the phases of his trumpet god’s career, while also studying the playing of Freddie Hubbard and Roy Hargrove. From then on, his goal became the exploration – through his own music – of the connections between Ghana and modern jazz. After a stay in China with friends, and several years as a member of a band touring France, Belgium and Spain, Somuah follows his partner to Holland. At the Codarts Arts School in Rotterdam, his vision of a cosmopolitan jazz language starts to take shape. He forms a cosmopolitan sextet and records "Outer Space" with them, a debut on which he defines his own sound: "On Outer Space I wanted to escape from the box of rules that the purists want to keep you in. It was about being myself, it was about the freedom to mix all the styles of music I like." "Outer Space", which received the Edison Jazz Award, has many flavours of Africa, with Highlife and Afrobeat shining through strongly. With his new album "Letter to the Universe", Peter Somuah has ventured further out into the musical cosmos as a travelling storyteller. His new compositions reflect the stages of his young life: his Ghanaian past, the work of his jazz idols and the lively “Afropean” scene of his new home in the Benelux. In the pulsating and frenzied "Mission On Earth", one can read an unmistakable dedication to Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew" phase, and also an echo of the layered architecture of today's cosmic jazz as played by the likes of Kamasi Washington. That track is also a perfect demonstration of quite how tight and organic the interplay with his Dutch band with keyboardist and producer Anton de Bruin is, and remains throughout the album. Somuah's work, however, is by no means a male-only affair: right from the prologue, he assigns an important role to slam poet Lisette Ma Neza, who has her roots in Rwanda. In what becomes a thread running through the disc, she formulates the big identity questions of the current generation travelling Africans who address their questions to the universe as they explore their life situated between continents, philosophies and lifestyles. Peter Somuah's music also deals with this Afro-African existence in a way that reaches out for answers. This is trumpet-playing that has nothing to do with showing-off and virtuosity. Rather, he creates a flow in an eloquent narrative, and yet there is also, very clearly, plenty of the joy of playing and danceability here. There are also colours and hallmarks from Ghanaian music be found on this journey, for example in the easy-going six-eight rhythms from the Ashanti region ("Green Path"), the fusion of boisterous Fra Fra music from the north of Ghana with jazz ("The Sky"), or in Highlife borrowings, notably in the appearance of Ghanaian veteran Gyedu-Bley Ambolley ("Reincarnation"). To follow Peter Somuah on his quest between the continents of Europe and Africa is something totally refreshing and unexpected, particularly for European ears. What the young Ghanaian has done is to bring his own new and previously unheard stories to the cosmopolitan jazz of the 21st century. This is an open-ended journey…which makes it all the more exciting to find out where Somuah’s story is going to take us. Credits: Music composed by Peter Somuah

Nguyên Lê - Silk and SandCD / Vinyl / digital Nguyên Lê guitars, synths, vocals Chris Jennings acoustic bass Rhani Krija percussion gumbri, vocals Since guitarist Nguyên Lê became the first exclusive ACT artist thirty years ago, he has established himself as a distinctive voice of his instrument. And as one of the most important representatives of jazz as world music without borders. The 1959 born is one of the few whose technique, style and composition are unique and recognizable from the first note - a mastery in the true sense of the word. With "Silk and Sand" Lê now returns to the format of the trio with which he once began his career as a leader on "Million Waves". Lê was self-taught as a musician. He started out on the drums, only switching to guitar later. His academic studies were in fine art and philosophy, and it was only thereafter that he embarked on a career in music. His artistry, therefore, defines itself as being not of any particular school – he has developed very much according to his own precepts – and he also has cultural horizons which extend far beyond music. Another important principle with Lê is that he has always seen himself as a builder of bridges between genres, styles and continents. "I am the fusion of cultures personified," he says. Lê is a world musician in the most authentic sense, in whom European – and especially French – musical culture has always found a meeting-place with his Southeast Asian roots, and he combines these not just with American traditions of jazz and rock, but also with music from other continents. From his first, strongly Afro-Caribbean band, Ultramarine, his journey has taken him through albums like "Zanzibar", "Tales from Vietnam", then involved his participation in the groundbreaking neo-flamenco project "Jazzpaña", his collaboration with the traditional Vietnamese singer Huong Thanh, the trio E_L_B with Peter Erskine, and his multiple-award-winning