GoGo Penguin released their first EP, Between Two Waves, on XXIM Records, marking a special chapter in their career. The project was recorded at the end of 2021 after the lockdown with a new band member, drummer Jon Scott, who joined pianist Chris Illingworth and bassist Nick Blacka.
The sessions took place at Peter Gabriel&#8217;s Real World Studios, where the band regrouped to explore new ideas and experiment after the challenging months.
&#8220;It was an incredibly meaningful moment for us to be together as a band along with our producers Joe and Brendan, sharing meals like family, enjoying drinks and jokes after long days of work and, most importantly, making music together after so long apart,&#8221; explains Chris Illingworth. 
The outcome of these sessions is the EP that takes inspiration from the duality found in the major events in human lives, leaving it to a listener to make its interpretation and create a unique emotional response.
&#8220;Over the last couple of years, the pandemic has affected everyone; it has brought us together and yet also divided and separated us. In the bands personal lives there has been cause for celebration with the birth of a son but also tragedy with the loss of loved ones. These moments can simultaneously make us feel both loved and isolated, fearful but confident, proud and humbled. For us, the feeling of Ascent is the journey through these experiences in life, always finding another unknown at the end but not something to be scared of, just something new to discover.&#8221;
Stream Between Two Waves <a class="editor-rtfLink" style="color: #000000;" href="https://gogopenguin.lnk.to/betweentwowavesLW" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

GoGo Penguin releases new EP Between Two Waves

German pianist and musician Moritz Fasbender presents her EP Rabbits on XXIM:EXPO series. Fasbender&#8217;s intense and compelling sound-world reflects her background in the theatre, her love of radio as a medium, and her affinity with nature. Classically trained, she merges the sound of her grand piano with field recordings and reverb effects, to create experimental electro-acoustic pieces. For this EP, which also features a collaboration track with the Berlin-based electronic trio, Brandt Brauer Frick, she places both the piano and the Prophet synthesizer center stage. 
&#8220;I always start from an atmosphere, a state, rather than from a concrete idea or specific melody. I am more interested in textures and associations than formulated stories. Sometimes intuitively, sometimes explicitly, I&#8217;m looking for sounds that, in their combination, might raise an eyebrow,&#8221; she explaines.
This EP is the fourth in the EXPO series and follows Hideyuki Hashimoto&#8217;s recent EP Fractals, ABBOTT&#8217;s Unfold, and Paddy Mulcahy&#8217;s Tidal Oscillations.
Stream Rabbits <a class="editor-rtfLink" style="color: #000000;" href="https://XXIM.lnk.to/rabbitsLW" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Moritz Fasbender releases her new EP Rabbits (XXIM:EXPO #4)

The Irish composer and producer will share his first full project on XXIM Records this summer. The album Angel&#8217;s Share is dedicated to his late father and as Paddy explains, it represents “my way of coping with the 18 months following our loss, whilst handling a career during a global pandemic, and trying to get back to normality.” 
Thomas Street is the first single off the album: &#8220;This track is a musical love letter to the street on which I live in Limerick City. The intro synth part was written on a MicroFreak synthesizer on my living room floor. The instruments that follow create a lovely warm atmosphere that I instantly fell in love with. A special mention must go to my guest musicians Myles and Gareth who provided the drums and violin. The presence of live instruments really brought the track to life. This was explored a lot more throughout the album.” 
Stream Thomas Street  <a style="color: #000000;" href="https://paddymulcahy.lnk.to/angelsshareLW">here</a>.

Paddy Mulcahy announces new album Angel’s Share

Olivia Belli returns to the material of her album Sol Novo and presents the new concept EP Somnio Novo. The EP includes for new solo piano works, all of them different variations on Visions To Come, the first single from the album. &#8220;It’s the beating heart of Sol Novo because I was trying to find positivity in the strange, terrible moments we were living through with Covid, and a vision that the future could be better – for humanity and for nature.&#8221;
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&#8220;When I finished Sol Novo, I realised I had missed the beauty of the light at night – the moon and the stars,&#8221; she explains. &#8220;I wanted to explore these colours and ask: &#8216;What is the colour of the nocturnal? What happens after sunset?'&#8221;
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The EP was also a chance for Belli to explore the concept of dreaming and the link between daydreams and the more abstract dreams of our sleep. &#8220;David Lynch always talks about developing the ability to daydream – of letting your mind be free and reacting to everything around you,” she says. &#8220;Somnio Novo is the idea of this kind of dream, but at night, and a desire to seek out this dreaming energy. I need this energy myself as much as possible – so I’m trying to find it everywhere.&#8221;
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After developing all the possibilities and potential of Visions To Come&#8216;s melody, Belli settled on four versions – the ones most connected to night-time and to dreams. She also took inspiration from one of the greatest Romantic piano composers – Frédéric Chopin. &#8220;I thought: &#8216;Who is the best pianist poet of the night?'&#8221; says Belli. &#8220;It&#8217;s Chopin. So I said to myself: &#8216;If I were Chopin, what would I do?&#8217; And I tried to write using some of the same forms: Nocturnes, Impromptus, and Préludes.&#8221;
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The EP includes first-ever remixes of her work – label mates Hugar and Ed Carlsen, alongside American ambient composer Slow Meadow, reworked further tracks from Sol Novo. The artists were given total freedom to choose the song, and to rework it as they saw fit – &#8220;I wanted them to be as free as possible,&#8221; says Belli.
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Stream Somnio Novo  <a style="color: #000000;" href="https://OliviaBelli.lnk.to/somnionovoLW">here</a>.

