After touring and gigging relentlessly all over the world, Mathieu Vandekerckhove (also Amenra, Kingdom, Sembler Deah) locked himself in to compose the follow-up to the introspective journey that was 2012’s universally acclaimed masterpiece “Now and Forever”. The brand new album follows the same path of meditative drones and deep and subtle melodies, blurring lines between ambient and postrock music.

The journey that “Now and Forever” started is on “Forever and a Day" explored in more intricate depth, with layer upon layer of mesmerizing aural waves that floods and grabs its audience. The subtle but distinct contribution of Dehn Sora (Treha Sektori, Sembler Deah, Ovtrenoir) adds to the overall direction of the album, with melancholic and pensive moods being entangled with a sense of longing, aspiration and belief. “Forever and a Day” is another milestone in Vandekerckhove’s oeuvre.

“Now and Forever” was a dialogue between a father and his son -- as the title of the new album suggests -- the bloodline is continued on “Forever and a Day”, with a dialogue between a son and his father.

The cover art depicts a sculpture made by Syndrome’s Mathieu Vandekerckhove’s father. The sculpture was made around the time Vandekerckhove was born, and it was prominently on display in the family’s living room.

It literally was a centerpiece in the young and adolescent life of Vandekerckhove, with him growing up in constant proximity of the sculpture. Now in his adult life, the sculpture becomes the centerpiece of his musical development.

The bronze sculpture not only resonates with Vandekerckhove’s past, present, and future; it also perfectly connects with the musical story he tries to convey: the work of art has no limbs, but only a torso and a head with no eyes. Despite it being a motionless entity, it emanates a lot of force. However, that force is caged in the prison of its own body. It knows no freedom, there’s a constant notion of absence, a dark and brooding void; sorrow, bereavement and grief.

It’s adamantly clear that to Vandekerckhove the image is much more than a decorative ornament; it depicts his coming of age — both musically, but also on a deeply personal level, confirming the journey we’re invited to partake in come September will be a spiritually profound one.

Following the release of their album ‘You Know Who You Are’ earlier this year, New York-based Nada Surf are set to release a new live album entitled ‘Peaceful Ghosts (Live with Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg)’, which is due out Oct 28th via City Slang.

‘Peaceful Ghosts’ came about after front man Matthew Caws received a surprise email asking about a potential collaborative project from FM4. A little over a year later, the result is a beautiful record, showcasing a completely new side to the alt-rock four-piece. The depth added by the orchestra only strengthens the power and majesty of Nada Surf’s recognisable sound. ‘Peaceful Ghosts’ was recorded across two live performances in Vienna & Potsdam and the ‘Out of the Dark’ video is a montage of photos taken during part of the album’s recording in Vienna.

In the summer of 2015, Matthew Caws – the singer/guitarist of Nada Surf – was sitting at his kitchen table in Brooklyn frantically writing what would become Nada Surf’s seventh album, the critically acclaimed You Know Who You Are (2016), when an email arrived that would delight and terrify him. Once a year, FM4 in Austria chooses an artist for a national orchestral concert that’s broadcast across the country, and they reached out to Nada Surf asking if the band would like to be the next. Soon after receiving the FM4 request, the band secured a similar offer from Radio Eins in Berlin to perform live on air with the Babelsberg Film Orchestra, which derives its name from and is affiliated with the legendary Babelsberg Studios where notable films such as Metropolis,Dr. Mabuse and The Blue Angel were made.

“If we said yes, we'd have to choose a composer to write the parts and then decide which songs he or she should write for. We'd have to decide these things soon. Well, that was out of the question,” recalled Caws. “Deciding what kind of Thai curry take-away I should get that evening was about as distant a decision as I could imagine, while the small matters of which songs would go on the new Nada Surf record, who would mix them, what the album would be called and what the final verse of the song I was working on right then would be, loomed ahead. I would try and answer these questions after that curry, but making decisions about a concert months later was more than I could handle.”

