jazz – Queen City Sounds and Art

Koen Holtkamp, photo courtesy the artist

The music video for Koen Holtkamp’s “Slow Fox Run” is like a visual representation of the rhythm and tonal vectors of a song slowly developing from percussive tones later joined by minimal, brushed drums and introspective saxophone. The complexity of the sounds slowly develops along with the streaking motes of colored lights in the video at times bursting as the dynamics of the song do. It’s a seamless blend of visuals and sound and musical ideas that complement each other perfectly like the fusion of jazz, post-rock and electronic composition aesthetics that seem to underpin the song itself. Fans of Chicago post-rock groups like Tortoise and Sea and The Sea and Cake will appreciate the creative detail and flow of sounds present here. Watch the video for “Slow Fox Run” on YouTube and follow Koen Holtkamp at the links below. His new album Nightlife is out October 9, 2026 via Western Vinyl.

Koen Holtkamp on Instagram

Koen Holtkamp on Bandcamp

Spices Peculiar, photo courtesy the artist

“7/9/25” is a collaborative composition between Spices Peculiar and Sunswept. The processed flute flows and perfectly swirl with the layers of synth, field recordings and textural samples to produce a singular aesthetic that evolves across the track’s twenty-five minutes. Shaken bells haunt the background, white noise wind, electronic bird sounds in the night, it feels like music designed to represent different parts of a single day, perhaps as the title suggests, a cool night in summer. Sounds echo and seem to tumble gently in the near distance and a low drone serves as a backdrop toward mid-song as the synth drifts into an eerie quality and shimmering noises resonate from an unknown source like a new type of bird resounding in the moonlit landscape. Breezes stir the surroundings and toward the fourteen minute mark we become aware of the flute back in the mix as a recognizable quantity like a signal of a more diurnal sound palette coming into aural frame and what feels like a string of shells and sparkling synth threads streak by and fade replaced by another stream of each. Clearly the product of careful production and sensitive improv the whole piece is experienced as an organic journey across time expressed in under half an hour but more fully than many days feel when you’re at the grind of a regular job and this song is much more soothing and worthy of one’s attention as an extended song that wouldn’t be out of place on a program like Hearts of Space but focused on pastoral sounds. The track is part of the Spices Pecular Ambulant that released May 1, 2026. Listen to “7/9/25” on Bandcamp and follow Spices Peculiar at the links provided.

spicespeculiar.com

Spices Peculiar on Facebook

Spices Peculiar on Instagram