Zoh Amba Eyes Full (Matador/Wagram)
The saxophonist based in New York abandons her primary instrument for an Americana album infused with indie influences. Raw and intense. The cover is explicit: “Tennessee welcomes you.” This is not merely a homecoming. Not even a desperate attempt to mend any national unease. The ambition is elsewhere, to rise from the depths of memory to revive recollections, seize emotions, and multiply viewpoints.
By Valentin Gény. Read the review of Eyes Full.
Gabriel Auguste Paradis terrestre (Woodland Records/Diggers Factory)
Following his musical and collegiate foray into French-language songs, the former frontman of Wall of Death dives into folktronica, still in his mother tongue. A singular path for Gabriel Auguste, whom we knew as the leader of the psychedelic trio Wall of Death during the 2010s before making a dramatic artistic turn the year of lockdown, with electronic-pop songs including the addictive single Tu danses — as if the songwriter were discovering the dance floor.
By Franck Vergeade. Read the review of Paradis terrestre.
Thomas Bangalter Mirage – Ballet for 16 Dancers (Erato/Warner Classics)
More than the soundtrack to Damien Jalet and Kohei Nawa’s eponymous ballet, Mirage stands as a captivating musical ecosystem, openly influenced by Iannis Xenakis. Sixteen figures move through a red halo. Across sequences of sometimes dazzling beauty, they narrate their transformations to the rhythms of landscapes they must apprehend, or even tame. Created at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2025, Mirage is the latest product of the imagination of the sought-after French choreographer Damien Jalet and the set designer and visual artist Kohei Nawa.
By Sophie Rosemont. Read the review of Mirage – Ballet for 16 Dancers.
Death Cab for Cutie I Built You a Tower (Anti-/PIAS)
Iconic of the 2000s, Death Cab for Cutie shows that it remains firmly in the contemporary rock conversation in 2026. Thirty years after the band recorded its first demo cassette, Ben Gibbard has not lost an ounce of his unwavering passion for sensitive and intimate rock — two qualities that seem ill-suited to the grand scale the group has reached back home in the United States. Far from the bodybuilder-like textures some peers of similar stature display as they pump themselves up, this eleventh album from Death Cab for Cutie is nevertheless impressive.
By Noémie Lecoq. Read the review of I Built You A Tower.
Lee “Scratch” Perry & Mouse on Mars Spatial, No Problem (Domino/Sony Music)
The hybrid and unforgettable encounter between Jamaica’s late dub king and the German electrokraut duo. No, contrary to appearances, Lee “Scratch” Perry did not die in 2021 at the age of 85 on his native island, Jamaica. First, his ghost still hangs in the air: like Gutenberg with the printing press, the experimental producer has invented too many studio innovations – with Bob Marley, The Clash and many others – for his subliminal influence to have faded.
By Vincent Brunner. Read the review of Spatial, No Problem.
