Watch Gregory Uhlmann’s live performance video of new single ‘Burnt Toast’

10 February 2026

Following  the whimsical and balmy lead single ‘Lucia’, LA-based guitarist, composer, and producer Gregory Uhlmann has unveiled ‘Burnt Toast’, the second single from his highly anticipated solo debut Extra Stars. A prolific artist with his fingers in many musical pies, Extra Stars sees his many years of collaboration distilled into a stunning collection of fourteen short pieces. Beautiful and blissful, ‘Burnt Toast’ comes with an accompanying live performance video, filmed by Mark Pallman at International Anthem Studios in Chicago. Watch it now.

Extra Stars is out on March 6th through International Anthem.

Carlos Niño & Friends announces new LP Bubble Bath For Giants

10 February 2026

There’s wonderful news from master percussionist, experimental composer, and producer Carlos Niño, who has just announced the release of his new album Bubble Bath for Giants, as part of his Carlos Niño & Friends series. Inspired by the radiance of magical forces that move through us all, his upcoming album is a celebration of gentleness. Niño says:

“Without getting too grandiose about how this album feels or flows to me, I will say that I was really excited when it was finished – 8 pieces, a little over 45 minutes, pretty short and sweet, it highlights my strange Drumming style more than most anything that I have released before – and I was like, this might be my Illmatic! That’s one of the most concise, Masterpiece albums ever made, so no, I am not comparing mine to it, but I am really excited about how unique it is to me, Light-code energetics, togethernesses, Space Collage, Marshall Allen just totally burning up #6., that finale with so many sound sources converging and the Voices . . . starting with a piece that brings my OGs Luis Pèrez Ixoneztli and Bernard Xolotl into shared space, #4., the Single, can’t think of much else that sounds like that one…Anyways, it’s hear for you…Thanks for listening!”

A huge collaborative effort, Bubble Bath for Giants features a host of artists from his Musical Community, including Luis Pérez Ixoneztli, Bernard Xolotl, Aaron Shaw, Surya Botofasina, Nate Mercereau, Laraaji, Darius Jones, Sheila Govindarajan, Idris Ackamoor, Deantoni Parks, André 3000, Marshall Allen, Sam Gendel, Sibusile Xaba, Mia Doi Todd, Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams, Jojo Abot, Jowee Omicil, and Aztlan Unearthed.

We’ll have to wait until March 20th for the album to be out but we can already hear the first single ‘Visions by the Fire’. Celestial and comforting, ‘Visions by the Fire’ is brimming with love and beauty. Take a listen below.

Bubble Bath for Giants is out March 20th through his CNF imprint, with a vinyl pressing by Good Neighbor and digital exclusivity through Niño’s Bandcamp page.

Triple Blind set to release new album, Cold Walk, later this month

09 February 2026

Photo: Annie del Hierro Jost

Triple Blind is the collaborative project of bassist Nick Jost (Baroness), saxophonist Kyle Nasser, drummer Peter Kronreif, and keyboardist Dov Manski, all longtime friends coming from different corners of the creative music world. The group first came together during the Covid-19 lockdown, working remotely and building music from MIDI sketches and home recordings. That resulted in their 2021 self-titled debut album, which earned them a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant, with Nasser as composer.

The four-piece are following it up with a new record titled Cold Walk. Unlike their previous album, Cold Walk was recorded live in a single room at Dreamland Recording Studios, with a focus on collective playing and real-time interaction. “Despite the difference in recording format”, as the press release describes, “the group maintains the pop sensibilities and pairs them with improvisational abstraction to great effect.”

Cold Walk is set for release on February 27th and Triple Blind have already shared two singles from it, the title track and more recently ‘Yarn Spin’, a mean and playful track described as “fun to horror movie soundtrack and back again”. Listen to both below.


Ishmael Ali’s upcoming solo debut album, Burn the Plastic, Steal the Copper, out next week

08 February 2026

We’re just days away from the release of Burn the Plastic, Sell the Copper, the solo debut album from cellist, guitarist, improviser, and composer Ishmael Ali. A key figure in the Chicago’s avant-garde scene, Ali is known for his work on the fringes of jazz, improvisation, and electronic music, and collaborations with the likes of Kahil El Zabar and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Avreeayl Ra, Angel Bat Dawid, Josh Berman, Jason Stein, and many more.

Straddling the line between avant-garde and pop in a unique and exciting way, Burn the Plastic, Steal the Copper marks a bold step forward for Ali. The album’s title is inspired by a friend’s remark about some old, faulty cables in the studio. “The phrase,” Ali says, “kind of stuck with me. I’ve been trying to finish a solo record for a long time and have a lot of music in a lot of different conceptual worlds.” It also reflects the themes that run throughout the record about the sense of stripping things down to their essential and questioning the value of what we hold onto. Burn the Plastic, Steal the Copper features a range of collaborators from the Chicago music scene, including Ed Wilkerson Jr., Corey Wilkes, Jim Baker, Brianna Tong, and Bill Harris, all shifting effortlessly between collective improvisation and intimate solo moments, always anchored by Ali’s cello.

For a taste of what’s to come ahead of the album’s release on February 13th through Amalgam Music, check out the bonkers, brilliant and compelling ‘Every Circle a Moon’. The track comes with an accompanying video made by Ali and Augustine Esterhammer-Fic.

Fabiano Do Nascimento shares rework of ‘O Tempo (Foi O Meu Mestre)’

07 February 2026

As we mentioned last month, Fabiano do Nascimento is bestowing us with Vila, a follow-up to Cavejaz, which was one of our Album Picks of 2025. A collaborative effort, Vila sees the staggeringly talented guitarist, composer, and producer team up with trombonist and arranger Vittor Santos, who helms a 16-piece orchestra for the affair. After introducing the album with the gorgeous and engrossing ‘Spring Theme’, Fabiano has unveiled a second single, ‘O Tempo (Foi O Meu Mestre)’. Majestic and jubilant, the track is a new re-working of his own song, released originally in 2017 in his classic Tempo Dos Mestres. Listen to it below and grab the album when it drops on February 27th through Far Out Recordings.

Dijf Sanders teases upcoming album, Tangkoa II, with lead single ‘Mooning’

07 February 2026

Photo: Francis Vanhee

One of Belgium’s most forward-thinking musicians, Dijf Sanders is not afraid to push the envelope.  The Ghent based multi-instrumentalist and composer has announced the release of his new album Tangkoa II, arriving on May 8th through Unday Records. With a free-thinking openness to different cultures, Sanders’ previous albums saw him travel to places like Indonesia and Nepal, searching for open musical exploration. The forthcoming Tangkoa II grew out of field recordings collected during his 2022 travels in Vietnam. Feeding these sounds into his self-built machinery, and abstaining from using any pre-sequenced sounds, samples and synths were shaped and played live, with Simon Segers steering it. Segers “operates as a human interface between rhythm and circuitry, a true man-machine”, as the press release describes, while Sanders “acts as a living effects processor, continuously manipulating sound in real time”. To bring Tangkoa II to life, Sanders has also enlisted a phenomenal group of musicians – Vitja Pauwels (guitar), Viktor Perdieu (saxophone), and Louise van den Heuvel (bass).

Alongside the album announcement, Sanders has dropped the first single ‘Mooning’, an entrancing and enthralling track that we we just can’t stop listening to. Here it is.