Jimi Hendrix project. In the wake of a number of global fusion and rock ventures in recent years with international stars, "Silk and Sand" marks a return to the roots. Here we find a more refined and quieter kind of music-making, as the title implies, and also with more jazz in the mix. Lê also points out the connections with his earlier work: "On my album 'Three Trios' from 1996, I called two of the pieces "Silk" and "Sand": silk is precious and yet strong and it weaves the musicians' interplay together; the sand of the desert haunts the musician's dreams of other places. Twenty-six years later, these tracks are like pebbles on the path, and they are still there." But Nguyên Lê would not be himself if he were to rely only on the ingredients of a classical jazz line-up for a new trio. He chose Moroccan percussionist Rhani Krjia for the rhythm section, a musical soul mate with whom Lê wanted to work since years and whose subtle, colorful grooves have already enriched the music of stars such as Sting, Keziah Jones or Dominic Miller. The strong musical foundation of trio is provided by Canadian Chris Jennings, a long-time collaborator with Lê and one of the most sought-after bassists on both sides of the Atlantic. The title track, or indeed "Thar Desert Dawn", exemplifies the magic between the three musicians: these melodies are full of passion and reach out into improvisations. Lê lays them down over the North African rhythms of Rhani Krija and the massive but singing bass sound of Chris Jennings. The opening album track "Red City" is a wild, dynamic ride into the hustle and bustle of Asian or African cities, complete with urgent, clamorous voices. It gets rockier for "Onety-One" and especially on "Tiger's Dance", and then calmer for the hymn-like "Moonstone" and "The Waters of Ortigia", with a melody that unfolds slowly and deliciously. "Baraka" is strongly influenced by funk-infused African rhythms and has a teasing intro from Rhani Krija on the gimbri, and the final "Becoming Water" brings together the melodies and timbres of the Maghreb and Southeast Asia in an irresistible and touching way. The core trio with Jennings and Rhani is joined for two of the more elegiac pieces by Sylvain Barou on bansuri and duduk flutes, and by Miron Rafajlovic, who plays trumpet and flugelhorn on "Moonstone". The return to Lê's beginnings as an inspiration for new ideas is made clear by another of the guests appearing on "Silk and Sand": Etienne Mbappé delivers a stupendous electric bass solo on "Baraka". The Cameroonian, who became widely known for his work with Joe Zawinul, John McLaughlin Salif Keïta and others, was already a member of Lê's first band Ultramarine. Thus, in an irresistible and enjoyable way, Lê's "Silk and Sand" doesn’t just – as ever – build bridges between Asia, Africa and Europe, and between jazz, rock and world music….but also between past, present and future. Credits: Music composed and produced by Nguyên Lê Cover art "Snake" by Lucy Dodd, 2017

Bill Laurance & Michael League - Where You Wish You WereCD / Vinyl / digital Bill Laurance acoustic piano and voice Michael League oud, fretless acoustic guitar bass, fret-less baritone electric guitar, ngoni and voice A mere mention of the names of Michael League and Bill Laurance makes one think of Snarky Puppy. It is now nearly twenty years since Southern California-born bassist/multi-instrumentalist Michael League founded the globally acclaimed, four-time GRAMMY award-winning collective. As for keyboardist Bill Laurance, originally from London, he has been a part of the globe-trotting adventure for nearly as long as League has. So the fact that League and Laurance are now releasing "Where you Wish you Were", their first duo album together, does feel at the same time like a logical development...and also a surprise. Michael League takes a very different role here from the one he does in Snarky Puppy. On "Where you Wish you Were", he is to be heard mainly playing the oud and other acoustic stringed instruments. He takes the view that “we are so much more than the roles we play in the most popular band that we're a part of.” And Bill Laurance adds: "It was only a matter of time before we'd make a record by ourselves. We've been close friends for 20 years now and we've worked together in so many different capacities - with Snarky Puppy, my own band, and in collaboration with other artists. So it just felt like it was a natural thing to do." Laurance and League became completely taken by the idea of doing something totally different from Snarky Puppy, which is a project on such a large scale, it recently filled London's 12,500-capacity Wembley Arena. The pair kept the idea in mind to reduce the music down to a scale where it could be played by their duo. The recording offered a long-awaited opportunity to explore the intimacy, fragility and clarity which exist within the relationship between two musicians; it was something which they were both keen to achieve. "I think both Michael and I are driven by the idea to push boundaries, which is important. But this album is different," Laurance recalls. “Every single compositional idea has a lot of weight to it, and