News: CRAMMED DISCS

WATER ON MARS

The first video for FAUNA TWIN's upcoming THE HYDRA EP

Fauna Twin — the latest, exciting addition to the Crammed roster— are Parisian singer-songwriter Claire Jacquemard & North Wales’ Owain Ginsberg (leader of “Hippies Vs Ghosts” and “We Are Animal”). They’ve just put the finishing touch to their debut EP, the epic “The HYDRA EP”, which will be out in October with a string of shows around Europe. Fauna Twin’s debut album is scheduled for release in 2017.

Towards the end of last year, the band have circulated a couple of unfinished tracks which have elicited great reactions from the BBC6 and several online media across the UK, US and Canada, all obviously intoxicated by Fauna Twin’s melodies, atmospheres and dramatic percussions, and by the beauty of Claire’s voice.

This is how Fauna Twin describe their own music: “our influences are a massive tornado of different styles, from Queen to King Crimson, crossing by PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple via R. Stevie Moore to Radiohead. This leads us to a chameleon church with no god, where we commit everyday. Fauna Twin’s music turns into a kind of hybrid shoegazish-drama-pop with a special appeal for textures, structures and constructed rhythm sections.”

HAPPY SUMMER

New music by AQUASERGE, ACID ARAB, FAUNA TWIN, LE TON MITÉ and singles from the upcoming, 2017 albums by YASMINE HAMDAN and JUANA MOLINA: This is what will be awaiting you in the Fall! Meanwhile, here is Aquaserge's intriguing new video, 'Les Zouzes'

New video by Flavien Berger x Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul

"Je pleure tout le temps"

Je pleure tout le temps (Contrelarme Version) was arranged and performed by French electropop wonder kid Flavien Berger for Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul's 16 Visions of Ex-Futur, an album of covers & reworks which comes out on October 14.

The majestic video was written & directed by Robin Lachenal (who has worked on Flavien Berger's remarkable previous 13 videos…), and was jointly produced by the artists' respective labels, Crammed Discs and Pan European Recording, along with video company Kidam.

Noteworthy trivia (as they say on movie sites) #1: the aerial shots were filmed from a drone flying among the high-rise buildings in La Défense area near Paris, which is a first. #2: the main character is played by Michel Dejeneffe, a puppeteer and ventriloquist who had his own, very popular TV shows in France & Belgium back in the 80s ("Tatayet").

KONONO N°1 MEETS BATIDA

New album out in Europe now!
For this new album, the legendary Congolese band has joined forces with acclaimed Angolan/Portuguese artist Batida aka Pedro Coquenão. Along with producer Vincent Kenis, they convened in Batida's garage-cum-studio in Lisbon with a series of collaborators and friends of Batida's, reflecting the city's vibrant, cosmopolitan music life: guitarist Papa Juju (the leader of Lisbon's foremost Afro-fusion band Terrakota), vocalist Selma Uamusse (one of the best young African singers currently residing in Portugal) and MC AF Diaphra, a distinguished slam poet and an artist/producer in his own right.

The album is released on CD & double LP deluxe & digital.

The USA release: April 29th.

The band will be touring in Europe in May and July, and will come back again in October 2016.

May tour dates are here

Acid Arab joins Crammed Discs

Crammed Discs are thrilled to announce the signing of mighty Parisian electronic music crew ACID ARAB

ACID ARAB's intoxicating blend of sharp Western electronic music with Eastern sounds & vocals has been putting European festival and club audiences under a spell for the last couple of years.

After releasing several EPs on excellent electronic music label Versatile, ACID ARAB are now preparing their debut album, due for release on Crammed in October. Meanwhile, the band will be performing at Sonar (ES), Melt (DE), Villette Sonique (FR), Nuits Botanique (BE). The first dates of their spring/summer tour are here

Amatorski release "Hear Me"

A new video and single incl. Julia Holter remix

With their moving, elegant and melancholic pop songs set in captivating, beautifully-crafted soundscapes, their two albums to date (tbc and from clay to figures) have gained them a strong international following, which has significantly increased with the airing of the BBC/STARZ drama series The Missing, for which the band wrote the theme music.

The single contains two versions of Hear Me, the original as well as a beautiful, eerie remix by Julia Holter. The versatile Californian songstress has done a handful of remixes in the past, this one seems to be the first since the recent release of her acclaimed album Have You In My Wilderness.

