We bring intriguing news from Tom Jenkinson, aka Squarepusher, who has announced a new album release.
It is described on Bleep.com, as “a riot of onyx-hard, hyperfast riffs, fiendish orchestral themes and handbrake turns through varieties of progressive, ambient, electronic and experimental music.” This quote, presumably from the press release, reflects the thoughts on an album whose title is German for ‘chamber concert’, and harks back to the Kammermusik series of compositions published by Hindemith in the 1920s.
The headline piece from Kammerkonzert is K2, where virtuosic bass work is set against a laid back electro beat that nonetheless contains a great deal of suppressed energy, like a coiled spring. This is the track whose intentions are described as “the liquid fusion of Weather Report in their Body Electric phase”.
It is certainly a striking piece of music, with a rigorous construction and severity reflecting the album title, but also with plenty of room for movement, as the increasingly fractious percussion shows.
Kammermusik will be released on 10 April 2026 on Warp Records – and you can listen to K2, along with further releases from the album when announced, at the Squarepusher Bandcamp page below:
Newly available on the Fennesz Bandcamp site today is this ambient piece, previously released on Longform Editions.
Fennesz writes: “The piece was recorded in the last days of May 2024. I discarded my original concepts for this piece right after starting the work. This was partly due to the fact that I happened to listen to a piece by Roland S. Howard that day, who I consider one of the greatest guitarists. So, I started again with a blank canvas. I focused on the essential components and instruments that had defined my work so far: guitars, string instruments in general and samples thereof, as well as a few synthesizers with a particular focus on the now largely forgotten synthesis principle of physical modelling. Microtonality and the decay behaviour of strings were important to me. The piece, conceived as a sound installation, is meant to blend into everyday soundscapes and occasionally stand out. However, it can also be listened to at full volume on headphones.”
by Ben Hogwood, with text from the album press release
“British electronic music pioneers Graham Massey (founding member of Manchester legends 808 State) and Brian Dougans (the mind behind acid house milestone Humanoid and one half of The Future Sound Of London) join forces for their debut collaboration In Place Of Language, released on Belgian label De:tuned.
Both 808 State and Humanoid helped shape the UK’s early rave and acid house movement. Here, Massey and Dougans channel that legacy into a beautifully balanced four-track EP that radiates warmth and energy, drawing on more than three decades of experience in electronic music. Inspired by key elements of the ’89-91 era while embracing a contemporary edge, the duo merge their distinct sonic identities into a sound that feels both timeless and forward-looking.
In Place Of Language is not a nostalgia trip, but a natural evolution: a meeting point between foundation and future, and a blueprint for a new wave of electronic experimentation!”
The one track available to hear so far, Optica, is an effective blend of ambience and movement, with spacious keyboards given a good deal of percussion and synthesized squiggles for company. The rush of Balearic warmth at the end bodes well for the rest of the EP, bubbling with energy and movement.
Listen / Buy
Published post no.2,802 – Wednesday 18 February 2026
by Ben Hogwood, with text from the album press release
London artist kwes. returns with his new record Kinds, his first solo material in eight years; an evolutionary work of meditative, otherworldly minimalism, ambient, classical composition & shoegaze inspired by memory, colour and his kids, who also helped create the project’s artwork. As the world outside becomes noisier, this is a project that creates a space of tranquility and solace, while planting a flag in yet another new frontier of popular music.
Kinds will be released by Warp Records on Friday 27 February, and you can listen to the new single Black (Grey) below:
Made after a reset following a period of burn out – a period alleviated by a family holiday in a popular holiday resort – kwes. was inspired to make Kinds after an incident involving his daughter: “My oldest daughter was busy drawing and in the midst of it, she accidentally knocked over her glass of drink and it went all over her work. It frustrated her for a few seconds, then she was fine and started another one… That was the catalyst for me to start the record – to decompress, to ‘release’ life-experience: good, bad and everything in between – to ‘commit it to tape’ as succinctly as possible, without too much deliberation”.
First previewed at the Warp Happening event at the Barbican, Kinds is formed of tracks named after colours, a system of synaesthetic classification founded on three personal principles: “The first being in relation to kinds of thoughts and feelings I had felt while making them, personal reminders / colour-field coded memories in a way…secondly, so that listeners can experience the music how they want to, without much narrative, and thirdly, I simply just love colour.“
Kinds favours a subtle wall of sound that recalls Brian Eno, and Jon Hassell’s fourth world music but also the noise and drone work of The Caretaker and Tim Hecker. It’s an introspective piece made with his children in mind. This is kwes.’ most immersive work yet, where lone melodies are allowed to expand and contract into vivid soundscapes.
Kinds will be exclusively premiered at the Tate Modern, London as part of a multi-sensory presentation, in collaboration with artist Ryan Vautier. Alongside the premiere, the event will stage an intimate conversation with kwes., as well as artist DJ sets throughout the night. The record will also be available to purchase exclusively at the event.