everything has very specific purpose. There was no rhythm section to hide behind, it was really just about melody and chords. And we were instinctively trying to create a place where people want to go to, that felt comforting. We feel that now, maybe more than ever, there is a need for such places.” What is particularly surprising, apart from the duo format with its reduced, concentrated approach, is the particular sonic and stylistic character of the music. Bill Laurance, who with his own projects and also with Snarky Puppy, often relies on a mixture of piano and a variety of synthesizers, orchestral arrangements and digital soundscapes, focuses here entirely on the possibilities of an acoustic grand piano, which has been ‘prepared’ with extra felt to dampen the strings. And Michael League, known elsewhere primarily as an electric bassist fired up by jazz and groove, plays a number of mostly fretless stringed instruments of Mediterranean and Oriental origin here – first and foremost the oud, but also a specially constructed acoustic and electric guitar and a West African lute, the ngoni. All these instruments have the quality of being able to imitate the voice, and also offer microtonal possibilities which go way beyond the norms of western music. These kinds of musical influences have accompanied Michael League since his childhood, and particularly now because his adopted home country, Spain is part of the Mediterranean region: “My family is of Greek ancestry and my brother specializes in Greek folk music, so my first time playing an oud was when I snuck into his room as a 14 year-old. We always had Greek and Turkish music in the house, and over the last almost ten years I've visited Turkey frequently to study. I just love playing the oud but because I've never really taken any lessons, my relationship with the instrument is a bit unrefined. Yet, my oud mentor, the great Armenian-American musician Ara Dinkjian, has been very insistent that I continue to develop my voice on the instrument without formal, traditional studies. He likes the unconventional way in which I approach the instrument. I treat it almost more like a blues slide guitar, and he wants to see what happens if I stay on this course.” "Where you Wish you Were" has nothing of a world jazz fusion album about it, and was never intended be one. "Bill and I are very clear about not pretending that this project has anything to do with replicating any regional styles with deep roots," emphasises League. "We're committed to creating something that is uniquely ours, even if it retains certain elements of established genres of music." And so it is, as is so often the case in the musical world which is now called "jazz": the universe of personal, musical and sonic influences of the two musicians do not serve to set limits or to categorise, but rather as a vocabulary which allows the two musicians’ own distinctive mode of expression to shine through. With compositions focused entirely on melody, harmony and space, a warm sound and the soulful playing of the two players, League and Laurance have created a place which is not just conducive to dreams; it is a place to which the listener will want to return to again and again.Credits: Produced by Bill Laurance and Michael League Cover art "Opus 18" by Nadia Attura

Júlio Resende - Fado JazzCD / digital Júlio Resende piano Bruno Chaveiro portuguese guitar André Rosinha double bass Alexandre Frazão drums Lina vocals (on Profecia) “Since 1992, ACT has been building its own European union of musicians,” wrote The Times (UK) in 2020, “fostering a freedom of movement between nationalities and genres, and has given us an authentic impression of what the continent is about.” This statement becomes particularly resonant and relevant again with the signing of an artist new to ACT, Portuguese pianist Júlio Resende. "Fado Jazz" marks his debut on the label, revealing another fascinating dimension to European jazz, and one which has been relatively little heard: Resende’s art is not just to translate the bittersweet melancholy of fado into the language of jazz, but its lighter side as well. Resende is a genuine pioneer whose profile within Portugal is already substantial. He fills classical concert halls, he has been high up in the Portuguese pop charts, the tribute he made in 2013 to the “Queen of Fado”, Amália Rodrigues, was particularly well received, and he has also performed in a duo with classical piano legend Maria João Pires. His music has also been heard accompanying series on both HBO and Netflix. The leading Spanish broadsheet newspaper "El Pais" says of him: "Júlio Resende's approach to fado is reminiscent of what Keith Jarrett does with jazz standards"; and Alex Dutilh, one of the most renowned and influential jazz journalists in France, says: "Júlio Resende, the latest discovery on the Portuguese scene, is also the most promising. His playing is on a par with pianists such as Stefano Bollani or Yaron Herman."  