Year: 2026

Thinking about releasing an album? Wait. Read this first.

by Ken Newman


There is an overwhelming flood of music being released every day now. Thousands of songs hit streaming platforms constantly, and even strong records can vanish under that weight. You can spend years writing and recording an album, only to discover that the release window lasts about two weeks before the internet moves on.

That realization hit me while I was standing in my storage area, looking at shelves sagging beneath boxes of vinyl.

Two released albums. A lot of records. Not nearly enough buyers.

Like many musicians, I had taken the album approach. I had even taken the vinyl step. I co-produced Blanket the Homeless, a project I remain deeply proud of, which helped support the San Francisco charity I founded by the same name. After that, I released my solo album, What Am I Afraid Of?

Both albums meant a great deal to me. Both required significant time, money, faith, and energy. People connected with certain songs. We sold some copies. And then, like so much independent music now, they disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived.

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Honest Thoughts on the Past that had Lead to Now and Never.

by A.J. Kaufmann



My first solo cassette was recorded in 1998. It was awful. I had some good ideas for a kid, but no talent at all, maybe except a knack for lyrics, and a bit of a gift for classical guitar and bass, definitely not for singing. I was also interested in much different music than most people my age in Poland back then. That’s why it took 4 years to form my first band in 2002. To take the shortcut, it took 9 more years to release my studio debut album “Second Hand Man”. In 2012, I started Sauer Adler, my second real band. And to take the shortcut again, in 2022, I formed Psychedelic Mayhem, and in 2024, I formed Bezkwit. Along the way, I also jammed, recorded, played, composed, and improvised whenever and wherever possible, with whoever was available at the time. That, through many shortcuts, takes us directly into the once-very-futuristic year 2026 (certainly around 1998).

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On The Spur Of The Moment

by Hugo Espírito Santo

têmpora - hugo espirito santo


Dissipation, flow, forces in flux. With têmpora, I dive back into my musical universe, taking listeners on a journey through dark, gloomy electronic soundscapes. têmpora explores the idea of fluidity and stillness in motion, while being deeply influenced by ambient, minimalist, and concrete music.

This new project, mostly instrumental, is the result of 12 months of experimentation with synths and sound collage. The ethereal atmospheres and soundscapes serve as a representation of the abstract, non-linear forms that constitute the core of the artist’s usual visual work. têmpora follows the raw ideas and textures of my previous project, debris (ep, 2024).

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String Decay: Inside “CrIspP,” My Collaborative EP with Aymantium

by treeholder


Music is often perceived as an act of pure creation. However, for our new collaborative EP CrIspP, my partner Aymantium and I wanted to explore the primal beauty of decay. The central concept underlying the entire release is dark, surreal, and provocative: the decaying body of Jimi Hendrix. It serves as a metaphor for the disintegration of traditional guitar-driven rock music, left to decompose and mutate into a chaotic electronic ecosystem. To bring this vision to life, I took Aymantium’s original tracks and completely turned them on their heads. I pulled apart the seams of his arrangements until his guitar work literally turned to dust, assembling these sonic particles into something utterly alien, fluid, and heavy.

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Finding a New Beginning in the Silence of a Good Goodbye

by AEUNA

AEUNA - Light


Writing Light felt like a silent eye opener for me. The kind that doesn’t announce itself but lands softly. It came right before I was about to fully jump into a new beginning, letting go. Not a dramatic revelation. Just a quiet, honest look at what I was leaving behind, and what I was choosing to carry forward.

I’m AEUNA (pronounced ay-yu-nuh), an independent singer-songwriter and producer from Cebu, Philippines. On April 24, I’m releasing my new single, Light.

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When Meaning Isn’t Linear

by Sydney J

Sydney J


Hi, I’m Sydney J, an indie-folk artist based in Manhattan, New York. I’ve been writing songs for as long as I can remember, but in 2025, my approach to songwriting began to shift. I became more interested in creating something open-ended, less like a straightforward retelling of events, and more like a space where multiple emotions and experiences could exist at once.

That shift is what led me to create my most popular song, “but so close!”.

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The importance of magic –
Creating space for the extraordinary is an art form

by France de Griessen

Photo by Catherine James


“There is a place in the heart that/ will never be filled / a space / and even during / the best moments / and / the greatest times.” Charles Bukowski (You get so alone at times that it just makes sense)

The universe is full of magical things and insightful signs.

However, like the sun is sometimes completely out of sight, hidden behind the thickest winter fog and grey skies, it can be hard to connect with it when going through certain moments or chapters of our lives. Magic can seem out of reach or, worse, forever gone.

How I experience the world and everyday life is a rare and precious gift I am very grateful for. It also comes with frequently struggling with finding balance and peace.

I have so much joy to share and so much darkness in me that I still wonder how can these two coexist with such intensity within the same person? And what to do with such parameters?

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