Olivia Belli releases new EP Somnio Novo

Out now are Ed Carlsen&#8217;s and Hugar&#8217;s takes on Francesco Tristano&#8217;s tracks from the album On Early Music. A classical and contemporary pianist and composer from Luxembourg released his record earlier this year, a return to what he calls his first love – early music. &#8220;I grew up listening to a lot of early music,” he says. &#8220;So it&#8217;s always been with me.&#8221;
Ed Carlsen&#8217;s remix of the track Ritornello adds the electronic textures to Tristano&#8217;s original piano composition. Listen <a style="color: #000000;" href="https://FrancescoTristano.lnk.to/ritornelloLW">here</a>.
Hugar have reworked the single Aria for RS using a combination of synthesizers to create a glowing, ethereal texture. Listen <a style="color: #000000;" href="https://FrancescoTristano.lnk.to/ariaforrsLW">here</a>.

Ed Carlsen and Hugar remixed Francesco Tristano’s music

GoGo Penguin today released a new single, Badeep, as an announcement of their EP Between Two Waves.
&#8220;With this track we were inspired by the idea of taking the listener on a journey. Badeep starts and ends with the same simple synth pattern but through the journey you finally arrive somewhere which feels both familiar and alien at the same time.&#8221; — GoGo Penguin on making Badeep
With their new member and drummer, Jon Scott, the newly formed trio recorded the EP in Real World studios in a quiet setting surrounded by countryside. Chris Illingworth, the band&#8217;s pianist, notes: &#8220;It was just what we all needed at the end of a tough year and a great start to the new chapter with Jon.&#8221;
Stream <a style="color: #000000;" href="https://gogopenguin.lnk.to/betweentwowavesLW">here</a>.

GoGo Penguin announces new EP Between Two Waves

For our first anniversary and Record Store Day, we present XXIM:SOUNDS, a limited-edition crystal-clear vinyl compilation.
Find it in your local record store or order <a style="color: #000000;" href="https://XXIM.lnk.to/soundsvinylLW">here</a>.
SIDE A
<ol class="styles__List-sc-82dxh8-2 kTlPJN">
<li class="styles__ListItem-sc-82dxh8-3 ljtkcu">Ed Carlsen &#8211; Satori by the Sea</li>
<li class="styles__ListItem-sc-82dxh8-3 ljtkcu">Olivia Belli &#8211; As I Was</li>
<li class="styles__ListItem-sc-82dxh8-3 ljtkcu">Eydís Evensen &#8211; Fyrir Mikael</li>
<li class="styles__ListItem-sc-82dxh8-3 ljtkcu">Hugar &#8211; volt</li>
<li class="styles__ListItem-sc-82dxh8-3 ljtkcu">Uèle Lamore &#8211; The Dark</li>
<li class="styles__ListItem-sc-82dxh8-3 ljtkcu">Stimming x Lambert &#8211; Glühwürmchen</li>
</ol>
SIDE B 
<ol class="styles__List-sc-82dxh8-2 kTlPJN">
<li>Stimming x Lambert &#8211; Deteketei Lambert</li>
<li class="styles__ListItem-sc-82dxh8-3 ljtkcu">Eydís Evensen &#8211; Brotin</li>
<li class="styles__ListItem-sc-82dxh8-3 ljtkcu">Paddy Mulcahy &#8211; A Dream, A Sequence</li>
<li class="styles__ListItem-sc-82dxh8-3 ljtkcu">Uèle Lamore &#8211; Breathe</li>
<li class="styles__ListItem-sc-82dxh8-3 ljtkcu">Ed Carlsen &#8211; Drawn Ashore</li>
<li class="styles__ListItem-sc-82dxh8-3 ljtkcu">Hugar &#8211; Vísur Vatnsenda-Rósu</li>
<li class="styles__ListItem-sc-82dxh8-3 ljtkcu">Olivia Belli &#8211; The Light Endures</li>
</ol>

XXIM:SOUNDS vinyl compilation out on Record Store Day

XXIM:EXPO is our exploratory series for outstanding young talents from across the whole spectrum of progressive instrumental music. Each instalment is given to one artist to curate his or her own ideal EP, sharing their own unique musical vision. With XXIM:EXPO we want to give young artists a platform, while mapping out all areas and developments of our wide area of music. 

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