The Very Best
Sweka "Broken"

Bright Archer, the lovely and striking moniker for pianist/singer-songwriter Johanna Kunin, releases her sophomore record, Hidden Systems. With her luxuriant vocals and stirring piano lines, Portland, Oregon’s (via Minneapolis and Seattle) busiest musician (Loch Lomond, AgesandAges, Velella Velella) proves she somehow still had time on her hands to create yet another dreamy album, full of the hushed, melodic chamber-pop she championed on her first effort Clouds Electric in 2006.

2 years ago the track "Still Numbers" on Ekin Fil's album Heavy caught the attention of a certain Richard D. James, who under his 'user18081971' username reposted the track to his now historic Soundcloud dump. This is also how Ekin's work initially caught the labels attention; at first listen it sounded like a unearthed Grouper demo, a parallel that can be drawn respectfully, seeing Ekin's trade marks are also those forlorn, muffled vocal whispers, layered under sentimental tape loops, paired with ambiance and feedback. The album itself was originally produced in 5 years ago during what Ekin Fil recalls as a down right depressing and tumultuous time during which she turned to music as a measure of rehabilitation. Heavy was later released on tape via Lee Nobles' No Kings label in 2016 and remastered in 2018 from the tape rips by Rashad Backer, preserving the fragile and heavy hearted auditory sensibility found in the original work, while making one of Ekin's earliest and most personally endearing releases available to a new audience of listeners.