Hear Me is coming out as a limited-edition 7" vinyl and on digital.

A second 7” will be released for Record Store Day, in Belgium and The Netherlands only. It's a split record, containing Walking With A Passer-by #1, a beautiful spoken-word-and-electronica piece crafted by Amatorski front person Inne Eysermans and renowned Flemish novelist Saskia de Coster. The B-side is a remix of Hear Me by electronic music producer Hiele.

Inne Eysermans and Saskia de Coster will be performing showcases on Record Store Day at Vynilla (Ghent) and Coffee & Vinyl (Antwerp).

New album by the one and only LULA PENA

A rare release by the reclusive Portuguese singer, composer, guitarist and poet.

With only 2 albums released since 1998, Lula Pena has achieved a rare feat: gathering a stream of devoted followers worldwide, a kind of international secret society whose ranks grow with each of her too rare appearances.

Lula Pena follows her own rules, not only in her career but in her very music. Her voice is haunting and moving, her guitar style unique, her approach deeply emotional yet also conceptual. She has a quasi-shamanic way of becoming one with her instrument when performing these long, rambling pieces, during which wood, string, words, human body, breath and voice all merge into a single, supernatural, fabulous beast.

Lula Pena's music is a living organism. Her inspired lyrics effortlessly shift between several languages as she sails on a strange ocean, bordered by continents called folk blues, flamenco, French chanson, phado (that's how she likes to spell it), bossa nova and others, grazing them all and leaving none intact.

Entitled 'Archivo Pittoresco', Lula Pena's new album will be released in November 2016

"Konono meets Batida"

Crammed Discs are happy to announce the new album by Konono n°1 !

“Konono meets Batida”, the legendary Congolese band’s new album, was recorded in Lisbon in collaboration with acclaimed Angolan/Portuguese artist Batida and jointly produced with Vincent Kenis (the producer of all the band’s albums).

The album is due for release in March 2016.

TUXEDOMOON VINYL EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

To celebrate the band's 38th anniversary, here's is an elaborate, luxurious, bountiful, 10-vinyl artefact. Out Nov.13, pre-order now!

It contains the band's main 9 studio albums (three of which have never appeared on vinyl before), and an album entirely consisting of previously-unreleased tracks, entitled "Appendix".

Plus a 28-page 12"-sized book with original notes by the band members -who reminisce about the recording of these albums- as well all the lyrics & credits, a full colour poster and a single code for downloading the content of the ten albums: "Half-Mute", "Desire", "Holy Wars", "Ship of Fools", "You", "The Ghost Sonata", "Cabin In The Sky", "Bardo Hotel Soundtrack", "Vapour Trails" and "Appendix".

Only the first 300 copies are numbered (and available on pre-order from Crammed's online store).

In the spring of 2016, Tuxedomoon will revisit their debut album "Half-Mute" and perform it on a series of exclusive shows around Europe, stay tuned for more info.

New album, new video and new tour for Maia Vidal !

Last episode in Maïa's mini-series of romantic videos out now, new album out on Sept 25

"Islands of You and Me", the last episode in Maïa's mini-series of romantic videos, was premiered on French website mademoiZelle.com last Monday.

Just like the first two episodes, "Bones" and "The Tide", this one was also written and co-directed by Maïa Vidal.

Here is Maïa Vidal about the "Islands of You and Me" video:

There's a thick inevitability to falling in love, it's a psychotropic drug slipped secretly while you slept. The synesthesia is overwhelming, every sense twisted and in bloom, you feel like no one else exists in the Universe, that the two of you are an island all to yourselves. A girl can lose herself in those silly kid daydreams, but she'll wake to find she's a woman, drunk on hormones and the last heady days of Summer, spinning out into an ever wilder irreality. Because in that moment between waking and sleep, your childhood games, romantic fantasies, and hidden yearnings are all allowed to dance to the same beat. And the beat is a technicolor sugar rush of nostalgia and desire, swaying dangerously close to that inevitable sexual awakening. And the last thing you want is to wake up.

Wow, Wow, Wow!

"You're the Waves", the new album, is coming out on September 25th, and Maïa Vidal will be on tour shortly after that, appearaing a.o. at the MaMA Festival in Paris on October 16th (at Les Trois Baudets), and at Botanique in Brussels on November 10th!