Mammal Hands - Circadia (ACT Music 180g Vinyl LP)

Mammal Hands - Circadia | Vinyl LP - 2026 ACT Music (8042-1, 180g, includes 24-bit download)

Mammal Hands formed in Norwich in 2012 and spent a decade on Matthew Halsall's Gondwana Records, releasing five albums from Animalia in 2014 through Gift from the Trees in 2023. This sixth record is a new start in two ways. Jesse Barrett, the drummer on all five Gondwana albums, left in April 2024, and Rob Turner, who spent years as the rhythmic engine of GoGo Penguin, took his place. The label changed too, ACT Music, the Berlin-based label whose roster includes the Esbjörn Svensson Trio, one of Turner's most cited influences. What hasn't changed is the core of the group. Jordan Smart plays saxophone and his brother Nick plays piano, and the music they write together still works by layering repetitive phrases until they accumulate enough weight to break open. Nick Smart's piano cycles owe something to Steve Reich and Philip Glass, Jordan Smart's saxophone rides on top of them with a melodic patience that gives the music its emotional pull, and Turner's drumming brings a harder, more electronic-sounding edge than Barrett's did. "Window To Your World" opens with Turner's beats before the piano enters, and by "Forgotten Friend" his playing has settled into a drum-and-bass pulse that would sit comfortably on a GoGo Penguin record.

The album was recorded over five days in March 2025 at Giant Wafer Studios in Wales. Ben Capp, the trio's live sound engineer, recorded and mixed it, and Shawn Joseph mastered. All nine compositions are credited to Mammal Hands collectively. Cecily Eno designed the cover art and Tania Blanco Rubio took the portrait photography.

This is the 2026 ACT Music release (8042-1), pressed on 180g vinyl with a 24-bit download code included.