Charlou Stephen
In Praise Of Nothing

Stoned Pilot continues his flight with the second leg of his collaborative journey! This time, Shonky welcomes Italian producer and friend Giammarco Orsini into his studio, resulting in 4 tracks that merge together the dreamy and driving influences of the two artists, always with a rich presence of analog synths and drum-machines.

Suns of Arqa is a sonic mission created by luminary Michael Wadada, who began in 1979 after receiving higher guidance in Jamaica while working with roots reggae chanter Prince Far-I. It is a prolific traveling music collective that has seen over 200 collaborators, meant to connect people from all cultures and walks of life through a “deeply spiritual vibration that merges cultures, faiths and musical genres”. Wadada combines ancient Hindustani raga systems with Piobaireachd and Nyabinghi roots drumming, creating ritualistic world music infused with dub and reggae. The lyrics combine both mystical and sensory elements, often including prayer and referencing a higher power but finding root in experiences common to all people- memory,sight, and physical sensation.Their first album, Revenge of the Mozabites, was a collaboration between Wadada and On-U Sound creator Adrian Sherwood. Following its 1980 release, Peter Gabriel invited them to perform at the first WOMAD festival. Today, the record is regarded by some as a cult classic. Over the years they have played at many major music festivals including Glastonbury, Big Chill, Telerama Dub Festival, and Transmusicales, and released over 40 albums on Virgin, EMI, Interchill Records, Antler Subway, Red Rhino, and their own label, Arka Sound.Suns of Arqa has had a seminal influence on the World Beat sound, and continued to make appearances at seasonal festivals and sacred ritual spaces all over the world until 2021. Michael Wadada passed away in the midst of planning their U.S. tour for this release. The record is a compilation of some of Wadada’s and Sleepers Record’s favorite old Sun of Arqa tracks, mixed by Youth and Adrian Sherwood, and mastered by Eroc (drummer of Grobshnitt). Notable collaborating artists include: Guy Called Gerald, UK producers Youth and John Leckie, Greg Hunter, 808 State's Graham Massey, Finley Quaye,Sounds From the Ground, Bryn Jones aka MuslimGauze, Adrian Sherwood, John Cooper-Clarke, The late great Professor Stanley Unwin, Eric Random, New ageguru Tim Wheater, Astralasia, Prince Far-I, The Orb's Alex Patterson, Zion Train, and Gaudi."And although the Great Spiritual being Michael Wadada has returned to source and his body to earth at our time, his music is alive and will continue to be a great force for higher spiritual realms and raising vibrationthrough occult frequencies...Suns of Arqa will continue to raise the vibration of the hearts and minds of humanity" – Angela aka Angel-Eye (Wadada's wife and bandmate)

Resurfacing with their anticipated second iteration in a few months time, newly-launched Amsterdam platform One Eye Witness turns in a versatile second VA featuring the many flavoured likes of Robert Dietz, Z@p, Kasper Marott and New Members. Showcasing the label’s tireless search for new horizons and intrinsic lack of musical ideology, this new EP highlights talents whose shared ambition is to write the future of club music.Berlin’s Robert Dietz serves up the first salvo, “EMQU EMJAY”, a lush and bouncy electro jam doing the splits between UK step, seaswept house and post-Rephlexian, Eastern-infused electronica. Reaching for much darker places, Z@p’s “YFM” pulls out an enslaving Knight Rider kind of nocturnal vibe, full with a powerhouse bass and mesmeric swing to keep dancers on their toes from start to finish. Gutsy, psy-op-ready material for when the lights shut off for good and club pressure raises up to suffocating levels.Danish producer Kasper Marott is next with the swirling “Bleep”, cutting a path of doped-up, funky exhilaration across the dance floor. Drawing in a raging pool of acid and 8-bit tropes, Marott boasts unmatched skills when it comes to harnessing hella hectic solar-powered grooves. Pear affiliate New Members punches in last with “The Dink” - a hybrid dub slab joining the dots betwixt liquid jungle, fun-loving house and more out-there acid, reminiscent of Wink’s most hair-raising momentums but with a further breaks-luvin’ twist to it.

For his debut album, Tochigi Canopy has been building the melancholic, spleen-full life's perfect soundtrack. At first listen, we already feel his obsession for details and his love for deep atmospheres, he fills our mind with images, moments, slices of nostalgia where summers last only for seconds. An absolut must-have.

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