Jeniffer Lima - Eidetic Dreams - Aqualine - Sarah Vanderzon - Ekep Nkwelle - Cassandra Coleman

Jeniffer Lima - Double Company.

Airplay on more than thirty indie radio stations worldwide, plays on key Swiss cultural radio stations, and hundreds of plays for her previous single, “Pour Me A Drink” - for Winterthur (Switzerland) based musician Jeniffer Lima, the year could hardly have got off to a better start.

Now she is following up with her new single, “Double Company”, an infectious uptempo track with strong earworm potential. The song is another promising preview of her debut album, set for release this autumn. The track was created in collaboration with 18 Lines Studio and Joris Amann, former guitarist for Bastian Baker.

The rising artist is in excellent hands. Discovered and supported by renowned producers Manuel Egger and Dave Demuth, she created her first songs, which quickly found their way onto Swiss radio. Her single “90s Vibe”, in particular, already secured a coveted spot on Radio TOP’s rotation playlist.

With “Double Company”, Jeniffer Lima once again demonstrates her flair for catchy melodies, contemporary pop sounds and authentic songwriting—and builds anticipation for the album, due for release in November.

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Eidetic Dreams - Corinna.

Helsinki duo Eidetic Dreams return with Corinna, a dream-pop single about growing up in a bohemian and unconventional home — a world filled with beauty and tenderness, but also a lasting sense of being an outsider. 

Tight drums and a powerful bassline meet Siiri Kähönen’s delicate songwriting. One of the most exciting new Nordic indie acts, Eidetic Dreams have already gained support from YleX and Soundi, as well as Spotify’s global Fresh Finds and Breakthrough 2025 in Finland. Their debut album is due this fall.

And to send our spell checker into overdrive here is the same info in their native language: Helsinkiläinen Eidetic Dreams palaa uudella Corinna-singlellä, joka kertoo kasvamisesta boheemissa ja epätavanomaisessa kodissa – ympäristössä, joka vaalii kauneutta ja herkkyyttä, mutta jättää samalla pysyvän ulkopuolisuuden tunteen. Tiukat rummut ja suuri basso kohtaavat Siiri Kähösen herkän laulunkirjoituksen. Yksi kiinnostavimmista uusista pohjoismaisista indie-nimistä on saanut jo tukea YleX:ltä ja Soundilta sekä noussut Spotifyn globaalille Fresh Finds -listalle ja Suomen Breakthrough 2025 -nostoon. Debyyttialbumi ilmestyy tänä syksynä.

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Aqualine - Stupid Brain.

Guildford and Brighton (England) Alternative five-piece Aqualine return with the crunching new single 'Stupid Brain' (21st August). A journey through the bands '90s flavoured alternative rock, post-punk and shoegaze influences, the track brings both a striking immediacy, but also a mature, evolving musicality, best described as The Bend’s era Radiohead if they had a sense of humour. 

Driven by abrasive guitars, dynamic shifts and a chorus which is beyond catchy, the band shifts between chaos and vulnerability throughout ‘Stupid Brain’. Captures the frustration of battling your own thoughts, the track carries a reflective and heartfelt undercurrent despite its quirky, punching core. 

Equal parts grunge anthem and self-aware character study, the song pairs Aqualine's raw intensity with a playful honesty, exploring the experience of feeling overwhelmed by a hyperactive mind while questioning the harsh way we often speak to ourselves with a sense of humour and humility.

The band explain: “Stupid Brain is an anthem of self-frustration, capturing the feeling of being caught in a cycle of repetitive mistakes, insecurity and feeling like you've been spat out into adulthood without feeling ready. It explores the absurdity of the way we talk to ourselves internally. The song’s blunt, child-like delivery reflects a playful tantrum against your own imperfections, while the sharp, stabbing chords channel the internal chaos.

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Photo - Dustin Haney

Sarah Vanderzon - Oh My Child.

