I guess we just pick up like we nearly did last time and where we left off and who needs who? Still no time for editorials, repeat, replete, reheat, let the actual music do the actual walking and the actual talking. Exact same thing as last time once again, another five (or so) slices of music that have passed our way recently, five slices of music cherry picked for your delight and however you like to slice it and of course it was the price of bird seed and yes we did say all this last time (surely no one reads the intro when the music is waiting down there)
Five? I guess we should, another five? There’s something rather compelling about five. Cross-pollination? Five more? Is there another way? A better way? A cure for pulling flying swordfish out of the clouds? Is there a rhyme? Is there a reason? What do reasons make? Five more? Cake oil? Snake oil? Bake the oil, everything must go somewhere and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding is in that proof reading and who reads editorials?
When we started this thing, oh never mind, it doesn’t matter why we started this damn thing, we never should have done and like we asked last time, who are the cake? We do really try to listen to everything that comes in, we are very (very) very very picky about what we actually post on these fractured pages or about what gets played on the radio or indeed what we hang in a gallery.
Cut to the chase, never mind the editorial, skip this bit, there’s music further down the page, five or so pieces of music that have come our way in the last few days and what’s Wordsworth? On these Five Pieces of Music pages you just the basic facts and links and those sounds (and visuals), that’s surely all you need from us on these Five pages we reguarly post?
Here we go then, five more slices of music that have recently come our way, this time we start somewhere in Stockholm…
1: Shida Shahabi – and a first taste, featuring PJ Harvey ( who co-wrote and sangthe rather warm and inviting Wreath), a first taste of an album called First Light at Hand, a first taste of eight pieces of music written for vocal ensemble, synthesizer, piano, cello and a piece for wind and string quartet.
“I wanted to start with a clean slate on this record, to open it up for other people to participate and let the music and curiosity take the lead…” said the composer now based Stockholm, Sweden.
“Shida Shahabi is a Stockholm-based composer, pianist, and sound artist known for her slow, minimal, and atmospheric music. Born in 1989 to Iranian parents, she studied fine art at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm before focusing on solo recordings, film scores, and contemporary dance music…”
Bandcamp / shidashahabimusic.com
2: Aksak Maboul and a piece of music called Montagne, a first excerpt from a forthcoming album, an album that is due for release in February 2027 on CrammedLab.
“The track was written and performed by Marc Hollander and Véronique Vincent, who sadly left us in October 2025″. Montagne features performances by Fred Frith on guitar, Nihiloxica’s Spooky-J on drums, Aksak Maboul mainstay Faustine Hollander on backing vocals, and Shoko Igarashi on flute.
Inspired by the writing of certain French poets she was fond of, Véronique’s lyrics have a double meaning, the mountain which is climbed and conquered being a metaphor for masculine oppression
The video for the single is directed and animated by Yoann Stehr and Izia Pinkman. The players on this track at least were Véronique Vincent: vocals, Marc Hollander: organ, synths, programming, Fred Frith: guitar, Faustine Hollander: vocals, Shoko Igarashi: flute, Spooky-J aka Jacob Maskell-Key: drums.
“since its rebirth after a 30-year gap, the seminal, shapeshifting band revolved around founder (and Crammed Discs boss) Marc Hollander and Véronique Vincent. The upcoming album (Feb 2027) will be the 4th and last opus spawned by their collaboration. The project was launched in 1977 by Hollander with Vincent Kenis, and the band’s first two LPs are avant-garde classics”
Here’s the Bandcamp and some links
3: Bonnacons Of Doom and a rather powerful Forewarning. Something taken from the album Hexafoil, an album to be released on London’s Rocket Recordings on 12th February 2027.
3: Whait – “Sympathy at Home is the debut physical release by Whait, comprising musicians Wendy Eisenberg and more eaze – aka Mari Rubio. Following a celebrated digital-only debut hosted by the Residence Project, Sympathy at Home folds in both artists’s musical languages into a singular lingua franca; an intuitive, spontaneous music that yields surprising moments of joy and discovery. Whait’s music is bathed in love and celebration, a continuation of both artists’s deep-grooved furrows in current human music….” and we are more than happy to just share that bit of information along with a taste of the music for this is how we like these Five Pieces of Music pages to simply roll…
4: Zouz – Montreal-based noise-rock band Zouz release are to release a new single, À sec, today, is it today? Is today the day? What day is this? The trio will also be opening for Angine de Poitrine across the US later this month…
“Zouz say À sec is a strange and refined noise rock song, driven by a visceral, in-your-face energy. Something zouz is especially proud of: it is a 100% collective effort from the trio. The song is about a string of misfortunes that kept hitting one of the band members, and the hard-won resilience that carried him through it. “When you’ve hit rock bottom… one more blow, one less… what difference does it make?”
Zouz describe À sec as a song that truly defines their identity, both in substance and in form. Recorded at Studio Ben Shampouing in Thetford Mines in May 2026, the track was composed by all the members – a rarity since the band’s formation in 2016. “We did everything ourselves to ensure it reflects all three of us – to make it sound truly like zouz,” says David Marchand (vocals, guitar), who also handled production, while Francis Ledoux (drums, percussion) took charge of the mixing. They were joined by Charles-David Dubé on synth bass. A long-time collaborator and the band’s live sound engineer, Dubé also assisted with the recording, ensuring sonic consistency from the studio to the stage…”
Find the track on Bandcamp find more via Instabloodygram
And here’s another rather urgent taste of Zouz from earlier this year….
and yes, I know we squeezed in one more that five this time…
5: Voodoo Drummer Duo – “The new single by the Voodoo Drummer duo is their interpretation of Moondog’s composition UTSU. It’s a simple and beautiful melody that they let it breathe, nobody rushes to fill every gap. Cello and Balafon switch in a raw, improvised, and minimal way, not always following the formal traditions of Western music. Without a snare drum, the drum set, when not keeping the 5/4 pulse, moves to unexpected sounds, balancing between tension and release, statement and storytelling! Echoes of the past… from the Far East to the future! Moondog’s music and drum pieces in odd time signatures have been a major influence for the duo. They already covered his Elf Dance on their debut album”.
And well, we might as well leave the original here. Utsu is a 1953 instrumental composition by American composer Moondog (Louis T. Hardin), originally featured on his album On the Streets of New York. The piece is performed in 5/4 time (as already pointed out by the Drummers) and showcases one of Moondog’s custom-invented instruments…
Previously…
