Numbers can partially measure how successful you are but it’s maybe time to redefine how to “evaluate” success. The guitarist and singer from Night Lunch, Lukie Lovechild, might be a good example. His artistic endeavour in the underground led him to become an important part of the scene as a sound technician. Those who know, just know. I won’t say it twice. If you want a good sound for your show, you now know who to call.

For someone who found his voice in music at an early age, Montreal-based singer-songwriter Fernie seems to be following his path with gentleness and a careful approach. His latest EP, Hopeless Dreams, released on Secret City Records, is a testament to this long journey—one where new doors have opened, and experiences have helped him mature and evolve. It suggests that Fernie still has much more to discover in the future.

Listen, listen—a world is speaking! A world where playfulness is a source of wisdom, and entertaining insane thoughts is serious business. For his third album, released on the Montreal-based label Secret City Records, Gus Englehorn named this world The Hornbook. With his wife, Estée Preda, by his side, the self-taught singer-songwriter and guitarist from Alaska has assembled a body of work that resembles an early-education tool for our hidden inner children—offering guidance on how to create a work of art. Mixed by Paul Leary (Butthole Surfers), his music isn’t a gentle stroll through the woods but rather a twisted mental exercise—a psychological thriller wrapped inside an obscure Jean Cocteau film, wrapped inside a children’s puppet show.

Alors que Montréal s’illumine particulièrement durant la saison estivale, sa scène musicale indépendante ne connaît pas de répit lorsque la nuit et le froid s’installent. Un festival au creux de l’hiver, mais pour quoi faire ? Eh bien… pour nous permettre d’y voir plus clair, peut-être. Réparti entre l’avenue du Mont-Royal, la rue Saint-Denis et le boulevard Saint-Laurent, le Taverne Tour continue de sortir des sentiers battus et de mettre en avant les sorties d’albums à venir. Pour sa 9ᵉ édition, il revient avec une mission claire : nous remettre en forme pour la rentrée musicale et célébrer les projets underground d’ici et d’ailleurs.

The desert of Arizona, vast and isolating, is renowned for its paradoxical blend of eerie silence and cosmic grandeur. Beneath its unrelenting sun and infinite night skies, black holes are mapped through a network of telescopes, and UFO sightings reach near-mythic proportions. It’s a landscape that invites introspection as much as mystery, blurring the lines between the vastness of outer space and the depths of inner space. With TimeFold, their sixth release on Soul Jazz Records, Trees Speak delve into this subtle realm where external worlds and inner psyches converge. The album feels as expansive as the cosmos and as intimate as a whispered thought—a sonic equivalent of the TARDIS: larger, stranger, and more complex inside than its external appearance suggests.

Gus Englehorn doesn’t approach his music as a gentle stroll through the woods but rather as a twisted mental exercise - a psychological thriller wrapped inside an obscure Jean Cocteau movie wrapped inside a children’s puppet show. His repertoire resembles an educational artwork on how to learn to create a work of art … presented as a cryptogram. Mixed by Paul Leary (Butthole Surfers), Gus’s new album "The Hornbook" will be launched on February 6 during Taverne Tour at L’Escogriffe. Gus Englehorn will also play in Austin, Texas during the renowned SXSW.