For the Portuguese, fado is anything but a museum-piece, it is music which represents an attitude to life. On the one hand it is history which is being lived through, while on the other it is constantly in a state of flux. It carries with it a whole sweep of history, from stories about the anguish of girls and women as their sailors and menfolk leave them for the high seas, it takes in the oppression of the Salazar regime, then the hopes of the Carnation Revolution in the 1970s, right through to the lively, cosmopolitan Portugal of today. And just as society has metamorphosed, so the varieties of fado and the ways it is perceived have changed too. The icons of this music are national heroes, while the younger performers connect with an audience of their generation as a matter of course, and this in its turn inevitably opens fado up to other influences, such as pop music and the musical traditions of other cultures. Júlio Resende's view of fado from the perspective of jazz is something new, but it has developed organically and naturally from what had gone before. His intentions have nothing to do with crossover. As he says: "I really don't know if what I do is fado or jazz. Maybe it is both. I don't want to commit myself, because if you commit yourself, you stop developing. I prefer to move freely, like the sounds themselves." Almost all the tracks on "Fado Jazz" are original compositions by Júlio Resende, which gives another clear signal that he is not concerned with either adapting and reconfiguring the past, but rather with developing the music further. The opener "Vira Mais Cinco" is an example of this. Here we find an irresistible melody, the unique sound of the Guitarra Portuguesa, the lute-like instrument that is part of the traditional fado line-up and that creates a unique timbre from the influences of North Africa and Southern Europe that are so characteristic of this music. But there are also piano, percussion and double bass, by no means classic fado characters, but which nonetheless sound as if they had always and naturally belonged to it. And finally, the piece dances in 5/4, which gives it a twist that is as unusual as it is organic. It is these connections that make Resende's music sound so new and interesting, and yet at the same time accessible and natural. Fado, in both its traditional and modern forms, has become popular way beyond the borders of Portugal, and that is at least in part because of the wonderful voices associated with its main exponents, and their ability to convey feelings so immediately and vividly. But there is more to Fado’s appeal, namely the melodies which speak so directly to the heart and bring audiences to the brink of tears. And there are plenty of those on the album "Fado Jazz": ballads like "Lira", "Este Piano Não Te Esquece", "All The Things - Alfama - Are" or the gyrating "Fado Blues" and the simply stunningly beautiful "Tiro No Escuro" play with the feeling of "Saudade" (longing and melancholy) so typical of fado. But there are also pieces with a much lighter step, such as like "Vira Mais Cinco", "Fado Das 7 Cotovias" (in 7/4), the lively "Fado Maior Improvisado" or the bolero-inspired "Tiro No Escuro". And at the very end, we hear a voice, that of the young yet massively popular “fadista” Lina, who, in Júlio Resende's composition "Profecia" finds a magical yet completely unsenti-mental way to express every luminous nuance. Credits: Recorded by André Tavares at Atlantico Blue Studios, July 2020 Mixed by André Tavares and Júlio Resende Mastering by André Tavares Produced by Júlio Resende

Daniel García Trio - Via de la PlataCD / digital Daniel García piano, Fender Rhodes & synths Reinier Elizarde “El Negrón” acoustic bass Michael Olivera drums Guests: Ibrahim Maalouf trumpet Gerardo Núñez guitar Anat Cohen clarinet Madrid-based pianist Daniel Garcia carries within him a deep sense of the history that has made him. This is not least because he was born and grew up in Salamanca, a city steeped in history, with several important archaeological sites. In the centuries ever since the middle ages, student priests have walked in their flowing robes along the Calle Compañia, a street in the centre of the city shadowed by tall baroque buildings. The city was also one of the main stopovers on the Vía de la Plata (‘the silver way’), a Roman rou-te from North to South of the Iberian peninsula. Clear, thoughtful and self-aware when he speaks, Garcia has both an understanding and a passion for what that ancient silver thread through his country means: the Vía de la Plata gave the peninsula its main artery. It also allowed Spain to come together for the first time, to define itself. Spain exists as a melting pot of different cultures, with influences Celtic and Nordic, from the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa, and from the Americas too. Vía de la Plata is a living symbol of how “all of this melts together in Spain,” as Garcia explains. And that – musically – is what he has achieved here.The pianist’s awareness of these different cultures which have formed Spain is everywhere in this album: the guest artists on the album represent musical heritages from diffe-rent points of the compass. Trumpet star Ibrahim Maalouf, born in Beirut, performs on two tracks, the reflective opener, Manuel de Falla’s “Canción del fuego fatuo” (song of the will-o'-the-wisp), and