In a recording career lasting more than 15 years, Kwes Seyhas remained a musical explorer who doesn’t use conventional coordinates to find his destination.
The Lewisham-raised artist’s ‘Meantime’ EP in 2012 on Warp was a showcase of his artistic vision with four tracks, including the hit single ‘Bashful’ and the enduring, beautifully fraught anthem ‘LGOYH – Let Go Of Your Hurt’, which appeared on the Rye Lane soundtrack over a decade later, this time featuring Sampha and Tirzah. His debut album ‘lp in 2013 went a step further, melding the poppier aspects of his production with noisier sound collages.
His ability predictably led to him becoming a sought after producer and collaborator. Damon Albarn, Solange Knowles, Loyle Carner, Bobby Womack, The xx, Mica Levi, Sampha, Tirzah, Kelela, Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard, Nubya Garcia, Rosie Lowe, Selah Sue, Black Coffee, Lucy Rose, as well as his brother Coby Sey have all called on his services in the studio. kwes. has also worked on film scores, providing the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed romantic comedy Rye Lane as well as the groundbreaking documentary Black Is Beautiful, about photographic artist and activist Kwame Brathwaite.
Craven Faults is proving to be a particularly fertile source of long-form instrumental music. Created by a single, anonymous hand, its pictorial approach leans on industry for inspiration but looks beyond that, creating an intriguing form of descriptive ambience. This has already been shown in double-length albums Erratics & Unconformities and Standers, and a number of EPs.
“The journey on Sidings isn’t made with people in mind. It begins in an isolated community which has built up around one of the great engineering projects of its age. The work is slow and perilous – thousands of men at the mercy of the elements. The ground is frozen or flooded for months on end, while red kites circle overhead. 14 tunnels and 22 viaducts to open up the north. The on-beat and the off-beat interchange. Recorded in 1969, Olympic Studios – a precursor to the ships we built.
We walk northeast in search of a distance marker. When it first comes into view, it looks similar to where we commenced our journey on ‘Bounds.’ The open moorland gives it away. This particular trip will take considerably longer, by foot and packhorse, before the land and power is redistributed by order of parliament. Just shy of fifteen minutes between 1952 and 1964 – from J&M Studio, New Orleans to the San Francisco Tape Music Centre. Rapid progress and consistently fertile ground.
As the sun rises, we make our way by road to a junction. There is a livestock market and an inn for travellers. It’s important to make the journey before the seasons change and this area becomes inaccessible. An idea almost lost in the mists of time – a West German prototype unearthed twelve years later. A little way due south, we arrive at another crossroads. We find a maestro labouring over his masterwork – Gold Star Studios, United Western Recorders, Columbia Studios and Capitol Studios. October 3rd, 1966 to November 20th, 1968. Inspired by the story of another community building the railways. The circle is complete and encompasses continents.
We continue south, hitching a ride on a finely turned-out cart. We help to unload the churns onto the platform and wait for the train to arrive. Our cargo will head east before switching tracks to be delivered into urban areas. Hundreds of thousands of gallons per year. The Black Ark, 1977.
From there we head north and west a little way and find ourselves near to where we began. Another temporary settlement built up along the line, where each chord occupies its own space. Wally Heider in 1967 and finished off at home a year later. Spikes driven into the frozen ground and the Kirkstall Forge hammer in the dead of night. Finding order in the chaos.
We strike a deal with the local farm and walk a thousand heads of cattle to market. The ground is heavy and it’s slow going – it will take the best part of a week. We stop to graze at Suma Recording Studio, 1978 and then Sunwest, 1969. We reach the end of our journey via a final rest stop – an enclosed field on the moor we hovered over on ‘Standers.’ 1858. An outgrown coda and proof that two chords will suffice. Three is a luxury. A radio enthusiast intercepts government secrets – Cargo Studios, 1980.
What’s the music like?
Once again, the music matches the story – and Sidings unfolds in subtle yet compelling form, finding a meditative sweet spot on Ganger that never lets up, with shimmering figures in the half-light above a supportive, broadly phrased drone.
The start of Stoneyman is initially like the summons of a bell, above a drum with an ominous tread, while Three Loaning End slows the tempo, with an oddly persuasive lilt. Incline is scattered with melodic fragments that have the quality of settling snow, again over the reassurance of a supportive bass drone. Far Closes, meanwhile, operates with a steadying kick drum pulse beneath subtly shifting figures.
Does it all work?
It does. This is an album to get thoroughly engrossed in, rewarding its listeners with vivid and captivating imagery.
Is it recommended?
Very much so. Craven Faults’ music is distinctive and forward looking, yet extremely conscious of its recent past. The blend is both fascinating and rewarding, becoming a form of 21st century English electronica with an uncanny awareness of its surroundings.
Arcana.fm 