Folk/Americana singer-songwriter Sarah Vanderzon returns with her contemplative new single, “Oh My Child,” out now via Universal Music Canada. Recorded at the iconic Bear Creek Studio in Seattle in collaboration with Grammy-nominated producer Ryan Hadlock (Brandi Carlile, Zach Bryan, The Lumineers), the track explores the bittersweet reality of growing up as Vanderzon reflects on the anxiety and uncertainty of stepping into adulthood. The song comes alongside a striking music video filmed by Dustin Haney (Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson, Parker McCollum), set in a remote rural background with just Vanderzon and her guitar. 

“Initially, I was focused on writing a happy song about family," explains Vanderzon. "I had just come back from a cottage weekend with my brothers, our partners and our cousins, who I consider my extended siblings. I was thinking back to when we were younger and that’s where the song took a turn.” She continues, “I remembered specific moments of when I started to second guess myself and let anxiety take up space in my mind. Playing this song live feels like I’m letting my inner child take over and rock out. I want it to serve as an anthem for the kid you used to be, and the kid you still are at heart.”

“Oh My Child” follows the nostalgic single released last month, “Being Free,” which balances soulful drums with a variety of strings, intertwined with bluesy vocals. In contrast to previous releases, “Oh My Child” and “Being Free” mark a new chapter for Vanderzon as she expands her storytelling into more complex narratives and diverse subject matter.

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Photo - Ashley Marsh

Ekep Nkwelle - Early One Mornin.

Rising vocalist Ekep Nkwelle announced her long-awaited debut album Caged Bird, out September 25th via Mack Avenue Records. Inspired by Maya Angelou's “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” the record details a journey from sorrow to inspiration, representing human suffering and the pursuit of a better future. The announcement comes with the first single “Early One Mornin.”

The 27-year-old singer, composer and bandleader has been captivating audiences since she first led worship at age 12, even then honing her ability to transport and inspire. Now with her long-awaited debut album, Caged Bird, Nkwelle is showing the world the sound she's been refining on the road with her dynamic band for years: traditional and vibrant, studied and spontaneous, familiar yet surprising. The resulting nine songs show an artist transcending genre with veteran polish and a totally original perspective.

Speaking about the album announcement and its meaning, Nkwelle stated, “‘Caged Bird’ archives songs of suffering and survival. I hope to provide expressions of necessary lament while equipping listeners with tools we, as humans, have always used to overcome in our lifelong pursuit of freedom and happiness: faith, art, and community.”

A song about surviving heartache, “Early One Mornin’” is a track that is a fan favorite and has captivated audiences at sold-out performances around the world. Discussing the track, Nkwelle said, “I love how liberating this song feels. Breakups are often painful and disempowering, but this one is healing because it affirms strength and reminds us that one foolproof way to survive a bad relationship is simply to jump ship!”

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Photo - Sophia Matinazad

Cassandra Coleman - Midnight Blue.

Emerging singer/songwriter Cassandra Coleman has announced her anticipated debut EP End Of Your Love will release on September 18th through Warner Records. The 8-track collection arrives after months of unveiling a series of new singles that have led to a breakout summer and quickly established the Nashville-based artist as one of indie-pop’s most compelling new voices. Coleman also shared a new peek at the EP with “Midnight Blue,” a big-hearted blast of widescreen synth-pop, built for nighttime joy rides with the windows rolled down. Of the track, Coleman stated, “‘Midnight Blue’ captures the power of remembering who you are after losing your identity in toxic love. Freedom after a lover’s suppression.”

Anthemic indie-pop. Folk-inspired torch songs. Cinematic piano ballads. They're all woven throughout End Of Your Love, an expansive EP that finds Coleman letting go of the life she thought she was supposed to live and learning to trust the one unfolding in front of her. Most of its songs are brand new, written between festival slots at Lollapalooza and Outside Lands, tours with artists like Bleachers, Young The Giant, and Stephen Wilson Jr., and onstage duets with Noah Kahan. Others reach back several years, offering glimpses of an artist growing into the songwriter she was always meant to be. Together, they form a portrait of a creative life in full swing — one filled with closing chapters, new beginnings, and the hard-won self-assurance to step into whatever comes next.