Instead of passing up the opportunities Nada Surf asked their good friend, multi-instrumentalist Martin Wenk, whose own band Calexico had done the FM4 Vienna Radio Symphony concert in 2013, to oversee the details with composer Max Knuth, while the band focused on putting the finishing touches on You Know Who You Are. For those of us unable to make it to Europe in June 2016 to listen to the fruits of this collaboration either in-person or over the airwaves, the band is making it available now with their album Peaceful Ghosts.

On Peaceful Ghosts, the orchestrations cover a broad stylistic range, James Bond at one extreme and joy and wonder of Walt Disney at the other, with a whole range of surprises in between. Classics such as the delicate melancholy of “Blonde On Blonde” unfold to surprising new places with soaring countermelodies, while new favorites from You Know Who You Are, including “Rushing” and “Out of the Dark”, showcase the power and majesty of the original without losing the lyrical and musical subtlety that has become the hallmark of Nada Surf for the past twenty years.

Soon MISSION E.D.E.N will be released, the new album from N.E.O.: the band that is formed by Ashley Dayour and Artaud Seth.

We can already offer you a first track!

On 8 April 2017 the fifth anniversary of Coalescaremonium takes place, and for this edition they could use some help. A few days ago they launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to make the next edition of their event as good as possible. Come and have a look!

On 8 October a support party at RIC's art boat is organized where the full program for next year’s Coalescaremonium will be revealed. The setting offers two dance floors ensuring a whole night of fun and dancing amongst your favourite people!

Tickets for the party as well as for April are now exclusively available through Indiegogo, and special perks will be revealed each week.
This will hopefully help their event.

www.indiegogo.com/projects/coalescaremonium-2017-music-fashion

Depeche Mode's Video Singles Collection--the definitive 3DVD library anthology containing more than four hours of the post-punk pioneers' groundbreaking music videos (and two-plus hours of audio commentary)--will be released worldwide by SONY Music Entertainment on November 11, 2016.

Video Singles Collection is the first official Depeche Mode archival title to be released under the SONY imprimatur since SME acquired rights to the DM catalog in July 2015.

"We're pleased and honored to be releasing Depeche Mode's Video Singles Collection, an essential addition to the band's recently licensed catalog documenting their lasting contributions to music video history," said Richard Story, President Commercial Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment.

The 3DVD set presents more than three decades worth of Depeche Mode's international hit singles as lensed for the group's mind-blowing progression of innovative and provocative music videos directed by a who's who of cinematic visionaries including Julien Temple, Anton Corbijn, D.A. Pennebaker, John Hillcoat and others.

Throughout Depeche Mode's career, the group has placed an essential emphasis on the quality of their videos, collaborating with world-class directors and crews on some of the most influential and powerful short films in music video history.

"Videos have always played an essential part in how we wanted to present Depeche Mode's music to the world," agreed the members of the band. "It's been amazing to go back and relive all the experiences and memories these videos evoke after all these years. It's incredible to have all our videos finally together in one place and we're hoping our fans enjoy this journey through time as much as we did."

Video Singles Collection is the first in a series of band-approved retrospective projects examining Depeche Mode's extraordinary career and effect on pop culture and marks the first time that DM's video singles--from 1981 to 2013--have been compiled together in a single anthology.

The set includes 55 newly restored versions of the essential video singles in the DM canon in addition to four rare alternate videos and new commentary on specific individual clips, recorded by members of Depeche Mode especially for this release.

Formed in 1981, Depeche Mode continue to win critical and commercial acclaim around the world, both in the studio and on the road. The band has released 13 studio albums which reached the Top 10 charts in more than 20 countries including the US, UK, Germany and France. Their last album, 2013's Delta Machine, debuted at the #1 chart spot in 12 countries and was followed by a world tour which saw the band play for more than 2.5 million fans. With more than 100 million records sold worldwide, Depeche Mode have well earned the distinction of "the most popular electronic band the world has ever known" (Q Magazine).