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Private Energy ~ a declaration of pride + protest, a preservation of, as Helado Negro puts it, “my brownness, my Latinidad.” Repressed in a limited edition of 120 translucent pink double LPs (already half gone since we quietly added them to Bandcamp last night!). Shop here.

Floating along today, much like the unchained melodies of Isik Kural's "paperhat" ~ in Bob Boilen's praise for NPR Music's All Songs Considered, "a mysterious bit of music" (and one that makes us smile like Isik here).

Volume I is the debut offering from Flore Laurentienne, the ensemble vessel of composer Mathieu David Gagnon, and an album that has left our jaws dropped since its original release on Costume Records in 2019. We’ll be sharing a new vinyl edition on March 4, while the album is available digitally everywhere / now.

Listen to “La fin et le commencement,” a brand new piece of music streaming everywhere now and meant to be listened to, in Gagnon’s own words, “unhurriedly and loudly, if possible.”

Happy birthday, Craig Leon!

The force behind the expansive, outer limit music of Nommos and Visiting, and so much sound of Downtown NYC in the late ’70s. May your music continue crossing time and space for years to come ~

Pictured here in 1998 via Sound on Sound Magazine.

Described as “a collection of aural garments that have or could have been commissioned as soundtracks” on a catalog advertisement doubling as an LP jacket in an early volume of Made to Measure, Crammed’s vision for their longstanding series was made for wide mind projection.

Beyond the adventurous, innovative music of Made to Measure is a real sense of collaboration and community. Some musicians are provided a platform early on in the series, and then a dozen or two volumes later. Other musicians appear in the credits across several volumes, or are thoughtfully paired with other musicians over multiple collaborations. Having someone like Marc at the helm of Crammed, a musician himself who speaks the language and lives the process, gives Made To Measure creative integrity, cohesion, and limitlessness.

Made to Measure is hands down one of the biggest inspirations on our record label, and you can see its influence wide out in the open in our FRKWYS series. This mix includes a piece of music from volumes 1 through 31 of the series, and is truly a soundtrack to the expansion of my listening mind.

Listen back on NTS Radio here, alongside mixes from Christina Vatzou & JAB, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Marc Hollander, Stubbleman, and Yasuaki Shimizu.

Rena Anakwe’s music first came into view for us with her Sound Bath Mixtape Vol​.​1, shared in part with the ever-inspiring PTP. While dreaming of artists to help reenergize Commend‘s space with new music as part of our storefront’s THERE series, A Space for Sound felt like a natural, and nurturing, fit and force ~

In Kiana Mickles’ words, “channeling a bereavement into a transcendent soundscape, A Space for Sound’s Sometimes underwater (feels like home) asks us to sit in stillness with sound in hopes that it will inspire new avenues for self-healing.”

This picture by Cindy Trinh documents Rena’s sound bath this past October, the first event hosted at Commend in nearly two years. We’re grateful to have a spirit like Rena’s present in RVNG + Commend worlds, and worlds beyond ~