Attempting to recreate the golden yesterdays of Jose Padilla’s White Isle sunsets with the tunes of today…

Nailah Hunter & Alia / The Pavilion Of Dreams / Leaving Records

L.A.’s Nailah Hunter, fresh from remixing Mark Barrott’s Through The Mirror Of The Soul, has now teamed up with local musician Alia Mohamed to reinterpret Californian composer Harold Budd’s The Pavilion Of Dreams. The album, Budd’s sophomore recording, was produced by Brian Eno and released on his label, Obscure, way back in 1978. 

Hunter and Mohamed take the melodic themes of two short tracks – Butterfly Sunday and Let Us Go Into The House Of The Lord – themselves inspired by John Coltrane, and weave them into a 13-minute suite. Hunter’s harp picking up where Maggie Thomas’, nearly 5 decades before, left off. Mohamed’s theremin replacing Lynda Richardson’s operatic soprano. Creating an oasis glittering glissandos and haunting, otherworldly harmonies that rise and fall in soothing waves. 

Alex Iro / Mariposa

Super talented Swiss musician Pablo Color is poised to launch a new project. While Pablo Color composes guitar-centric gear, Alex Iro will focus on keys. An album is expected in 2026, but the track Mariposa premiered at this year’s Cully Jazz Festival, and has now been released as a single. A slow, patient, pensive, Satie-esque piano piece, it finds unhurried fingers dancing romantically. Shaping something beautiful and balletic that could score a classic black and white movie. A noir, where the protagonists, lovers, against the odds, attempt to convince each other that they have all the time in the world. For more news follow Alex Iro on Instagram. 

Dušan Vranić / Folklove / DSPPR

Bosnian born, Granada based musician Dušan Vranić returns to Chris Coco’s DSPPR with a tune titled Folklove. A totally live composition of gentle jazzy keys and equally gentle syncopation, the song’s zither strings and prayer-like vocals summon the vibe of spiritual, moving sunset classics such as Pat Metheny’s Mas Alla. Coco’s extended version then stretches, spaces, dubs the serenity out.

Richard Youngs / Hidden / Black Truffle

Glasgow based, experimental multi-instrumentalist Richard Youngs originally released Hidden, digitally, on his own label No Fans, in 2022. This has now been pressed onto vinyl by Australian label, Black Truffle. The album consists of 2, kinda, continuous long-form pieces, constructed around arpeggios generated by a Moog Grandmother synth. Both sides are rushes, fast flowing rivers, of ping ponging bleeps. Energetic effervescences of busy molecules bouncing off one another. The counterpoint they create, on the surface, might not seem to change, but is, instead in a constant state of hypnotic flux. 

Vocal barks and yelps interrupt Hidden I, but part II then swaps these for far less jarring angular 6-string shapes and wheezy woodwind whistles. These elements spinning around each other, in orbits that periodically sync. Hand claps then introduce / suggest a groove. The result is a piece of electronica that the press one-sheet quite rightly compares to the work of Manuel Gottsching. Bubbling, percolating, its like a sonic bullet train ride. The listener’s mind travelling without moving. Dissociated, detached from reality. Speeding through landscapes, sceneries, thoughts and memories.