There's an intimacy to the new FREE/MAN release, "The Reconnection EP," that borders on a welcome invasion of personal space. It is the sonic equivalent of someone leaning in, not to share a secret, but to create the silence where your own might finally surface. Charlie Freeman hasn't built a grand cathedral of sound here; he's simply furnished a quiet room with stark, necessary...

Alds Fjóla, a musician who has been polishing her talent since the age of sixteen, lives and works in the lovely village of Borgarfjörur eystra in East Iceland. She's been in the music industry for a while now, and after years of playing with different bands, she's now taking the plunge and going solo. Shadows (2020), the forthcoming first album from Alds Fjóla, brings a new...