Neal Francis’ sophomore album ‘In Plain Sight’ offers up a body of work both enchanting and painfully self-aware, recorded entirely on tape with his bandmates. Mixed by Grammy Award-winner Dave Fridmann (Spoon, Tame Impala, Flaming Lips), the album spotlights Francis’s refined yet free-spirited performance on piano, an instrument he took up at the age of four. The album came to life over the course of a tumultuous year spent living in a possibly haunted church in Chicago. The result: a portrait of profound upheaval and weary resilience, presented in a kaleidoscopic sound that’s endlessly absorbing. ‘In Plain Sight’ ultimately reveals the possibility of redemption and transformation even as your world falls apart.   “When I started the process of writing these songs, I was so emotionally out-of-sorts and really kind of hopeless that I’d be able to come up with anything,” says Francis. “But then I sat down and started working, and embraced whatever inspiration came my way. Sometimes it felt like beating my head against a wall, but I tried to trust that it would lead somewhere. The whole thing was like a weird dream—this very strange time of terrible, wonderful isolation.”

Without having released a single single, Caspar Auwerkerken will be named one of the most talked-about talents in Belgium in 2021 by the music blogs Dansende Beren and Luminous Dash. Only amplified with a guitar and his beautiful voice, the 22-year-old singer-songwriter can provide support for Portland, Meskerem Mees, Mauro Pawlowski and Admiral Freebee, among others.

When musician and producer Orson Wouters (Aili, Transistorcake) crosses his path, it soon becomes clear that they are a match made in heaven. Together they dive into the studio resulting in the beautiful debut single Hyacinth, which will be released in February 2022. His wonderful tribe – sometimes leaning towards Thom Yorke, Sophia or The Bony King of Nowhere – is suffused with dreamy arrangements and minimalist soundscapes.

At the beginning of September, Caspar receives the very first Jan Mans Award for young talent from Muziekgieterij Maastricht, he signs a label deal with V2 Records and he becomes Artist in Residence at both Muziekgieterij and Het Depot.

The ideal breeding ground for his second single, as it turned out. In Skies builds up carefully, carefully, to explode in all subtlety towards the end. The dreamed successor to Hyacinth, which shows that this young promise still has a lot to offer.