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,

Radwan Ghazi Moumneh & Frédéric D. Oberland team up for debut collaborative album, Eternal Life No End

16 February 2026

There’s a new record on the way from two artists we love and have been following for a while now. This spring, Radwan Ghazi Moumneh and Frédéric D. Oberland, who have collaborated for years, join forces for their first full album as a duo, Eternal Life No End, arriving on April 3rd through Constellation. Moumneh, the Montreal based Lebanese artist behind Jerusalem In My Heart, who’s also known for working with artists like Matana Roberts, Alanis Obomsawin, Nadah El Shazly, and BIG | BRAVE , has been exploring memory, identity, and politics through Arabic song and electronics for a long time. Oberland, co-founder of French collective Oiseaux-Tempête, is known for his immersive compositions that sit somewhere between avant-rock and free improvisation.

Eternal Life No End grew out of a focused series of duets that began at Montréal’s Hotel2Tango studio in 2023. Over the course of two years, those sessions evolved into a deeper exchange, with both artists sharing compositional and production roles. Moumneh’s buzuk, rababa, and voice intertwine with Oberland’s modular synths, saxophone, and clarineau, all with hand percussion and electronics pulsing underneath. Imbued with fragility and tension, in a time of global turmoil, the album bridges artistic collaboration with political urgency. “Since the genocide started, I’d had a complete artistic block and the inability to articulate what people are living through,” Moumneh explains. He eventually traveled to Paris to work closely with Oberland. “We worked day and night together and made clear decisions collectively,” Oberland says, describing the process as “a healing process in a way.”

Ahead of the album’s release, Mouneh and Oberland have shared the stark and stirring opener ‘Squeal Of Swine’. Take a listen now.

Erik Hall, Metropolis Ensemble and Sandbox Percussion to release collaborative album of Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato in April

13 February 2026

Pictured from Left to Right: Metropolis Ensemble, Erik Hall, Sandbox Percussion
Photo Credits from Left to Right: Erika Kapin, Nolis Anderson, Noah Stern Weber

There’s exciting news from Erik Hall, who has only last month released Solo Three, the final album in his groundbreaking trilogy of reinterpretations of contemporary classical pieces. In 2023, Hall had released his magnificent and radiant interpretation of Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato, which was one of our Album Picks of the Year. Now the Michigan-based composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer revisits the landmark minimalist work that has been central to his world. He joins forces with GRAMMY-nominated Metropolis Ensemble and Sandbox Percussion for a large-ensemble reimagining of ten Holt’s minimalist masterpiece, set for release on April 3rd through Western Vinyl. The album, a richly textured arrangement for mallet percussion, woodwinds, strings and piano, grew out of what began as a special outdoor solstice performance at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Hall’s concert grand piano remains at the heart of it, allowing the piece to bloom into something majestic and cinematic.

Coinciding with the announcement, Hall has shared a beautiful and breathtaking excerpt from the album, ‘Sections 74–87’. Take a listen below.

Holy Fuck are back with brand new album, Event Beat

11 February 2026

We only just caught this, but our excitement really cannot be measured: Holy Fuck are back with a new album! The Canadian quartet of Brian Borcherdt, Graham Walsh, Matt McQuaid, and Matt Schulz have been one of our absolute favourite bands since we first saw them in 2007, and after six years since Deleter, they are finally returning with Event Beat. Back in 2022, the band reconvened in a rural Nova Scotia village hall, as Walsh explains:

“The catalyst for this record and the beginning of the recordings that we did was us just getting back together again. It was something unique to us. It was all of us living together one in space and with no distractions and just working on music in the middle of nowhere. It’s a way I really like to work. For at least half of the songs on the record, it was just us holed up together. Which was great!”

Borcherdt adds:

“Having our own language that we can speak so easily together is really important to us. We all have our own piece to bring to the conversation, and it’s idiosyncratic to us because we’ve been dedicated to it for so long. Hopefully that’s encouraging to other bands who feel like they’re on a similar path.”

Power outages, a disgruntled neighbour, and other obstacles could not stop Holy Fuck from creating something extraordinary. “That became a production challenge,” Walsh explains. “We still wanted to jam, but while being as quiet as possible. Matt couldn’t hit the drums really loud. So we made these more low-key ambient things. It was like, how quiet can we be and still do what we do?” Borcherdt agrees. “We were making these quite pastoral, vibey soundscapes, and I thought we were going to have an ambient record on our hands. I thought this was going to be almost like new age music or something.”

The human side of their music shines even more through. “What I hope people take away from it is an appreciation is the togetherness and the humanity in the music”, Walsh concluded. “Music should be played and enjoyed together. When that raw punk sound comes off the stage you should just enjoy it and relish that experience. It’s wonderful and awesome.”

Event Beat arrives on March 27th and they’ve already dropped two singles from it, ‘Evie’ and more recently ‘Elevate’, which is offered with a video by John Smith. “I really like those epic techno songs like Orbital and Underworld,” says Walsh of the track. “This was my attempt at something like that. Just dance floor euphoria.”

This is an exciting return from one of the greatest bands out there. After twenty years of making music, Holy Fuck still manage to sound refreshingly new and thrilling. Check out both singles below, we’re playing them on repeat.


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.