The Pearlfishers are a Scottish, Glasgow-based band (among its contributors: drummer Jim Gash, Dee Bahl, Brian McAlpine, Mil Stricevic and Duglas T. Stewart, also of the BMX Bandits) and now the solo project of the singer and songwriter David Scott, its only constant member. The Pearlfishers mixes acoustic-based music with subtle orchestral flourishes, refined and broadened their sound while maintaining coherence and uniqueness. Scott began writing songs while a teenager in Glasgow in the early ’80s and, after founding Chewy Raccoon (!) and Hearts and Minds, formed The Pearlfishers (named after the Bizet opera), with drummer Jim Gash, featuring Brian McAlpine on keyboards and bassist Mil Stricevic. Their debut single, Sacred, was out in late 1990 and an EP, Hurt, followed shortly. The Pearlfishers’ debut album, Za Za’s Garden, was released in August 1993. Signing with the German label Marina Records, Scott and McAlpine released, in 1997, The Strange Underworld of the Tall Poppies and in 1999 The Young Picnickers. 2001’s Across the Milky Way  was the first (almost) solo album by Scott (with a dozen guest musicians), followed by Sky Meadows in 2003, A Sunflower At Christmas in 2004 and Up With The Larks, three years later. After a seven years’ hiatus, Your Colouring Book arrived in 2014 and Love & Other Hopeless Things in 2019. Another five years hiatus led The Pearlfishers to Making Tapes For Girls, produced with Johnny Smillie (Thrum), which was out in May, as usual via Marina Records.

Daniel McGee aka Zenxith is a 22 year old indie pop songwriter/musician from North East England. The prolific independent D.I.Y. lofi indie pop artist (in the last two years he recorded five album, a couple of compilations and various singles) makes gentle lofi indie pop with jangle melodies & very direct lead lines to accompany the multi tracked exasperated vocals, covered in tambourines. No band, no studio, all solo & done in the bedroom & recorded on a phone, Zenxith also uses a drum machine for all his songs. Despite the young age of its composer, McGee’s music seems to arrive directly from the golden age of indie music, the period from 1982 and 1987, the five years that changed indie guitar music forever.
His latest album, From The Corners Of My Cold Room was out on September 13rd and it’s self released. Check also the great double album reissue I Was Named After Daniel Treacy / Bonny’s Garden Party, which was out on Subjangle in February.

Adventure Team is a multinational lo-fi indie rock three-piece with members from Germany, England and Argentina. Jonathan, Ian and Juan recorded their sophomore album, In Giraffe, which was out via Glasgow indie label Heavenly Creature Records on the 26th of April, over the course of three days in a remote farmhouse just north of Bordeaux. The band, initially brought together amidst Berlin’s underground DIY scene, tucked away in the middle of French countryside, recording a perfect package of intricate power pop fuzz. “There is one song that was written as a blatant Dinosaur Jr. rip-off…Sucker from Outer Space…as a reaction to getting constantly compared to them!” says Jonathan. In Giraffe is jangly and catchy, intricate and loud, made by a group of friends making music they love, in the middle of nowhere in France. The title, which is taken from the track Indigo, is a direct reference to Marshall Rosenberg’s theory that giraffes speak the language of empathetic connection. “A friend turned me on to Marshall around the time I was writing the record. It’s a plea for overcoming our differences with each other.”.

Francesca Bono is a performer, musician and singer-songwriter from Bologna, founder of the band Ofeliadorme and the experimental duo Bono / Burattini, whose 2023 debut album (out on Maple Death Records) received interest from BBC6, The Wire, Internazionale, Radio Rai 3, Brooklyn Vegan, TAZ and Il Manifesto. She played in Europe, UK, USA and China, and in international festivals such as WOMAD, SXSW, San Francisco Music Festival and Homemade. A member of the feminist collective DonnaCirco, over the years she has collaborated with Mick Harvey, Howie B, Massimo Volume, Jonathan Clancy, Stefano Pilia, Massimo Carozzi and Muna Mussie, Gianni Maroccolo, Angela Baraldi, Emidio Clementi and Corrado Nuccini, the playwright and actor Oscar Da Summa, the artist Susana Ljuljanovic and shared the stage with Beak, Jon Hopkins, The Bug, Rival Consoles. In 2023 she illustrated La Settimana della Banana, a children’s book about Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground written by Elisa De Munari. The first album under her name, Crumpled Canvas, was co-produced by Mick Harvey (The Birthday Party, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds), who also played in it, and is part of an ongoing exploration on sound and a variety of musical genres and influences, with a focus on the use of voice and its therapeutic power. In her own words, it is just “one of my possible solo debuts”.

Sima Cunningham is a Chicago-based musician, songwriter, producer, presenter, and a founding member of Chicago’s art-rock band, Finom. Over the past 15 years she has worked as a recording and touring musician with Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson, Iron & Wine, Edith Frost, Chance the Rapper, Twin Peaks, and been featured on multitudes of records. She co-owns a recording studio in Chicago, Fox Hall, where she produces records for her own projects and other artists. In 2015 she formed Finom (fka OHMME) which has been her primary project for the past decade. They have released three records: Parts (2018), Fantasize Your Ghost (2020), and Not God (2024) with Joyful Noise Recordings. The band was recently commissioned to write and perform a piece with the Pacific Northwest Ballet and Orchestra in Seattle. An Armenian-American artist and descendent of genocide survivors she has focused much of her work on building connections and healing divides through music. Over the last ten years, she has traveled to Armenia and the Caucasus to perform, participate in workshops, and foster creative cross-cultural opportunities between artists in Armenia and the United States. Her work as an artist-presenter includes founding a small music festival, Postock, that will celebrate its 16th year in 2024; curating and hosting the I Hear Voices series in Chicago at Constellation; and working as a lead organizer for the Pitchfork Music Festival. Her debut solo record, High Roller, was released on August 30th on Ruination Records.