Co-produced and co-written by Coleman alongside Alec Shaw, the EP was largely recorded at Nashville's Sound Emporium, with a full band playing together in the same room. Rather than building the songs piece-by-piece and polishing away every defect, she chose to emphasize the feeling of people making music together in real time. "It sounds very alive," she says. "We're living in an era where everything is so perfect and polished, but music isn't supposed to be perfect. It's supposed to be real. I want to represent something that's living and breathing."

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Empire Child - Thomas Csorba - Kenny Shore - Special Friend - Fine Night Elements - Jeniffer Lima

Empire Child - Negativity Be Gone.

Empire Child is the new musical project of Ruth Rothwell. Having spent decades shaping music culture from the inside out, Ruth—formerly a senior A&R manager at MCA/Universal—was a key figure in the UK dance music explosion of the 90s, starting out as a club promoter before becoming label manager at BCM Records, the most successful UK dance label of the era. During this time, she helped launch Digital Underground in the UK, worked closely with Andrew Weatherall, and later went on to manage and develop artists including Dina Carroll, Carleen Anderson, and Juan Atkins. At MCA Publishing, she signed and nurtured globally influential acts such as Zero 7, Basement Jaxx, and Air. Alongside artists, Ruth also nurtured key songwriters, most notably Rob Davis, during whose time with her he went on to co-write era-defining hits including Spiller’s “If This Ain’t Love” and Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”. While looking after Eg White she put him forward for a co-write with newly signed Adele. This resulted in the song “Chasing Pavements”.

Despite her success behind the scenes, songwriting was always her true calling. “Songwriting is really my calling and I could no longer ignore that fact,” Ruth says. That pull eventually led to Empire Child, her long-form artist project, with the forthcoming record produced by Madrid-based jazz professor and producer Mariano Diaz.

Her debut single “Trace the Race” introduced the project with a deeply personal reflection on identity, ancestry, and belonging. Inspired by her heritage—her mother Indo-Jamaican, part of the Windrush generation, and her father from Cape Town, South Africa, who fled apartheid—the song explored migration, legacy, and the reminder that “your ancestors were immigrants once.”

Now Empire Child returns with her new single “Negativity Be Gone”, a song about reclaiming control over the thoughts and influences that shape our lives. Rooted in the idea that what we think every day affects our mood and outlook, the track is a call to push away self-doubt and destructive thinking. “I’m trying to get the message across that we have choices,” Ruth explains. “Choices about what we think and who we surround ourselves with. There are so many wonderful people in the world that you’ve yet to meet. Find the good people.” 


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Photo - Alex Csorba

Thomas Csorba - You Think You Know Someone.

Texas singer-songwriter Thomas Csorba has shared "You Think You Know Someone," a heart-on-your-sleeve-style song detailing the never ending discovery of a lasting love. From sweet notes tucked into jean pockets to a deep unspoken understanding, there’s always a layer to peel back and new ways of loving to uncover. This is the latest single from Csorba's new album Tender Country, which is out May 22 as the first release on the newly-launched Turtlebox Records. 

“If there is anything I have learned in five years of marriage, it is that someone you know so intimately can still genuinely surprise you," says Csorba. "Growing old alongside someone is not for the faint of heart; it requires a tender spirit to recognize that, while our lives are intertwined, we are still individuals evolving along the way.” 

He continues, "This song documents that perspective. It acknowledges that neither my wife nor I are the same people we were when we met about a decade ago. Over the past year, I have been moved by her depth and thoughtfulness as I watched her become a mother to our two boys, build her art business from the ground up, and navigate being married to a (sometimes-neurotic) artist of a husband. I am grateful to have a front-row seat to watch her life unfold, and I'm even more grateful to be a part of it." 

Thomas Csorba · You Think You Know Someone

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Kenny Shore - Happiness & Misery (Album).

North Carolina’s Kenny Shore is back with a new full length album, Happiness & Misery The album runs the gamut of emotions and sounds and once again focuses on Shore’s ability to distill the human experience into song.

