Three pillars of Chicago’s experimental scene—Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart—have formed a new trio. Their debut single, “Stone Piece I,” out now on International Anthem, transforms improvised strings and vocals into a textural soundscape using analog tape loops. The release previews their live debut at Chicago’s Sound & Gravity Festival on September 11th and a full album planned for 2026.

Nashville trio Shrunken Elvis—Spencer Cullum, Sean Thompson, and Rich Ruth—share their dreamlike new single, “K-House.” The track blends sharp, psychedelic guitar with a downtempo dance groove, landing somewhere between dreamy kosmische and an ’80s cop show soundtrack. It’s a preview of their self-titled debut album, out September 5th, a project guided by intuition and a philosophy of “no goals, just ideas.”

Lyrical storyteller Jeremy Tuplin shares his new single ‘Stranger In The Garden’ today, a fuzzy, lo-fi indie-rock track taken from his upcoming fifth album, Planet Heaven. Rippling with psychedelic violin and Tuplin’s deep drawl, the song, featuring Dana Gavanski, precedes the album’s release on 17th October. Described as a subversive celebration of the natural world, the album sees the artist embrace a more personal, DIY approach.

Global-folk collective Mishra have announced their first collaborative album with acclaimed Indian classical/Sufi vocalist Deepa Shakthi. Titled ‘Turn O Spinning Wheel’ and out October 17, the record fuses English folk with Sufi song. The hypnotic first single, ‘Kite’, built on an Irish jig structure, will be released next week on August 11 ahead of the group’s extensive UK autumn tour.

Drag City announces the 10th-anniversary vinyl reissue of Bill MacKay & Ryley Walker’s hypnotic debut, Land of Plenty, arriving September 26th. Recorded live during their famed 2015 Chicago residency, the album showcases the duo’s telepathic guitar interplay. To celebrate, a new music video for the title track has been released, offering a fresh look at this seminal work.

In the heart of Kyoto, a city renowned for its timeless beauty and rich artistic heritage, a singular musician is crafting a sound that is both deeply personal and daringly experimental. Kita Kouhei—a sound artist, composer, and master of the rare Array Mbira–builds immersive soundscapes that seamlessly blend the organic textures of live instruments with the limitless possibilities of electronic music, creating a world that is uniquely his own.

This week’s Monday Morning Brew opens to a track from the new 4CD set, The Making Of Five Leaves Left, which chronicles the creation of Nick Drake’s 1969 debut album. There’s also music from Songhoy Blues, Ben Whitley, Roadside Graves, Turner Cody, Stringtronics, Laura Cannell, Kathryn Williams, Ancient Infinity Orchestra, Alice Boyd, The Innocence Mission, Darren Hayman and more.

The latest KLOF Mixtape features music from John Francis Flynn, The Deadlians, Lankum, AJ Woods, Joshua Idehen, Adrian Sherwood, Ana Lua Caiano, Cyril Cyril, RíRá, The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock, Skipper’s Alley, Joshua Burnside & Laura Quirke, Cat Clyde & Jeremie Albino, Kevin Morby, Nick Waterhouse, Scott McMicken, Piers Faccini, Jake Blount, The Burning Hell, Rónán Ó Snodaigh and Myles O’Reilly, Alex Rex, Lisa O’Neill and more.

Fletcher Tucker’s ‘Kin’ is a more earthy, rather than a cosmic music; it genuinely sounds like nothing else, an album full of ritualistic sonic patterns and precisely detailed shifts in tone and mood, an album rooted less in a single landscape than in the very idea of landscape, and all the ancientness and weirdness that implies.

In a new “Nonesuch Selects” video released this week, composer Steve Reich offers an intimate tour of some of his favourite music. He includes recordings that share connections to his work, from the propulsive energy of John Adams to foundational Balinese Gamelan. Part of a celebration including the monumental Collected Works box set, the video is a generous act of aural cartography from a master of modern music.

Acclaimed guitarist and song writer Buck Curran has released ‘ILiad (Slight Return)’, the expansive second single from his ninth album, Far Driven Sun, out August 29th via Obsolete Recordings. The album is an elemental return to Curran’s musical roots, inspired by his reunion with a rare 1990 Stefan Sobell ‘Butterfly’ guitar. He will also be performing at a special Robbie Basho celebration in London, alongside Gemma Khawaja and Toby Hay.

Musician and sound artist Alice Boyd releases ‘Return of the White-Tailed Eagle’, a powerful collaboration with the RSPB. The track marks the 50th anniversary of the successful reintroduction of the UK’s largest bird of prey. Built from ambient woodland sounds recorded at an RSPB reserve, the song is a transportive prelude to the forthcoming conservation film, ‘Return’. A beautiful fusion of art and ecological storytelling.