Various Artists - Kuboraum Sound Residency Vol. 2 Various Artists

Berlin's Kuboraum Editions celebrates another round of its ongoing Kuboraum Sound Residency with a bumper 19-track volume of exclusive tracks from its vibrant creative community, music that challenges contemporary logic and prioritizes what really matters: experimentation, exchange and evolution. Like its predecessor, that was described by Boomkat as flowing like a "well-curated mixtape", 'Kuboraum Sound Residency Vol. 2' is assembled like a proper album in the classic sense, something that's supposed to be absorbed from start to finish. And although there are no constraints placed on artists, there's a similar radical philosophy that surges through each and every contribution, whether it's 'Sweet Sixteen', French producer Bambounou's decelerated, cloud-rap influenced collaboration with Sadandsolo, Ziúr's cinematic, neoclassical refurbishment of 'Home’ with cellist Martina Bertoni and vocalist Sara Persico or 'Ice', dub techno veteran Paul St. Hilaire aka Tikiman's deep, rootsy addendum to last year's acclaimed 'w/ The Producers'. From beginning to end, it's music that rewards curious ears and open minds.

South Korean artist bela, who recently deployed their ambitious and original sophomore album 'Korean Love Sonnets', opens the compilation with 'Mouton and Blade', shaping their powerful voice into an orchestra of growls alongside a wheezing, instrumental ensemble. And Rome's Cosimo Damiano, who's been a part of the Kuboraum family since day one, turns in an unsettling solo experiment, juxtaposing Irma Ticozzelli's pitch shifted voices with scratchy, psychedelic electronics. Catalan pianist, vocalist and producer Marina Herlop traverses her verdant sonic landscape on 'alas', matching her singular voice with birdsong to provide a hopeful interspecies dawn chorus. Kenyan vanguard Lord Spikeheart meanwhile links hands with Italian producer Talpah to dream up 'SILENCE IN THE C-DRAL', a gruesome trap hybrid that airlifts itself from the basement to the stadium under a barrage of machine-gun kicks. All of that noise makes Mexican duo Estrella del Sol and Luisa Almaguer's peaceful 'Deseo' a necessary palate cleanser, their haunting voices forming a bridge between lowercase opera and dream pop that's pillowy underfoot, knitted with tender percussive twists and melancholy reverberations.

On 'TLC', versatile French producer Low Jack, who's equally at home reinventing choral music for eccentric Belgian outpost STROOM as he is deploying knackered bass music on Modern Love, reconvenes with Le Diouck, complimenting the Franco-Senegalese artist's throaty rhymes with serpentine synths and jerky rhythms and dreaming up a post-apocalyptic cyber-noir anthem. And Following her acclaimed 'A Danger To Ourselves' full-length, Colombian sound artist Lucrecia Dalt teams up with percussionist Alex Lázaro, whose flexible electroacoustic rhythms are the perfect foil for her sultry lounge shakes on 'Synonym Mask'. Bristol's Mun Sing continues his journey towards the club's quirkiest corners with his aptly titled loosie 'Fluffy', a bass-heavy, lurching banger that neatly follows up his material for Planet Mu, SVBKVLT and Illegal Data. Working again alongside the great Annie Hogan, EROS (aka Regis, MY DISCO's Liam Andrews and Einstürzende Neubauten's Boris Wilsdorf) turn in the moody 'Burnt Crossing', a slithering, moonlit addendum to 2024's 'Your Truth is a Lie', packed out with eerie pads and bone-rattling percussion and subterranean whispers.