on “Silk Road”, a tantalising glimpse further East. Charismatic clarinettist Anat Cohen, raised in Israel, now based in the Americas, makes her debut on ACT with this album. She produces wonderful emotion and a flickeringly delicate final cadenza on “Pai Lan”, a tune dedicated to Garcia’s wife, the title of the tune being the name by which she (Belén) was known as when she lived in China. Another guest on the album is fellow Spaniard, guitarist Gerardo Núñez. He and Garcia are equally fascinated by the links between Flamenco and jazz. In this, their first cooperation here they show a natural empathy, notably in “Calima” named after the wind that carries sandstorms from the Sahara. Garcia’s fellow trio members – Reinier Elizarde (bass), Michael Olivera (drums) – are from Cuba. Garcia met them on the scene in Madrid. All three are in their mid-thirties, and are close friends both on and off stage. Garcia is a passionate advocate for Salamanca's musical heritage. The title track “ Vía de la Plata”, with its intoxi-cating echoes of both Ravel and the Cameroonian coupé-décalé has Garcia and Anat Cohen trading fragments of me-lodies from the charrada, a centuries-old Salamancan peasant dance, with everything fitting together miraculously and seamlessly. It is now a decade since Daniel Garcia won prizes as a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and received teaching and mentoring from Danilo Pérez. Garcia remembers the great Panamanian pianist encouraging him to go deeper into the music of his home country: “You should do the music you feel inside. This is not just what you do, this is YOU!” It is as if that advice has never gone away... In “Vía de la Plata”, Daniel Garcia has not just dug deep into his heritage as man and musician, and understood truths about it. He has also found ways to express these through the emotions: deeply, convincingly and fully in this very fine album.Credits: Produced by the artist Executive Producer: Siggi Loch All arrangements by Daniel García except Calima, by Gerardo Núñez Recorded by Shayan Fathi at Camaleón Music Studio, Madrid, Spain. Ibrahim Maalouf recorded by Oscar Ferran at Studio Diasporas, Ivry-Sur-Seine, France. Anat Cohen recorded at Paraiso Recording Studio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Mixed and mastered by Shayan Fathi. Piano technician: David Izquierdo Cover art by Tal R: Fugl, 1995, by courtesy of Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin

Shalosh - Broken BalanceCD / digital Gadi Stern piano & synths David Michaeli double bass Matan Assayag drums "Life never goes in a straight line. Our world is full of surprises. Things we have known forever can change before our very eyes. So the challenge is to keep level-headed, to ensure that our lives stay in balance on the personal, the social and the political level.” Shalosh capture this attitude in their music, and especially in "Broken Balance"."More drama, more pushing at the extremes, more sideways looks" – that was the motto for the album. The Tel Aviv-based trio cheerfully mix and contrast styles and genres; they're far too nimble to be categorized. They play with the complementary extremes of strength of impact and fragility. "We are always Shalosh. That is how we act, as one; our sound can be swing...or death metal." There is nothing random about their musical choices, however. Shalosh is like one organism, its parts instinctively breathing together. They tell stories too. Be-cause Shalosh genuinely do have something to say. They want to inspire, to make references, to ask questions, and the miracle is that they do it all wordlessly. The album gets going with “The Orphan Boy Who Wanted To Be A King”. The track has a dreamy opening, and also has a story to it. An orphaned child is contemplating a vision of what it would be like to be a king. As the melody grows and evolves, that dream starts to feel more and more real. “The Emperor’s New Clothes” deals with paranoia and disaster in the minds of some of our current political leaders, who have lost all sense of humanity and decency. The elegiac tune about David Bowie in Berlin finds ways to transform a newspaper photo that brings bad news into an artistic statement.“The Birth Of Homo Deus” is the soundtrack to a three-part film script by Gadi Stern, in which computers have taken charge – and made the world a better place. The impromptu ballad “Quiet Corner” is the album’s refuge of calm. In “Breed”, the album’s only cover, the trio take on the rocky riffs of Nirvana. And the bonus track “Party On A Powder Keg” captures the para-doxical Israeli emotions that arise when witnessing celebrations while a war is going on. Shalosh make intensely insistent music which appeals to the feelings rather than taxing the brain. This music without words has immediacy, catchiness and strength - and yet delicacy as well. There is an irrepressible joy, a physicality that goes straight to the feet, and yet their hooky melodies have a way of circling, of pausing and then moving forward, and of growing inexorably. Shalosh have a sense of being implanted in tradition but with a perceptive eye for the future.Credits: Music composed, arranged and produced by Shalosh except Breed by Kurt Cobain Recorded by Michael Dahlvid at Nilento Studio, Gothenburg, February 3rd-5th, 2020 Sound design by Lars Nilsson Mixed and mastered by Lars Nilsson Piano sound design on the “Orphan Boy” by Arik Finkelberg Produced by Shalosh

