Tag Archives: Mercury KX

New Music – Various Artists: Pioneers (Mercury KX)

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by Ben Hogwood, with text lifted from the press release

On Friday, London imprint Mercury KX announced Pioneers, a collaborative album honouring the radical women and gender-expansive artists who reshaped the language of electronic music. Inspired by the landmark documentary Sisters with Transistors, the project brings together a new generation of composers, producers and sonic experimenters to celebrate electronic music’s unsung heroines, not through imitation but through continuation.

Released across two digital chapters this spring, Pioneers forms a living lineage. Twelve new works respond to figures who transformed tape, voltage, voice and performance into tools of liberation.

Side A arrived on Friday 27th March, opening in a state of expanded awareness. You can listen on YouTube music

Arushi Jain’s No Way Back (for Pauline Oliveros) draws from the philosophy of Pauline Oliveros and her practice of Deep Listening. Composed in Raga Bhairav and structured around sustained vocal tones and modular synthesis, the piece treats listening itself as irreversible transformation. Once heard deeply, there is no way back.

Loraine James’ On Time (for Björk) stretches rhythm and atmosphere in tribute to Björk’s boundary-dissolving approach to composition, where digital texture and emotional intensity coexist in constant motion.

For Hand Movements (for Clara Rockmore), Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith honours theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore, whose invisible gestures shaped one of electronic music’s earliest instruments. Smith channels Rockmore’s balance of engineering precision and hypnotic expressiveness through fluid modular synthesis, tracing motion through voltage. 

rRoxymore & Leila Adu summon the avant-pop authority of Grace Jones on I Have Seen That Grace Before. Drawing inspiration from the long-form drama of Slave to the Rhythm, their transcontinental collaboration blurs ambient psychedelia, undulating groove and vocal dualities, reflecting Jones’ fearless negotiation of gender, genre and performance.

On Wind Bathing (for Laurie Anderson), Holland Andrews & yuniya edi kwon transform intimate ephemera into euphoric devotion. Inspired by the singular world-building of Laurie Anderson, the track began with secret violin recordings and love letters before unfolding into something unexpectedly radiant. Intimacy becomes propulsion.

Closing Side A, TAAHLIAH’s Starlight (for Suzanne Ciani) refracts the shimmering architectures of Suzanne Ciani, particularly the romantic synthesiser classic Velocity of Love, into a contemporary meditation where new-age luminosity meets modern electronic form.

Side B, released Friday 17th April, moves deeper into electronic architecture and sonic myth.

Hinako Omori’s You found the allotment (for Delia Derbyshire) pays tribute to Delia Derbyshire’s tape-loop alchemy and mathematical imagination. Built from Moog synthesisers, granulated vocals and analogue tape recording, the track mirrors Derbyshire’s meticulous collage techniques, plotting sound with careful intention.

Kate Simko & Lara Somogyi turn toward the ambient universe of Wendy Carlos on Analog Season. Inspired by Sonic Seasonings and Digital Moonscapes, harp recordings are processed, sampled and re-synthesised into a shared landscape of analogue warmth and microtonal drift, entering into dialogue with Carlos’ expansive and often overlooked ambient work beyond Switched-On Bach.

Footwork innovator Jlin invokes the defiant glamour and rhythmic magnetism of Eartha Kitt on Earth A God, a tribute to performance as power and presence as percussion.

Laurel Halo’s Les Sirènes (for Éliane Radigue) echoes the slow-burning minimalism of Éliane Radigue, embracing sustained tone and psychoacoustic depth where sound becomes environment rather than event.

The album closes with AFRODEUTSCHE’s I See You (for Daphne Oram & Gertrud Grunow), drawing on the philosophies of Daphne Oram and Bauhaus theorist Gertrud Grunow. Created using the Mini Oramics system, the track blends subtle electronics with childlike wonder, offering a meditation on visibility, care and the unseen.

Celebrated for championing boundary-breaking artists, Mercury KX is home to acclaimed composers and innovative musicians such as DJ ANNA, Isobel Waller-Bridge, Ólafur Arnalds, LUXE and Erland Cooper, among many others. The label champions genre-defying, multi-disciplinary artists and curates immersive audio-visual worlds spanning electronic, modern classical, cinematic, alternative and ambient music. With Pioneers, Mercury KX continues that vision, foregrounding work that expands both form and perception.

From early theremin stages to tape machines, from Bauhaus theory to the San Francisco Tape Music Center, from ambient’s outer edges to contemporary club futurism, Pioneers reframes influence as active transmission.

These works do not simply honour the past: they extend its circuitry. Electronic music has always been shaped by women whose innovations were foundational yet often overlooked. Pioneers makes that lineage audible as living voltage.

