John Patton
Soul Connection

Recorded in Berlin and Rio de Janeiro, “Nascentes” is the first solo project by flutist, composer and arranger Mariana Zwarg. After 18 years of career, the album is the result of the work she has been developing for almost 4 years with her group “Mariana Zwarg Sexteto Universal”. There are 10 tracks in total: 8 songs composed by her + a theme by Hermeto Pascoal and a theme by Itiberê Zwarg, who are also the album's special guests. The songs were mostly composed and arranged inspired by this group. The project started in 2016, when Mariana was invited by a Spanish music festival to direct and organize an entire concert dedicated to Hermeto Pascoal. The band was formed by musicians from different parts of the world! Mariana Zwarg represents the third generation of musicians playing and spreading the tradition of "universal music", created by her godfather, the musical genius Hermeto Pascoal from Brazil. Mariana is a flutist, saxophonist, composer and arranger and has been performing at leading festivals and concert halls all over Latin America and Europe with "Itibere Zwarg & Grupo" during the last 15 years. In 2016 she formed her "Sexteto Universal", uniting musicians from 5 different countries and touring regularly in Europe and Brazil.

2022 Record Store Day edition on Blue vinyl!Azymuth's career-defining LP Light As A Feather returns. Home to their worldwide disco/fusion hit single ‘Jazz Carnival’, the samba-doido staple 'Partido Alto', and the proto-deep house masterpiece ‘Avenida Das Mangueiras’, this album typifies the trio’s tireless innovation in the fields of jazz, funk, samba and cosmic music perhaps more so than any of their other ground-breaking records from its era.Their first release on Milestone Records in 1979, it quickly became one of the best-selling LPs of the year, staying in the UK Top 20 for eight straight weeks with more than half a million copies sold. An incredibly well thought out album both in pace, song selection and musicality, ‘Light As A Feather’ marked a maturing of the band as they began to rightfully utilise the studio as an instrument itself, embracing numerous mixing and recording techniques not yet common for the time as well as pioneering the use of the Big Muff and Dolby System to great effect. The result is an album that endures to this day as a samba/jazz-funk masterpiece.First reissued in 2012, the Far Out edition of this seminal recording was remixed and re-mastered from the original 16-track tapes, which were given to Joe Davis by Azymuth. This latest version is the first ever issue to be complete with a download card that that gives access to previously unreleased tracks, including the incredible full length version of 'Jazz Carnival', as well as remixes from house stalwarts Theo Parrish, Ashley Beedle, and Mark E.

On-Ly is the solo and collaborative moniker of pianist and producer Joshua Smeltink. On-Ly has been playing local traps since 2017, varying across numerous bands, recently settling into the second line-up for his own On-Ly band: Carl Lindeberg, bass (Surprise Chef), Henry Hicks, guitar (Horatio Luna) and Bryce Zelno, drums (Astral Flex). Spanning genres, On-Ly’s house and hip-hop history is ever-present, recently imbued with the hard-hitting post-bop jazz-rock of the 60’s and the 70’s, harking back to bands such as Weather Report and Miles Davis Group (70s); now, keeping the finger pressed to the pulse, his music finds a visceral edge set to the 2010’s and the century that precipitated it. Jazz-beats find synergy with neo-classical sampling, concepts of modern history, obscuring harmonies, machine-based improvisation and the exploration of transferring tangible messages to musical constructs.

Tenderlonious returns to his own 22a imprint with a brand new collection of lo-fi beats and soundscapes courtesy of the lockdown studio sessions from his home in South London. Lockdown allowed Tender to escape from his busy lifestyle and touring schedule, finally giving him the time to properly explore and experiment with the vast collection of synths, drum machines and instruments he’s built up over the past twenty years. Armed with an arsenal of hardware and inspired by sci-fi & fantasy movies, he has delivered an expansive opus of varying tempos that glide across imaginative synth sculptures and meditative soundscapes. The soundtrack to his quarantine - ‘Quarantena.’When COVID-19 hit the UK back in March this year the music game changed almost overnight - no more gigs, no more studio sessions with the band, many music stores and outlets shutting up shop. This drastic change offered plenty of time for reflection, opening up a new portal of exploration for Tender - he purchased his first piece of studio equipment at the age of 16 and has since then amassed a serious arsenal of studio hardware. Some people collect stamps, some of us collect records, Tender collects synths and drum machines. The lockdown period offered up the opportunity of more time in his home studio, brimming with hardware, that due to his busy schedule, had yet to be exhausted.

Stimulator Jones brings that playful, no-frills spirit to a new instrumental beat album, Low Budget Environments Striving For Perfection. Its title was inspired by Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists, describing, “the setting and manner in which most of my music and art has been created – trying to do the best I can with limited means and resources. It’s the DIY philosophy.”Described simply as “tape hiss, turntables, and THC”, Low Budget Environments… is a record born out of Stimulator Jones’ lifelong love of hip-hop. It sees the singer and multi-instrumentalist compiling the hip-hop beats he’s been creating since getting his first sampler as a teenager. These are, he says, “pure, uncut, straight forward beats – no clever arrangements, no cerebral overindulgence, no cute stuff, no vocals.”