When the Franco-Algerian singer, cellist and songwriter Nesrine Belmokh and her trio NES appeared on the scene in 2018 they seemed to emerge from nowhere. Many parts of the music world in Europe were taken by surprise by her, and completely captivated as well. Now, for her second album named simply after her – "Nesrine" – she has re-invented herself. Nesrine's debut album "Ahlam" was received with tremendous and widespread enthusiasm. What commentators noticed was its sheer beauty, the unusual instrumentation of voice, cello and percussion, and also the way in which the Mediterranean region from North Africa to Southern Europe was brought to life and unified through music. The distinguished cellist Sol Gabetta called Nesrine "a wonderful singer and cellist". London’s Sunday Times described her as "an incandescent, multilingual talent, " and later went on to include “Ahlam” among the newspaper’s albums of the year. French producer and radio host André Manouki-an was in raptures: "NES lets us hear the beauty of the world" and Deutschlandfunk stated simply that "NES’s time has come.” Several extensive tours throughout Europe followed, and NES beguiled audiences in major classical venues like the Philharmonie and the Konzerthaus in Berlin, made a very big impression at the Amsterdam Cello Biennale, and had major success at important jazz and world music festivals. In the new album, Nesrine the solo artist gives us further glimpses of her personal and musical life story. She grew up in France as a child of Algerian parents. She learned classical cello, and was soon working with organisations such as Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Opera in Valencia, conducted by Lorin Maazel, plus landing a solo role in one of the programmes of "Cirque du Soleil". But it is through the ingenious songs that she writes herself, in Arabic, French and English, that her dazzling artistic personality comes through. Nesrine’s musical world is without borders; the combination of cello with her powerful voice and the interaction of her North African roots with her European present are irresistible. There is an economy of expression here, and the poise and culture of classical music are juxtaposed with rhythms coming from both pop and jazz – it is a fascinating and constantly shifting blend. For the new album Nesrine has teamed up with producer/guitarist Vincent Huma (Jorge Drexler, Miguel Bosé, Marlango) and sound engineer Fab Dupont (Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Wynton Marsalis, David Crosby and many more). Together with NES percussionist David Gadea and guests, they have succeeded in creating a complex musical world of both acoustic and electronic sounds, and yet the natural-ness, the simplicity and warmth of the debut album "Ahlam" have been retained, and also broadened by adding completely new influences. In theory this might sound as if the juxtaposing of different cultures and the crossing over between them will lead to overload, but for Nesrine we are dealing with things that are normal, even existential. Her music is a reflection about her generation for whom origins and stylistic boundaries define themselves through their interaction. This music functions and flows so naturally because the combining of cultures is never artificial. It results from the fact that the different elements are simply, logically and truly parts of the artistic essence of the artist herself, and of her personal history. To ask what this music is just has to be the wrong question. World music? Or global pop? Or fusion? The right question to ask is *who* it is. And the answer has a compelling simplicity about it: NESRINE.

Grégoire Maret - AmericanaCD / digitalGrégoire Maret harmonicaRomain Collin pianoMoog Taurus pump organ; additional effectsBill Frisell electric guitar, acoustic guitar; banjoClarence Penn drums Harmonica virtuoso Gregoire Maret and acclaimed pianist Romain Collin team up to paint an egalitarian vision of the American Dream, exploring the varied roots of American music alongside guitar visionary Bill Frisell. “Americana” represents an exciting collaboration between two prodigious musicians: harmonica great Gregoire Maret, and acclaimed pianist Romain Collin. Grégoire Maret is a phenomenon and a master musician. He is a virtuoso with a vivid imagination and a sublime way of giving shape to a melody. Collin, meanwhile, has been described by NPR as “a visionary composer, an extraordinary jazz pianist” and by the Boston Globe as being “among the leading lights of a new breed of players”. Upon meeting each other in New York, the two musicians bonded over a shared love of jazz, song and pure melody. Together they embarked on a project which would explore the musical depths of the American soul. They turned to the uniquely great Bill Frisell to help forge a connection between American songwriting and the high art of instrumental