upsammy & Valentina Magaletti announce collaborative album Seismo

21 February 2026

Fluid across a wide spectrum of genres, Valentina Magaletti seems to exist in multiple musical worlds at once. As prolific as she is inventive, the composer, producer and percussionist extraordinaire has announced her first LP of 2026. Entitled Seismo, it saw her team up with Amsterdam-based producer upsammy for an album that redraws the line between acoustic percussion and digital sound. The project began with a commission from the Rijksmuseum, where the duo captured improvised percussive material inside the building’s shifting acoustics. Those recordings became the backbone of a set of electroacoustic pieces shaped by space, air and resonance, which were pushed further as the collaboration evolved on stage. As the press release puts it, it’s “a shiver of mischievous vocal snippets, disorienting rhythms and collapsing sonic architectures.” Across eight tracks, motion is constant, with mallet instruments, both digital and acoustic, forming the core language. Magaletti had this to say about it:

“With upsammy I explored the space between acoustic percussion and digital sound. The equation between presence and absence. Seismo dissolves roles, letting mallets and glitches meet in a shared, unstable, queer landscape.”

We’ll have to wait until April 10th for Seismo to be out through PAN but we can already hear the brilliant and earthshattering ‘Superimposed’. Take a listen below.

Lana Gasparøtti unveils brand new track ‘Let Go’

21 February 2026

Portuguese-Croatian composer and multi-instrumentalist Lana Gasparøtti has just let loose a brand new song, titled ‘Let Go’, following her debut album Dimensions, released last year. A daring leap into uncharted territory, on ‘Let Go’ Gasparøtti introduces a more prominent vocal presence, revealing an intimate and emotional depth hitherto unexplored by her. Drawing on elements of pop while staying true to her jazz roots, Gasparøtti crafted a song that is rich in sonic layers and buoyed by infectious upbeats. The single comes paired with a video, directed by João Catarino and choreographed by Daniel Matos, bringing an extra layer of visual and physical movement to the track. ‘Let Go’ will be tied to a new album and we’ll keep our eyes peeled for more details about it. Now listen to it below.

KAU drop first single, ‘cr_eye (restrung)’, from upcoming Unknown Waveforms Restrung EP

20 February 2026

We love KAU, the Brussels-based trio of Andre Breidlid (drums), Matteo Genovese (bass) and Jan Janzen (keys). They have today announced the release of Unknown Waveforms Restrung, a reimagined version of some tracks from their 2025 album Unknown Waveforms. A 3-track EP, due out on March 20th through Sdban Ultra, it features fresh takes on standout tracks like ‘cr_eye’, ‘isle_of_man’, and ‘dive_deep’, now reworked in collaboration with Cologne-based string quartet blu/quartet. These new interpretations reveal new dimensions to the original tracks, merging KAU’s signature electronic textures, infectious grooves, and experimental jazz with lush classical arrangements.

Ahead of the EP’s release, KAU have shared the EP’s first single, ‘cr_eye (restrung)’. Sublime and exhilarating, the track blends the energetic grooves of the original with the delicate and evocative strings of ‘Tränenmeer’, an earlier strings-only version from Unknown Waveforms. Take a listen now.

Watch Dumama’s video for new single ‘What Did The Rain Say” off forthcoming LP Towards An Expanse

19 February 2026

Photo: Jessica Garfield

Berlin-based South African composer and sonic artist Dumama has announced the release of her new album Towards an Expanse. Arriving on May 8th through Soundway Records, it follows her 2020 album Buffering Juju, a collaboration with German-Algerian artist Kechou. Blending ancestral Xhosa traditions with experimental electro-acoustic soundscapes, Dumama’s music is a force unto itself. Known for her rare mastery of the uhadi, a traditional Xhosa bowed instrument, Dumama is one of the few musicians in the world who plays it.

Towards an Expanse was born out of years of collaboration and evolution, first beginning to take shape in 2019 at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn under the guidance of acclaimed producer Shahzad Ismaily (Arooj Aftab, Cass McCombs, Laurie Anderson, and more). Dumama’s creative process took her from New York to Berlin, and also Johannesburg, where she worked with South African musician and producer Nandi Ndlovu, who reimagined the NYC recordings and infused them with a dynamic new energy. In additon to Ndlovu’s electronic reworkings, the album reached new sonic heights with the contributions of live musicians and extensive vocal production.

“Rooted in Black ontological understandings of time and memory”, as the press release describes, Towards an Expanse explores a world where grief, identity, and reclamation intersect. The album “meditates on learning to live with damage while regaining autonomy over how Black life is archived”.