Tracklisting:

Friday 27th March [Side A – Digital Release]

Side A
A1 Arushi Jain: No Way Back (for Pauline Oliveros)
A2 Loraine James: On Time (for Bjork)
A3 Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith: Hand Movements (for Clara Rockmore)
A4 rRoxymore & Leila Adu: I Have Seen That Grace Before (for Grace Jones)
A5 Holland Andrews & yuniya edi kwon: Wind Bathing (for Laurie Anderson)
A6 TAAHLIAH: Starlight (for Suzanne Ciani)

Friday 17th April [Side B – Digital Release]

Side B
B1 – Hinako Omori: You found the allotment (for Delia Derbyshire)
B2 – Kate Simko & Lara Somogyi: Analog Season (for Wendy Carlos)
B3 – JLin: Earth A God (for Eartha Kitt)
B4 – Laurel Halo: Les Sirènes (for Éliane Radigue)
B5 – AFRODEUTSCHE: I See you (for Daphne Oram & Gertrud Grunow)

Published post no.2,841 – Sunday 29 March 2026

New music – Isobel Waller-Bridge – Objects (Mercury KX)

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by Ben Hogwood, from the press release

Objects is the new solo album from Isobel Waller-Bridge, out today on Mercury KX. An act of radical stillness, written over four years in the rare quiet moments her career allowed, the album draws from the philosophies of Pauline Oliveros and the experimental radicalism of Stockhausen. Mining sounds from her surroundings and filtering them through minimalism and musique concrète, Waller-Bridge finds music within everyday materials — a ball, a shoe, a cushion, a pane of glass — each becoming a conduit for tenderness and attention. Calling upon trusted collaborator Jonny Woodley, in addition to renowned mastering engineer Heba Kadry (Björk, Ryuichi Sakamoto, John Cale) and mixing engineer James Ginzberg (Lyra Pramuk, Laurel Halo, Anja Lauvdal), Waller-Bridge assembled a team of fellow Deep Listening enthusiasts to bring ‘Objects’ to life.

Stillness is a form of presence that transcends motion – and stillness was something Waller-Bridge did not have. Leading the vanguard of a new wave of composers writing beyond the margins, her scores have become highly sought after because they extend beyond atmosphere and into the realm of psychological portraiture. The unspoken tensions and desires beneath the skin of her subjects colour her worlds: the neurotic gravity behind Munich: The Edge of War, the electronic curdle of Sweetpea, the swooning pastiche of Emma, the hellbent screech of self-destruction on Fleabag, and the BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse.

Now, with ‘Objects’, Waller-Bridge has turned that gaze inward. Where her 2022 album ‘VIII’ articulated a tormented mind’s undoing, ‘Objects’ is an act of radical stillness. It confers beauty on things the pace of our lives has taught us to ignore, inviting us to listen not as an objective experience, but as a personal and mysterious response to the world.

“These pieces are simple, strange, and lovingly handmade – oddities that feel to me like small miracles,” Waller-Bridge shares. “They reflect how I move through the world: with curiosity, with slowness, and with an openness to the unexpected music in everything. This album isn’t about performance, it’s about presence.”

An acclaimed collaborator in her own right, Waller-Bridge’s recent commissions include 2024’s original work for the American Ballet Theatre for their new production of ‘Crime and Punishment’ alongside ‘Temperatures’ for the Philharmonia Orchestra, which premiered at the Royal Festival Hall in November 2021. She has also collaborated with fashion houses Alexander McQueen and Simone Rocha, scored installations at Frieze London and Venice Biennale, and partnered with Francesca Hayward, principal ballerina at the Royal Opera House, for her dance film ‘Siren.’

Waller-Bridge reflects, “Whether it’s a film, a ballet, or a record, each project feels like a new language of self-expression, this album taught me that exploration is endless — and for me, there’s a deep peace in that thought.”

Objects is out via Mercury KX. CD and vinyl releases are set to release January 23, 2026. You can listen below:

Published post no.2,739 – Friday 5 December 2025

On Record – Erland Cooper: Carve The Runes Then Be Content With Silence (Mercury KX)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

This is no ordinary album. In 2021, having made a recording of his new extended work for violin and string orchestra, Erland Cooper destroyed all digital evidence of its existence, then buried the sole surviving analogue tape in the Orkney soil. The significance of his decision to return the recording to earth lay in its subject matter, for Carve The Runes was written to mark the centenary of Orcadian poet George Mackay Brown. Cooper grew up near Brown’s house, and his voice could be heard on the new recording, giving it a keen sense of time and location.

In 2022, the surviving tape was found, exhumed and restored, the surviving recording transferred – warts and all – to digital. Bearing the indelible imprint of the Orkney soil, it was now a historical relic, and we hear the very earth on the retouched recording, carefully restored and timed for the September equinox.

What’s the music like?

Cooper’s most substantial piece yet is effectively a concerto, beautifully essayed by violinist Daniel Pioro, with support from the Studio Collective. It is bisected by timely interventions from Mackay Brown, his profound verses matched by the intensity of the writing for strings. Pioro commands the piece, which is based on small, folk-based motifs, but grows to become a work of intense meaning.

