Volk, an album from Vate has now been remastered on its 15th anniversary.

It is a summary of the work done between 2001 and 2005.

Back then, several movements within Mexican electronic music fused electronic music with popular music. Vate's music shows strong influences of this style, and he received lots of positive feedback received a great influence from them and the feedback on it from other musicians.

This mix between modern electronic music with popular traditional elements is a constant in Vate's work, which keeps on being centred around music in general, mass culture and various urban subjects. Volk was developed with these things in mind and went along with the creation of the Chill and Go group as well as with Vate's participation in the Urbe Probeta compilation.

Few musical projects that I've come across are as appropriately named as Savanna Radio. Evoking a plethora of sounds and images, the words making up this musical project's appellation paint vivid pictures of things as disparate as watching animals drink as the sun rises on the veldt, to being clustered around a grainy, tinny radio listening to Duke Ellington on a rainy night. There is a wide swath of scope covered here in the title alone, and the music certainly surpasses it with relentless ambition and focus. In some ways the album acts as an aural journey, we start with hints of civilization, rhythmic patterns paying homage to the musical traditions not only of the savanna, but also of the desert, the jungle, and river deltas both Nile and Mississippi. Over the course of the album, the musicians explore a variety of mood tones and styles, ranging far afield of any narrow genre connotation, potentially evoking comparisons to people but ultimately sounding like no one but themselves. Is it funk? Hell yeah it's funky, but this isn't one of those parliament 'everything is on the one' dishes, honey. Is it jazz? You best believe there is a lot of playing on this album to send people back out to the woodshed to get their chops up. Is it Afrobeat? Is it Blues? There are moments where it is both, there are moments where it is neither. It is the sound of a wide open world; a world full of different cultures and beliefs, a world where tradition and technology can exist in a beautifully chaotic balance. The weight of tradition, of progressions a hundred years old and the promise of the future, of untold musical amalgams and hybrids. Forget genre, forget style, forget preconceived notions. Just don't forget to groove - Ray Blum

YELLOW
The colour of the third chapter is Yellow: the colour of the Sun and of the energy that transports the music into a magic realm with tropical rhythms and new musical explorations, filled with positive vibrations and creative emotions.
You can hear this energy in the live versions of three of the band's classics. Have fun with us.

FRANK WIZARDD: Vocals & Lyrics, Backing vocals, Melodica, Keyboards
DUBMASTER CONTE: Bass, Drum programming, Synths
ROBY B: Lead & Rhythm Guitar
Mixing and Mastering by Dubmaster Conte @ Magic Garden Studios

The First Gate's concept could be described as a kind of an audio-movie that's painting a journey from ancient times and dense forests into spectacular worlds, where soul and technologies come together. This story had to be told in different musical languages, and thus, the voices and words of several wonderful Russian singers-songwriters from a variety of music genres - such as: indie-electronic, native Russian folk music, indie-rock and jazz - found their way onto this album. Fantasy and mystery is the main language here, so let them be your guide.

I would like to wholeheartedly thank Timofey Sudakov for having been a big part of Eight Gates for years, Trox, Yana Blinder, Anna Paragis, Sasha Vinogradova, Irina Pyzhyanova and Marina Volkova for the beautiful vocals, powerful creative energy, ideas and lyrics, Anna Oparina for the glorious artwork, Andrey Ryzhkov for the mastering, and all the fellow musicians from around the world for having inspired me.

Dedicated to Nikita's parents.

Written by - Nikita Shaposhnikov and Sudakov Timofey (tracks: 1 to 11)
Arranged and programmed by - Nikita Shaposhnikov and Sudakov Timofey (tracks: 1 to 11)
Vocal melodies - Nikita Shaposhnikov (tracks: 2, 3, 7, 8), Yana Blinder (track: 4), Trox (tracks: 5, 9)
Vocals and backing vocals - Yana Blinder (tracks: 2,4), Irina Pyzhyanova (track: 2), Anna Paragis (tracks: 3,8), Trox (tracks: 5,9), Nikita Shaposhnikov (track: 7), Marina Volkova (track: 9)
Lyrics - Yana Blinder (tracks: 2,4), Sasha Vinogradova (track: 3) Anna Paragis (track: 8), Trox (tracks: 5, 9)
Bass Guitar - Nikita Shaposhnikov (tracks: 4, 5, 6, 9)
Guitar - Nikita Shaposhnikov (tracks: 2, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Artwork - Anna Oparina
Mixed by - Nikita Shaposhnikov
Mastering by - Andrey Ryzhkov

Founded in 2012, Flocks is a trio project of Italian Dhrupad singer Amelia Cuni and 2 German multi-instrumentalists.

Amelia Cuni studied the classical raga singing Dhrupad style in India for 15 years. Besides performing Dhrupad, she has also worked with numerous composers of new music, including Terry Riley, CC Hennix, Talvin Singh, Maria de Alvear. She released a CD of the Ragas of John Cage on the Other Minds label/San Francisco. On top of that, she performed inn numerous collaborations and on releases of Indian classical singing.

Werner Durand has specialized in self-made wind instruments since the mid-80s. Besides that, he plays saxophones. Werner has led various ensembles, such as the 13th Tribe and ArmchairTraveller, and has performed with numerous musicians and composers over the last 30 years. He has more than 30 releases to his credit.

Uli Hohmann started out as a percussionist specializing in Dombak, an Iranian instrument that he has been studying and performing on since the early 80s, both in classical as well as new formats. Furthermore, he also performs on his own invented string instruments and analogue electronics.

Together, they create unique musical landscapes, covering the territories of traditional as well as experimental sound creation.