Have You Discovered Reflections?

Looking for music to fill those moments between dancefloors? The Anjuna team’s new label is filling the void. Reflections is the third label to emerge from under the Anjuna umbrella, the company founded by two-time Grammy-nominated trio Above & Beyond and home to the much-loved Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep labels. Soundtracking “the mornings after, the nights apart and the journeys shared along the way”, the new imprint focuses ambient, downtempo and alternative music.

“Reflections feels like a pretty intuitive thing for us,” says label boss James Grant. “This is a genre that we have a history in and one we belong in. If you look back on what we’ve done on the Above and Beyond albums, there’s always been two or three standout downtempo tracks that have connected really well. In all the time we’ve been doing this, there have been a lot of moments where someone suggested setting up a new label. We’ve always resisted because we wanted to focus on supporting the artists we have so we only had two frontline labels. Reflections is now our third frontline label.”

“The beautiful thing is, a lot of our artists are already either making this stuff or are fully capable of making great music like this,” added Grant. “We’ve always focused on emotional, soulful and melodic dance music so with Reflections, you could probably just remove the ‘dance’ part.”

Launching with Above & Beyond’s Morning in Diera, the opening track from their Cercle performance on the summit of the Rock of Guatapé, Reflections is now three months deep and the good stuff keeps coming.

Yotto

Ethereal and Dreamy

Last month, Helsinki-based artist Yotto released his first full-length, low-tempo project Erased Dreams. The eight-track ethereal and dreamy ambient album reveals a different side to Yotto, who’s more well-known for his thunderous DJ sets and deep, bass-heavy house productions.

“This music probably reflects my personality more than club music does,” admits Yotto. “I’m a bit shy but I’ve learnt how to fake that I’m not and this album is very relaxed, quiet and introverted. I am very happy to stay in the background so this music reflects my state of mind most of the time.”

Check out Silhouette from the album – a melancholy, atmospheric track with hints of ’80s nostalgia and smooth as glass vocals from Sansa.

Primed and Ready

Electronic music heavyweight Martin Roth’s second full-length, piano-led album Mono No Aware is also primed and ready for release on Reflections. Berlin-based Roth joined the Anjuna label family back in 2008 with a remix of Above & Beyond’s trance anthem Miracle. He followed through with numerous standout moments on Anjunadeep, including Have You Ever, Organic Brewed Hipster Funk and label classic Beautiful Life. During lockdown, Berlin-based Roth moved from club to piano-led music with the release of his downtempo album An Analog Guy In A Digital World.

Martin Roth

Infected

“Years before many of you would have been here to listen to it, I started making music,” reflects Roth. “It began with the piano but became electronic-based very quickly when the world’s dancefloors and I got infected heavily by synthesizer and sample-based music. As a teenager, I was lucky enough to experience techno and house unfolding and blooming first hand. I didn’t miss a club night those days,” he recalls. “Wanting to dive deeper, I took part in this whole movement, adding my sounds and records to it.

“Over the years I swam through many styles and directions,” adds Roth. “It seemed like I couldn’t rest anywhere for long, always restless – and sometimes my followers were not able to keep track anymore. I kept swimming through sunny bays and heavy storms, and found my missing puzzle piece in between teaching myself how to turn the right knobs of life. I was given beautiful kids who made me finally grow up, and I found peace in simplicity.”

Sad Beauty

Reflecting on his soon-come new album, Roth reveals: “Mono No Aware is about the sad beauty of seeing time pass – the aching awareness of impermanence – but also the appreciation for being blessed with beautiful moments.”

The classically-leaning album drops on 12 September. In the meantime, check out the first track from the album, Alicia’s Noir – a beautifully haunting piano composition. Alicia’s Noir is about drifting through life and finding peace in hope, melancholy and nostalgia,” explains Roth. “It’s two piano lines talking to each other. It’s a question and answer dialogue that represents this idea that everything will fade away.”