Listening to the new album from The Bateleurs, "A Light In The Darkness", is like finding a perfectly worn leather jacket in a forgotten wardrobe. Not one from London or Los Angeles, mind you, but one discovered in a dusty Lisbon alley, smelling faintly of sea salt and old cigarettes. It fits perfectly, but it carries the shape and the stories of someone else's...

Micah Rose-Trespeuch’s new album, "Coughing Up Blood," feels less like a listening experience and more like witnessing an urgent, almost involuntary act of transmutation. Rose-Trespeuch (piano, vocals), with Julien Baraness masterfully texturing the soundscapes and Gaetan Allard providing the often-fractured, sometimes thunderous pulse on drums, has crafted something akin to a diary written in volatile ink. One moment, you're amidst Chopin-esque piano runs that...