Happiness & Misery is an album of ups and downs, thus the title. As they were finishing the recording, Jerry Brown and Kenny reflected on the themes brought forth on this album and realized that the title from the song "Happiness & Misery" fit perfectly. It captures the back and forth throughout... from the fun bounce of "Roller Coaster Ride" to the grieve- filled angst of Nail It To the Wall. This didn't happen as planned. It was through looking back at what had happened organically, that made them sure of the album title.

As in the case of Kenny’s last album with Jerry, they had a real blast recording this. Maybe it's the "requirement" that was established with recording the last album, Time Stands Still - to start things off with a well told joke. This helped set the tone for each session. They tried (and succeeded) not to take each other, or this whole process, too seriously. Kenny says, “I think it worked and helped us make sure we were having a good time, doing what we love.”

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Special Friend - Clipping (Album).

Paris-based duo Special Friend release their third album “Clipping” today. Special Friend have become the masters of weaving elegant and sophisticated pop musical webs while staying true to their DIY roots.  The French/American duo (Guillaume Siracusa on guitar and vocals, Erica Ashleson on drums and vocals) manage to create a sound like no other band.  When they play live, audiences marvel at the huge, intricate structures the band construct, while falling in love with the crystal-clear vocal melodies that are threaded in between the shards of guitar and the rattle of the drums.  How can a duo achieve so much?  UK audiences will be able to ponder this question in March: Special Friend are coming over from France to do a substantial tour of the UK. 

The new album is more diverse that the last, with the high-tempo indiepop of first single ‘Breakfast’, the majestic, Yo La Tengo-like dreampop of ‘Clipping’ and the country-ish, gentle, homesick melancholy of ‘Isolation’.  Final track ‘OOO’ is a bold piece of Krautrock-inspired experimentation; ‘Mold’ is a beautiful slice of slowcore and opener ‘Paint A Picture’ is modern pop at its catchiest and most direct.  

‘Clipping’, the album title, refers to the discipline of pruning growth back, removing dead wood to create a perfectly shaped tree with abundant blossoms: an accurate description of the album, and of the songs that hang from its elegant branches.  The album artwork is by Erica: Special Friend are in control of every aspect of this elegant artefact.

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Fine Night Elements - Around This Sun.

Who are Fine Night Elements? Fine Night Elements are a working-class band from the North East of England, formed in 2021. Blending alt-rock energy with electronic textures, melodic hooks, and cinematic atmosphere, the band refuse to sit neatly in one genre. Fine Night Elements make music that feels grounded, ambitious, and unmistakably their own.

Around This Sun began as a simple, sombre acoustic idea that reflected on the state of the world with themes of war, homelessness and addiction. It steadily builds in intensity, each section lifting higher into atmospheric and reflective choruses, a soaring bridge and guitar solo, before closing on an expansive, ethereal, crescendo.

Commenting on the new single the band say "We’re so proud of this one, and it’s a song that feels so relevant in today’s world." 

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Jeniffer Lima - Pour Me A Drink.

A promising new voice in Swiss pop music is emerging from the vibrant heart of Winterthur: Jeniffer Lima. With her new single “Pour Me A Drink,” the multilingual musician ushers in a new era. She has turned away from Swiss-German pop and instead discovered modern English-language country pop. It is no surprise that the rising artist has been discovered by renowned producers. Together with Manuel Egger and Dave Demuth, she created her first songs, which quickly found their way onto Swiss radio. Her single “90s Vibe” has already secured a coveted spot on the rotation playlist of Radio TOP.

As a songwriter, Jeniffer Lima tells autobiographical stories that resonate far beyond a young audience. With catchy melodies and honest, profound lyrics, she creates music that touches listeners across generations. After her first releases in an acoustic singer-songwriter style, Jeniffer Lima quickly evolved under the guidance of producer Dave Demuth and found her place in the modern pop genre. Despite this musical development, one thing remains central: authenticity on stage. 

With “Pour Me A Drink,” Jeniffer Lima once again shows her instinct for contemporary pop and emotional storytelling—confirming her potential as one of the exciting new voices from Winterthur (Switzerland).

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