The earth makes its contribution too, though the music is actually incredibly well preserved. When there are layers of distortion, or the music becomes muffled, the effect is akin to hearing a piece of old vinyl, and creates moments of charm and ruffled appeal.

This is open air music, the violin on the wing for much of the half-hour duration, while the strings – often earthbound – provided an anchor of musical surety and poise.

Does it all work?

It does. Cooper has the measure of this work’s structure, and it peaks at just the right spot – with a phrase whose telling melodic turn burns into the consciousness. It is an ambitious piece, but one that works..

Is it recommended?

It certainly is. Carve The Runes…is a remarkable document of time and place, and with Mackay Brown’s verses it has a great deal of profound meaning within its confines. It is Erland Cooper’s finest work to date, offering further evidence of his ability to communicate through pictorial music – in the way the best classical music can.

For fans of… Max Richter, Olafur Arnalds, Hauschka, Thomas Newman

Listen and Buy

You can explore purchase options at the Mercury KX shop, and you can listen on Tidal below:

Published post no.2,310 – Monday 23 September 2024

On Record – Jeremiah Fraites: Piano Piano 2 (Mercury KX / Dualtone Records)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

The Lumineers co-founder Jeremiah Fraites has poured a great deal of his soul into Piano Piano 2 – which, as its name suggests, is his second piano album. Whereas its predecessor was a set of relatively minimal compositions, the sequel has added textures, including strings, guitar, percussion and widescreen textural effects.

Extra Life, one of the single releases, was released in the wake of Fraites losing his father Joel, and has taken on a great deal of personal significance.

What’s the music like?

Fraites certainly keeps the music flowing on this album, using a number of different pianos as he strives for different colours and effects. Perhaps as a result of that Piano Piano 2 does have a greater reliance on texture rather than melody, and it is an outpouring of emotions, a stripping away of layers to get to the core.

Yet ironically it is when Fraites reduces the textures that the music has greatest impact. Pluck is an effective and thoughtful meditation, while the descriptive Snow Falling gives that lovely impression of being indoors, nose pressed up to the window pane, while the snow falls outside.

Extra Life is indeed a powerful track, with a beautiful viola solo to counter the piano work. The album finishes with a guest vocal from Gregory Alan Isakov, a version of Radiohead’s No Surprises that adds a good deal of extra music to the simple dressing of the original. The gospel-like harmonies at the end do rather swamp the vocal, though Isakov does hold his poise.

Does it all work?

Largely – though on occasion it does feel as though too much is going on, the listener swimming against a particularly strong current. Fraites, however, digs deep emotionally in his piano playing, and that comes across to the listener.

Is it recommended?

If you liked the soundtrack Michael Nyman wrote for The Piano, Fraites’s music is a logical next step – for he plays with similar energy and feeling. Yet it is when he takes a step back that the listener can feel closer to his true musical soul.

For fans of… Michael Nyman, Erik Satie, Ludovico Einaudi

Listen and Buy

Published post no.2,149 – Monday 15 April 2024

New music – Erland Cooper: Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence (Mercury KX)

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by Ben Hogwood

The story behind Erland Cooper’s new work Carve The Runes Then Be Content With Silence is by no means an ordinary one – it is a deeply personal document.

On his website, Cooper himself describes the work as “a meditation on value, patience and time, as well as the often disposable nature of music. It seems fitting to me that the tape will slowly return and dry out between Orkney and London, in those safe havens of record shops that bring value to mine and my peers’ work.”

Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence will be released on the Autumn equinox, 20th September 2024, following its premiere live at The Barbican in London on 8th June. This first public reveal comes 3 years after the only master tape was planted deep in the soil of the Scottish Highlands and Islands of Orkney and all digital copies were deleted. It will be released exactly as it sounds from the earth. The recording is Cooper’s new three-movement work for solo violin and string ensemble.

After digitisation, the composer will complete the score for live performance as a true collaboration with the natural world. The piece was written to mark the centenary of celebrated Orcadian poet George Mackay Brown, as 2021 marked 100 years since his birth.

Inspired by natural landscapes and ruminating on time, hope, community and patience, the sole recording of the work – on ¼ inch magnetic tape, with the digital files permanently deleted – was planted, to grow and be nurtured or “recomposed” by the earth, before being exhumed and released. A treasure hunt of clues was slowly revealed by the composer every equinox period for fans and his record label alike to search for it if they so wished. In three years, if not found, the composer would return to dig it up himself.

In late 2022, the tape was found on a hunt by Victoria and Dan Rhodes. The album will now be digitised on the spring equinox in a special ceremony captured on film and released, exactly as it sounds from the earth, with nature having collaborated in the compositional process. The final score will then be completed and performed by live musicians at special concerts scheduled across the UK, Europe and America.

You can explore purchase options for the limited edition vinyl release of Carve The Runes Then Be Content With Silence on the Mercury KX website

Published post no.2,124 – Thursday 21 March 2024