Alongside the album news, Dumama has unleashed the stunning and haunting ‘What Did The Rain Say’. Speaking about the single, Dumama says:

“What Did The Rain Say” grew out of sitting with the language of water and the tension between drought and overwhelming storms. I invited friends to share their own rain stories, which turned the song into a collective reflection on what water might be communicating to us. The track began in an improvisational session shaped by spiritual jazz, gospel, and Black ecstatic traditions, and later evolved through looping and collaboration with family voices. “For me, the song became less about asking for rain and more about learning how to listen — to grief, ancestry, and the elemental forces that hold memory and transformation.”

‘What Did The Rain Say’ comes with an accompanying video directed by Jessica Garfield. Watch it now.

Alabaster DePlume teases new EP, Dear Children of Our Children, I Knew, with lead single ‘It’s Only Now Once (Elbit Systems Windowpane)’

17 February 2026

Photo: Chris Almeida

There’s exciting news from Alabaster DePlume, who has just announced the release of a new EP of instrumentals. Entitled Dear Children of Our Children, I Knew: Epilogue, the EP was recorded while on tour in the US last year, in support of his widely acclaimed album A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole. After a few weeks and a slew of shows playing with bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Tcheser Holmes, the three musicians developed a strong connection. Speaking about the EP, DePlume comments:

“Meeting with you all at the shows I sensed that you felt voiceless, on this ethical issue that also spelled out what we’re seeing today, in the form of ICE. That experience with you is etched into me, like graffiti or a poster on the wall. It’s my job to deliver your voice, and that’s what this record is. And to take action. That urgency compelled me to record then. And now here we are. As we said, this world is awakening to the reality it was already living.”

Long profoundly connected to Palestine, on Dear Children of Our Children, I Knew DePlume uses field recordings and samples of children playing and of normal life in the West Bank. The cover art also features wheatpaste posters of a drawing made by a 13-year-old boy from Gaza, with an inscription that says in Arabic, “Dedicated to the mother of the martyr/witness Obaida Ahmed al-Qiram. May you rest in peace. From your student, the artist, Hasan Jawad Abudayyeh.”

Dear Children of Our Children, I Knew will see the light of day on May 5th through International Anthem, with a Record Store Day exclusive vinyl LP arriving earlier on April 18th. Lucky for us, DePlume has today unveiled the powerful and deeply engaging lead single, ‘It’s Only Now Once (Elbit Systems Windowpane)’. Take a listen below.

~Nois announce new album, What is ~Nois

17 February 2026

Photo: Nick Zoulek

Founded in 2016, Chicago-based saxophone quartet ~Nois has established itself as one of the most vital forces in contemporary chamber music. With hundreds of shows under their belt, they have gained widespread recognition for championing new music for saxophone, with an unwavering commitment to the commissioning of living composers, resulting in more than 120 world premieres to date. The quartet, made up of Julian Velasco, Natalia Warthen, Jordan Lulloff, and János Csontos, have announced the release of their new album What is ~Nois. Unlike traditional chamber recording models, the upcoming What is ~Nois was developed closely in the studio with composers Darian Donovan Thomas, Aeryn Jade Santillan, Francisco del Pino, and Travis Laplante, along with multi GRAMMY-Award-Winning producer/engineer Mike Tierney. By shaping the works directly in the studio, performers, composers, and producer were able to refine and capture what they considered the “most fully realized version of the pieces possible”.

What is ~Nois sprouted from early seeds. “You can make your music however you want to, you just have to be vulnerable enough to take that leap”, composer Darian Donovan Thomas shared with ~Nois’ Julian Velasco in 2023. As Lulloff explains, “We wanted to make something that we really liked while not being limited by the traditional perceptions of the relationships between composers and performers. This feeling really embodies the idea behind ~Nois…new music, new ideas, new sounds that all have the saxophone as a core part of it but it’s not solely a capital ‘S’ sax, capital ‘Q’, quartet record.”

The album closes with the three-movement suite ‘Running in a Field of Flowers’ by Travis Laplante, reflecting on a time in his life when “he was consciously more connected to the Earth through listening.” Velasco describes the suite as a love letter to the instrument, “eliciting sound worlds that only technicians of the instrument can fully understand and unlock.” The closing movement, ‘Searing Joy’, culminates in a soaring soprano saxophone solo, where the composer asked Velasco to “soar like a comet”. Utterly gorgeous and gripping, ‘Searing Joy’ is after your ears.

What is ~Nois is out on April 10th through New Amsterdam Records,