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...

There are songs that arrive carrying a room with them: the studio air, the private impulse, the public ache outside the door. In the case of Black November's 'Burning Desire', that room appears to be Mix Sound Studio in Thessaloniki, but it also holds the heavier air of Greece after the Tempi train tragedy. The cover single, does not treat admiration for an older composition as...