greetings children of the stars,

this occasional society update

things are still progressing with upcoming gigs, collaborations and other releases, but nothing ready to announce currently. your continued patience is appreciated.

This month’s music sketch is here.

the next newsletter will be with you 7.7.

as ever, if you want anything included in the ‘updates from friends of the society’ section, just let us know.

updates from friends of the society - it’s another monster sized month, readers - let’s dive in!

“Readipop presents: XOX 2026 at Oakford Social Club” on 13 June features sets from Movement81, Mentat and Sophie Sirota amongst others, alongside EMOM founder Martin Christie. Free tickets here See you there.

The next monthly online gig series “3rd W3dn35day” features an old favourite of mine, Secret Nuclear on 17 June. Expect atmospheric flavours & cold war paranoia drifting through D&B, techno & motorik beats. Calendar reminder here.

The very next night, 18 June, the monthly online “NHAM in Concert” is the live debut of none other than Ash Noodle, whose music ranges from ambient minimalism to 80s inspired synthpop. Calendar reminder here. Ash has also recently released the great album “Futures We May Still Receive”, informed by 70s & 80s sci-films, tv and books, under their “Replay in Neon” moniker. Fab tunes ahoy.

While we’re about it, July’s 3rd W3dn35day artist, Samantha Jane Smith, has just released another great, live recorded, spontaneous electronic ambient track, “<Null> Space”. Tunes like this are a mouth watering promise of what to look forward to for their upcoming gig.

Meanwhile, last month’s excellent 3rd W3dn35day artist, Elif Yalvaç is in a duo, with Philamelian, on 28 June at Heart of Noise 15, an evening of ambient, contemporary classical and electronic music at St Giles’ Cripplegate, Barbican, London.

On the airwaves, there’s another jam-packed month coming up on the Sine Waves on Sunday radio show, with highlights including a show dedicated to Suzanne Ciani marking her 80th birthday and interviews with local (to me) hero The Music Liberation Front Sweden and legendary Radiophonic Workshop alumna Elizabeth Parker, as well as shows on North & South American Synth Pioneers in July.

“Hot off the press” (that’ll be funnier if you watch the video) is another great new track from Roberta Fidora - Notification AND another track from Dee Eye Why (a collab between Roberta and Mike James) - Face Fades. Both added to existing ep’s that will be released on limited edition cassettes in the future.

Astonishingly, Simon Heartfield’s latest album is his 24th studio release (he must have started putting out music as a small child…). Delivered via newly minted Portsmouth based Synonym Music label, “Light Fades and Light Returns” combines dense electronics, layered guitar textures and powerful rhythms to great effect. Check it out.

Coming out on June 26, The Night Album by digitonal already has two tracks available and it’s shaping up to be a lovely mix of ambient neo-classical over sparsely skittering idm beats. It feels like a move forward from previous releases into interesting new territory.

I know that Bricolage records have a new one coming out soon from Dark Fidelity Hi Fi soon, but in the meantime Bricolage founder Fragile X has snuck out a self release Simulacra, which combines whip snapping beats with beautiful sound design to deliver something both deep and danceable. Love it!

nilehn has recently released epic 2hr experiential experimental glitchy idm album ehcosine - there’s not a lot by the way of background, but suffice to say it’s as dense and expansive as the emotions it alludes to. One to sit down and really dig into and be with.

If 2hrs for a release isn’t long enough, check out “Coalescence” by remst8. Clocking in at over 4hrs, it’s the culmination of several years of exploration, experimentation, and revision of remst8’s luxurious ambient / drone tracks and includes continuous mixes, some Dolby atmos tracks, 5.1 mixed videos and an option for a limited edition flashdrive cassette version. That’ll keep you busy for a bit I expect.

Back on a live tip, AlgoRavioli is on 17 June at The Greyhound in Peckham. Entirely improvised and jammed-in-the-moment event - anything could go down (or up).

Finally, my sometime collaborator, the brilliant ambient guitarist James Hastings has a new album out at the end of the month, accompanied by some bonus Strange Textures podcast episodes. More about that next month, but in the meantime, why not check out the wealth of previous episodes here.

aob - things that have replenished our creative wellspring recently

I absolutely smashed through Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna. Open, unfiltered, inspiring and, at times, depressing and terrifying. I genuinely couldn’t put it down and am even more in awe of KH than I was - which is saying a lot as TKO is one of my all time favourite floor fillers.

Listening wise, I’ve been really enjoying recent live releases from Traindeer and Scholars of the Peak and the new compilation “The Silent Harvest” on Folk Police Recordings which features a host of great acts including HDRF, Field Lines Cartographer and Veryan.

Right - that’s enough for now innit.