"Swamp at Dawn" is the third album by Sonarophon, the duo formed by Line Horneland and Alf Terje Hana. Despite being a short album, its twenty-four minutes aims to bring the listener through "new places". Recorded live in studio using electronic and acoustic soundscapes the four tracks here included experiment with ambience and minimalism. Vocally, imagine a Diamanda Galas approach but less extreme. Musically, we have guitar manipulations and, here and there, soft long notes or chords creating creepy atmospheres or meditative ones. The aim of "Swamp At Dawn" is to make the listener stop, let themself loose and follow the sound like they were floating into a sensory deprivation tank.

After the 2022 collaboration with Gary Husband, John McLaughlin and Allan Holdsworth released under The Trackers moniker, Alf Terje Hana is back with a new Athana album titled "Garden Of Bliss". The seven tracks see Alf Terje Hana (guitars, octave guitar, sitar, electronics, keyboards, programming, edit), Torgeir Nes (electronics, programming) and Øyvind Grong (bass) playing with an incredible list of guests such as: Stewart Copeland (drums), Børge Fjordheim (drums), Gary Husband (keyboards) and Jody Linscott (percussion), to name a few. Listening to "Home Street Strut" featuring Stewart Copeland, "Endless Ripples" featuring Jody Linscott, "Dry Rain" featuring Jody Linscott and Keven Eknes, "Cry For Miles" featuring Gary Husband, "Nisco", "Garden Of Bliss" featuring Gary Husband and "Two Foxes" featuring Gary Husband, the first thought that came to my mind was: this is organic music. You know, it's like you're listening to sounds made by something which's alive. The seven tracks have melodies, rhythms and everything but we're talking about people breathing jazz music, so we can't properly talk about songs even if there are hooks and melodies. Sometimes its atmosphere reminded me of the record that Japan made under the Rain Tree Crow moniker in 1991 or "The First Day" that Sylvian and Fripp made in 1993, even if "Garden Of Bliss" is an instrumental album. Alf's guitar glissando sounds like a distant voice and suddenly it turns into a fast phrasing like someone is talking to you. If you like King Crimson and all the aforementioned records, don't miss "Garden Of Bliss" but if you have no idea of what I'm talking about and you think that music matters and you'd like to listen to something that is "talking" to you, well, you can check this record even on the streaming platforms and I think you won't stop after the first track.

La Machine is a new project created by Pierre Pi (Komplex, Position Parallèle, Communication Zéro...) and Éric U0 (Celluloide, Thee Hyphen, Signal/Bruit...). Inspired by science-fiction and B-Movies from the 50s, La Machine use these themes to show the absurdities of modern times where the nuclear nightmare and the control of individuals are actual themes... again! "La Machine Qui Ne Sert À Rien" ("The Unuseful Machine") is their first single released by BoredomProduct and printed on 10" and MCD. The main title is a cover of a track released in 1967 by the French model/singer Dani; the original version is a beat track that packs in two minutes so much energy to sound almost proto-punk. The version played by La Machine, is an electronic counterpart to the original song and ye-ye atmospheres are replaced by electronic blips and beats. The rhythm has been slowed down and even if the atmosphere is a bit darker and less danceable it still sounds fresh now as well as it was 56 years ago. The second track is an original one whose lyrics are really up to date with the recent historical facts we all lived: "FFP2" is an ironic critique of those still obsessed with the masks and remember that with a kiss we exchange tons of bacteria. Probably kissing will turn out to be a subversive act... again! Along with these tracks, the E.P. contains two different mixes plus another cover: a menacing version of Gershon Kingsley's classic "Pop Corn"! Even if this is the first La Machine release it will be soon a classic of the BoredomProduct catalog! Check on YouTube the videos made for "La Machine Qui Ne Sert À Rien" and "FFP2" and enjoy their 50s sci-fi-themed modern horrors.

Seven years have passed since "A Perfect Picture", the latest Dekad album. Three years ago, J.B.Lacassagne along with XY (Foretaste) released an album under the Overlookers moniker and we could also see that one as anticipation of what was coming with Dekad as the new album is co-produced with XY. Anyway, the new album is here with eleven new tracks and it's titled "Nowhere Lines". The collaboration didn't change Dekad's sound, you have tracks that are well rooted into the synthpop genre with e.b.m. rhythmic influences, but XY helped redefine the arrangement, which now is a bit richer and as with The Overlookers, influenced by the Depeche Mode of the "Black Celebration" period. With "Nowhere Lines" J.B. is painting a picture of a world that is running to its end... fast! Stories of impossible loves with plastic girls or framed pictures, stalkers, rebels, and insanity are what J.B. turned into danceable and catchy melodies. This album contains many highlights and I suggest you check these tracks first and you won't be disappointed: "Your World", "Artificial World", the instrumental "Last Chance", "Stay" and "A Deadly Show". The release of the album has been postponed because of what is going on in the world in these crazy times but now you have the chance to check it.

I have to admit that reviewing the latest album by Alone, titled "Hourglass Escapee", isn't something that I found really easy. The fact is that Nikola Vitkovic for his album, released on the label Tonal Shifts run by Ivan Antunovic, didn't follow a scheme (which is good) but mixed genres in a way that sometimes needs a bit more concentration to be "encoded". He calls that: "apocalyptic maximalist electronica". Soundwise, we have a mix of i.d.m. rhythms and minimal synthpop electronica where most of the times vocals are half sung/half declaimed. This way of using the vocals creates a feeling of uneasiness which along with the coldness of the music creates the perfect background for the lyrics (you can find them here http://solair.eunet.rs/~scnet.phantom/hourglass.htm). After listening the album several times, if I should think about a comparison, I can think about an isolationist version of Sparks, because of the theatrical approach to the sound.
Is it working? Kind of... Something visual could help. Probably I'm missing something that it's contained in the CD, because I have only the files to check.The only think I can think of, it's that the common theme it's the attempt to adapt to time who's flying by... and it isn't something easy to reach.