Remembering Hermeto Pascoal, and Other Music News This September

A flood of new music landed this September, making it tough to choose what to spotlight. But between long-awaited returns, a fresh print magazine and a handful of new releases, there’s plenty to carry us past the post-holiday lull. So, back to school with what happened in the world of music this September.

As always, don’t miss our official playlists on Spotify and Tidal.

New Album: Titanic – HAGEN

Vidrio was one of 2023’s most striking debuts. With HAGEN (Tin Angel Records), Titanic – the Guatemalan-Mexican duo of Mabe Fratti and Héctor Tosta, aka I. La Católica – return at last, though nothing is quite the same. Expectations are different now: where their first record arrived like lightning out of a clear sky, this one arrives under the weight of hype and curiosity from both critics and audiences.

Fratti, with her cello and a style as poised as it is unpredictable, hasn’t missed a beat: solo projects, global tours and collaborations (one of which we covered here). All of it well deserved: even on HAGEN, the sharpness of her arrangements and choices – even the free, unexpected ones – is immediately clear. Tosta, composer and author of the lyrics across most of the entire album, threads guitar distortions through Fratti’s falsetto and cello, bringing depth to the tracks and shaping the record’s tone.

The twist this time is a subtle pop streak, brushing against ‘80s hues while still wandering into free jazz and experimental ground. One of the year’s standout albums, not just from one of today’s most compelling voices; Titanic is a project that makes experimentation with music – and with pop, in the broadest sense – feel effortless. Only the best can pull that off.

Listen/Buy on Bandcamp.

New Album/2: Dijon – Baby

Sometimes an album just hits you hard – remember the first time you heard D’Angelo Black Messiah?

Dijon Duenas’ second album plays like a collage of the artists who orbit his world, both directly and indirectly. There’s the unmistakable touch of Mk.gee (a key player on his debut Absolutely), the “deep fingerprints” of Bon Iver, Pino Palladino and Jenn Wasner, and above all what Dijon himself calls his “deep co-pilot”,  producer Andrew Sarlo – the same Sarlo who shaped Absolutely and has worked with acts like Big Thief.

The most obvious reference point here is Frank Ocean, whose music over the years has folded into increasingly abstract forms, constantly searching, until his songs felt more like art installations than traditional tracks, spaces where silence mattered as much as melody. There are shades of D’Angelo too, especially in the title track Baby! And then Bon Iver, who collaborated with Dijon earlier this year on the SABLE, fABLE album, haunts the record in its vocal production: every time Dijon raises his voice it feels like the emotion is swelling right up his throat, almost boiling over.

Trying to pin down Dijon’s sound here is almost impossible. It’s a sonic world where smooth, soulful melodies collide with fractured production, each sharpening the other. The result isn’t just an album, it’s an experience. A really, really good one.

Listen/Buy here. 

Single Track: Alabama Shakes – Another Life

After seven years of silence, the hiatus finally seems to be over. The trio of Brittany Howard, Heath Fogg, and Zac Cockrell have found their rhythm again. Almost by design, the new song’s refrain has Howard pleading for second chances – “Can we try again? One more time again” – a fitting echo for a band that hasn’t released new music since 2015. With the arrival of Another Life they sound very much alive once more, confirming that they’ve been working on fresh material with longtime collaborator and producer Shawn Everett.

The track itself feels split in two. The first half picks up right where Sound & Color left off 10 years ago: sleek arrangements, a funky backbeat, and a groove built to spotlight Howard’s howling, deeply emotive vocals. Then, halfway through, the band pushes into new territory, riding a thundering bridge into a long, psych-soul outro. Howard’s voice and the guitars seem to wail in unison, the solo line looping obsessively until it cuts straight to the bone.

Since their last album, the only thing the Shakes had released was a cover – Memphis Minnie’s Killer Diller for Music From The American Epic Sessions: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – which ended up winning them a Grammy. But Another Life marks their first original song in a decade. All signs point toward a new album and a tour in 2026. For now, all we can do is wait – because Alabama Shakes know better than most how to make music worth it.

Listen/Buy here.

Magazine: Spotlights – Habibi Funk Press 001

Sometimes we do more than just listen to music. But when the headphones are off, most often, we’re reading about it. That’s why we were so excited to hear about Spotlights, the first print issue from Habibi Funk. A natural move, really: over the past decade the label has become a key reference point for unearthing five decades of Arab music archives.

The cover photo of Sun Ra performing in Cairo in 1971 sets the tone: inside, you’ll find a feature on Moroccan studio photographer Fouad Zerrei, vinyl picks from seasoned collectors and a look at the present with a profile of Pale Jay, the anonymous soul singer steadily gaining ground.

Get a copy of Spotlights on Bandcamp.

Tribute: VV.AA.- I Will Swim to You: A Tribute to Jason Molina

Jason Molina was one of the finest songwriters of America’s indie-folk golden age – and yet, somehow, he still feels underrated. After releasing intimate, aching solo records under the moniker of Songs: Ohia, he went on to form Magnolia Electric Co., a band project that embraced electricity without ever losing the melancholy poetry. Molina died in 2013, at just forty, from health complications.

I Will Swim to You – titled after a line from his classic Lioness – is a new tribute compilation that gathers some of today’s most compelling singer-songwriters and bands. There are surprises and deep cuts, like Lutalo’s take on the posthumous Shadow Answers the Door (first released in 2020), alongside Molina staples that often resurface on tribute sets, such as Just Be Simple reimagined by MJ Lenderman or The Old Black Hen covered by Sadurn.

It’s not about comparing covers to the originals; Molina’s songs are so strong they carry weight every time they’re re-sung, rearranged, reframed. And any project that helps spread his music is worth celebrating. 

Listen/Buy (with 10% of all vinyl profits going to MusiCares Mental Health and Addiction Recovery Fund) on Bandcamp.

Bonus Track: Hermeto Pascoal (22 June 1936 – 13 September 2025)

“When people hear my music, they find it very hard to pin down or pigeonhole it. When they think I’m doing one thing, I’m already doing something else… It’s very liquid.”

Hermeto Pascoal, nicknamed O Bruxo (“The Wizard”), died on Saturday, 13 September, entering directly into the Olympus of music’s greats. Born in northeast Brazil, he carried with him a vision that broke every border: flutes, saxophones, kettles, bottles – anything could be an instrument in his hands.

He played with Elis Regina and toured the US with Airto Moreira, where he met Miles Davis. The American legend called him “the most important musician on the planet” and included three of Pascoal’s compositions on the 1971 album Live-Evil.

In the 1970s his fearless experiments influenced an entire generation of jazz musicians, but in Brazil he remained something more: a symbol of freedom, eccentricity and boundless creativity. Even in his final years, Pascoal kept composing, teaching and improvising, never repeating himself.

Camillo Vegezzi is a freelance music writer based in Milan. He has collaborated with various music magazines and is a contributor to the cultural section of Il Manifesto. Read more of Camillo’s writing on Something Curated here.

Lorenzo Villa is a writer and editor based in Milan. He writes about lifestyle for Harper’s Bazaar Italia and collaborates with the literary magazine Galápagos. Read more of Lorenzo’s writing on Something Curated here.

Header image courtesy of Hermeto Pascoal.