playing. In this musical world, vast soundscapes co-exist with epic stories. Born and raised in Switzerland, Maret has been a NYC resident for the past 20 years. "My mother is American, born in Harlem, and has bequeathed me the legacy of Afro-American culture. I see myself as a bridge between two cultures: European and Afro-American”. Maret has been a significant figure on the New York scene, playing alongside Pat Metheny and Herbie Hancock. “This new album is the result of personal cultural experiences.” Maret and Collin chose to call this project “Americana". They explain: “ ‘Americana’ is at the intersection of folk, country, blues, R&B, gospel and bluegrass. The essence of this project is to take an inclusive attitude to all of the roots of American music and culture." France native Collin has become an established presence in the US. Appreciated by the likes of Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, Collin has evolved a distinctive aesthetic, integrating electronic sound design with lyrical piano improvisations. On guitars, the duo enlisted the services of one of the great creative minds of the instrument: Bill Frisell's singing, lyrical timbre on both the electric and acoustic guitar is unmistakable, always marked by his own personal metamorphoses of bluegrass, country and blues and by his profound knowledge of the philosophy of songwriting. Dummer Clarence Penn also makes a fine, incisive contribution. The Americana trio’s journey starts with a surprise: the composer of "Brothers In Arms" is not actually American at all. And yet Scottish-born Mark Knopfler proved with Dire Straits that his way of internalizing the myths of American history is not just skillful but also highly persuasive. Maret and Collin pare back his 1985 hit to its essence. It is simple, spacious and highly affecting. From his immense body of work, Bill Frisell has contributed two compositions, "Small Town" and "Rain, Rain": the first of the pair emerges as a bewitching folk song in miniature, with rustic-dry banjo and wistful mouth organ, and the second song hovers with a hymn-like poise over the melodic web of guitars, piano and harmonica. This ensemble also pays homage to one of the great songwriters, Jimmy Webb. His "Wichita Lineman" gains even more spatial depth in this slowed-down instrumental version, the soul of the railwayman almost sings in Maret's heart-rending improvisation. The group also honors Justin Vernon (alias Bon Iver), an Americana representative of the hipster generation, in "Re: Stacks". Here Maret gives encouragement to a broken heart for a new chapter in life, surrounded by a glistening array of textures sculpted by Frisell, and supported by Collin’s electronic loops and synth bass. Maret and Collin have also brought the essence of Americana in their own compositions: Romain Collin portrays the wine-growing region of California in "San Luis Obispo", a song from his 2015 ACT release Press Enter, beautifully revisited with Frisell and Maret stating the melody with total persuasiveness. Maret has succeeded in creating a slow 6/8 song named “Back Home”, which is as proud as it is heartfelt. A composition Clarence Penn underscores with his discreet brushwork and in which Maret soars to an almost exuberant triumph before bringing the track to a calm close. "The Sail", on the other hand, heralds a new departure: the piano alternates with the harmonica to create a sweeping dramaturgy, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes resolute. And in their joint final piece "Still", Maret and Collin have the opportunity to reflect and meditate on their American journey. “Wherever Gregoire Maret stands, whenever he lifts his instrument to his lips, the room and all its inhabitants are immediately transformed, we are transported with a sweet yet powerful intensity to a higher plane.” These are the words of high praise which Grégoire Maret once received from Cassandra Wilson, with whom he has worked for many years. This is also a particularly apt way to describe the soulful and life-affirming “Americana”.Credits: Recorded by Jeremy Loucas at Bunker Studios, NY Mixed by Jeremy Loucas at Sear Sound, NY Mastered by Alan Silverman at Arf Mastering Studios, NY Produced by Grégoire Maret; Romain Collin The Art in Music: Cover art by Anna Ley: Plus 1992 (2019) / ACT Art Collection

Nguyên Lê - OverseasCD / digital Nguyên Lê electric & bass guitars, electronics Ngô Hồng Quang vocals dàn nhi fiddle, dàn môi jaws harp, dàn bâu monocorde &dàn tính lute Illya Amar vibraphone, MalletKAT, T’rung bamboo xylophone Trung Bao beatbox Alex Tran percussion & drums Lê Thi Van Mai dàn tranh zither Nguyên Hoàng Anh bamboo sáo flute Minh Dàn Môi dàn do bamboo percussion Cuong Vu trumpet Chris Minh Doky acoustic bass Nguyên Lê’s "Overseas" – the great guitarist brings jazz, traditional Vietnamese music and hip-hop to the music for “Cirque-Nouveau”. "Overseas" stems from an interdisciplinary performance project combining dance, acrobatics and music. “Cirque-Nouveau”, conceived and directed by Tuan Le, whose other credits include work as lead choreographer for Cirque du Soleil, is an artistic reflection on the current zeitgeist