Some records do more than ask for your attention; they sit down right next to you, hand you a tissue, and wait for you to stop pretending everything is fine. Light Bird's debut album 'See Her' is exactly that kind of record. Released a few years after singer and songwriter Danni Hoshino came out as a trans woman, this eleven-track collection hits like a late-night...

A record can move fast without chasing the obvious route. “EMA”, Sienná’s nine-track experimental electronic album, begins from that possibility. The Kyoto-born, Oslo-based artist builds its premise around ema, the Japanese tool used to communicate directly with the divine. From there, she turns images and impressions gathered in nature into songs. It is a high-concept frame, but it lands because the concept asks a practical question:...