On their self-titled album, The Cosmic Tones Research Trio construct vibrating pathways of sound that lift you clear of contemporary concerns. It’s not zeitgeisty; it’s expansive spiritual jazz, mystical yet grounded, profoundly improvisational. The Portland trio crafts condensed pieces under five minutes that expand into timeless, textural soundscapes. Like Coltrane, this is music that paints a picture of what peace might look and sound like.

The Soft Pink Truth, aka Drew Daniel, announces his lavish new album Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?, arriving January 30th, 2026. The project grafts chamber music onto electronic foundations, exemplified by the lead single “Time Inside the Violet.” Confronting a “dystopian contemporary landscape,” the album seeks to provide a “makeshift queer refuge,” embracing intimacy and unapologetic beauty as defiant acts.

Brian Weitz, aka Geologist of Animal Collective, has signed to Drag City for his first-ever proper solo album, Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights? (due Jan 30th, 2026). The lead single “Tonic” showcases his “post-post-punk” vision, swapping guitar for an overdriven hurdy gurdy inspired by Keiji Haino and Greg Ginn. The track, featuring a thumping Dave Portner bassline, is out now.

On Inner Day, Jim White expands on his percussive solo debut, creating a fuller, more detailed document. Keyboards, guitar, and even White’s own playful, semi-spoken vocals come to the front. It’s an impressive balancing act —a “clever, controlled use of tension” — between intricate drums and uncanny melodies. While White navigates wonder and trepidation in a mightily refreshing way, you still get the feeling that this is just the start.

Folklore forager Jake Xerxes Fussell and producer and musician James Elkington provide the score for Rebuilding, a poignant film of recovery and resilience. Their seventeen miniatures, built on guitar and fleshed out with pedal steel and subtle strings, evoke classics like Ry Cooder’s Paris, Texas, yet swap its iconic dust for palpable warmth and optimism. The music is almost minimalist but captures the magic of cinematic landscape and human emotion.

New Mixtape featuring: Trond Kallevåg, Joseph Shabason & Thom Gill (ft. Andre Ethier), Josienne Clarke, Sufjan Stevens, Great Lake Swimmers, Merlyn Driver, Sally Anne Morgan, Alasdair Roberts & Robin Robertson, Seán Mac Erlaine & Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Jim White, Emily A. Sprague, Barry Walker Jr., Lia Kohl, SO SNER, and Jan Garbarek.

Welcome to another Monday Morning Brew Playlist featuring Daniel Gadd, Seamus Fogarty, Ohtis, Steve Gunn, Kathleen Mary Lee, Acetone, Camp Saint Helene, Alice Faye, Amen Dunes, Kim Deal, Evan Dando, Jackie Cohen, The Clientele, Josephine Foster, Timber Timbre, Fruit Bats, Little Wings, Six Organs of Admittance, and Kurt Vile.

Through The Open Window: The Bootleg Series Vol 18 (1956-1963) delivers the definitive document of Bob Dylan’s formative years. This meticulously curated, exhaustive set traces the evolution of an all-time legendary music figure from a teenage piano-basher to the folk generation’s leader at Carnegie Hall. An indispensable collection revealing the artist behind the myth through rare outtakes, home recordings, and essential live performances.

Josienne Clarke’s ‘Far From Nowhere’ is a giant leap of an album. Recorded in a remote Scottish cabin, the pared-back, analogue affair feels immediate and intimate, as if written on the spot. By exposing the DNA of her work, Clarke unlocks immense power, resulting in her “grandest effort to date” and the “best music of an already distinguished career.”

Folktronica pioneers Tunng conclude their 20th-anniversary year with the new single ‘Anoraks’. Arriving ahead of their November UK and Paris tour, the psychedelic track follows their acclaimed 2024 album Love You All Over Again. Centred around a “lucid dream-like story,” the song was recorded remotely in Sweden, Margate, and London, yet achieves the band’s signature sonic unity.

John Patrick Elliott of The Little Unsaid reflects on tour life: Fourteen years after my first tour ended ankle-deep in faeces on a pig farm, I’m on the road again. Older, wiser, trading dive bars for Premier Inns. It’s still not profitable, and the world seems rewired to make touring impossible. Yet we struggle on, driven by the vital connection music provides, embracing the vulnerability our new album demands.

If Jim White’s second solo album, Inner Day, is a “state of nature: peace and tension, rest and disquiet”, then “Two Ruffys”, his new album single, is its disquieting, beautiful wind. Watch the accompanying video, directed by Anna White, which scores the song’s meditation on “life and loss.”