of Vietnam, a country in which traditional lifestyles become disoriented through rapid modernisation, especially in the big cities. Nguyên Lê has written the music for it, a mix of jazz, traditional Vietnamese music and hip-hop; "Overseas", from ACT is the soundtrack for this compelling vision of change and flux. It is not just guitarist Nguyên Lê’s peerless command of technique that makes him a truly unique musician. Throughout his life he has also had the role of a go-between combining very different cultures. "I was born in France as the son of Vietnamese parents,” says Lê. “As an artist, I began to build my own identity with the culture of my parents and the country I lived in. And I am far from alone in this. Many other people have this experience too, so it is something which can be shared all over the world, and not just by Vietnamese people.” And a distinctive feature of all his creative work, whether in the company of illustrious American colleagues, or in the E_L_B trio with Peter Erskine and Michel Benita, or on albums with the fine Vietnamese singer Huong Thanh, or indeed in numerous projects of his own, is that he has engaged with the theme of reconnection with the culture of his homeland. Jazz has been the medium for him to combine the Vietnamese musical tradition with a wide variety styles, from flamenco to the music of the Middle East and beyond. And his interpretations of Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin and above all his groundbreaking Jimi Hendrix project are testimony to this, as they deal with the outstanding artists who emerged in the protest movement against the Vietnam War. 22 years after his programmatic album "Tales from Viet-Nam", "Overseas" represents a new chapter of his search for the Vietnamese soul through the prism of jazz, and one which is unprecedented both in its diversity and in its use of multimedia. It is important to note that over time the questions that Lê has been asking himself have changed markedly: "Today it is no longer: 'Am I Vietnamese?’” he explains. “Because just as Vietnam itself has changed, so have I. Today I am Vietnamese and a citizen of the world. In my music that is what I want to express, so this project aims to bring out the creativity of the country as it is today. And that is why the show has been shaped by so many talents." And yet it is not strictly necessary to witness the incredible feats the performers and artists performing “Overseas” visually. One can be completely captivated by Lê's music, an inspiration in itself. Just as artists from several countries have brought together circus cultures from Paris, Lyon, Copenhagen, Seattle, Montreal, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, so Lê brings together jazz, traditional folk music, rock, hip hop, reggae and electronica to create a blend which is surprisingly homogenous. And as regards the influences that have moulded his fellow musicians, Lê explains: "It begins with the diaspora of the Vietnamese artists, who create something of their own by distancing themselves from their roots, but which is nevertheless related to the culture of their past. And from this we develop the dream of universal communication." An impressive crew of musicians has come together for this project. Lê's basic band for this undertaking consists of two kindred spirits who have worked with him in several previous bands: drummer and percussionist Alex Tran and French vibraphonist Illya Amar. Then there are two young bandmembers who have been brought in more recently: neo-traditionalist young singer and multi-instrumentalist Ngô Hông Quang, and US-based beatboxer Trung Bao. In addition to the zither player LêThi Van Mai, the flutist Nguyên Hoàng Anh and the percussionist Minh Dàn Môi, Lê also has American star trumpeter Cuong Vu (born in Saigon), who became known above all as a Grammy-winning member of the Pat-Metheny band, plus Danish bassist Chris Minh Doky who has been a permanent fixture in the New York jazz scene since 1989. What all of them deliver could not possibly be described as merely illustrative music. From the very first note of the introductory "Noon Moon" through the seven-part "Overseas Suite" to the final evocation of "Mother Goddess", the listener is immersed in a totally refreshing mix of musical styles, always carried by limpid melodies and compelling rhythms. "Overseas" is genuinely impressive and affecting because Nguyên Lê has taken the topical theme of migration and also achieved the things that define every great work of art: it is deeply personal and very much of our time – but also universal and timeless. Credits: The OVERSEAS band was recorded by Nguyên Lê at Louxor studio, Paris, France. Mai Lê & Hoàng Anh recorded by Truong Anh Quân at Anh Em studio, Hà Nôi, Vietnam. Minh Môi recorded at Tràn Manh Tuân studio, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Cuong Vu recorded in Seattle, USA. Chris Minh Doky recorded at M-One Productions studio, Copenhagen, Denmark Music written and produced by Nguyên Lê “Mother Goddess” is an arrangement of a traditional Chau Van piece Mastered by Bruno Gruel at Elektra Mastering, except 1, 4, 12 & 13 by Klaus Scheuermann