Nordi's monthly Atlas releases proceed with Blufff, which came out on 24th October.

Our other artistic monk, Stairstep, finally revealed himself with the single IV, which came out on 17th October! The full EP, Manuscrito, is coming out on Halloween.

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Last weekend, I (Miguel) went for another couple of creative days to Rafael's home in Northampton. This time, I didn't lose the train, but I've managed to hop on it a single minute before departure... Hey! I guess that still counts as an improvement towards my lack of time management!? Haha

For some reason, I noticed the train was way emptier this time when compared to September's journey. Is it because it's getting colder? Do people travel less during the Autumn & Winter seasons when compared to the Spring & Summer ones?

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The two sessions we had over the weekend made us finish one of the tracks for Aliança and start another one for the same compilation.

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The first session went super smooth! We started where we left off in the previous month's session. If you read the previous journal, you will notice I mentioned that we achieved this dark and apocalyptic Trip Hop ambience, almost reminiscent of Portishead's sound. Well, there's some truth to this; however, the chorus instrumental section isn't as dark as when it was originally conceived. I'd say, instrumentally, there's more of a hypnotic elegance to the track and definitely a more straight-to-the-point message, once Stairstep's English vocals & lyrics came in. Furthermore, the newest excitement to the track was added with Nordi's incredible Portuguese rap verses, full of twists and turns, and bending his flows between Hip-Hop & Drum'n'Bass beats. This is truly a track we're proud of! The definition of a long-lasting alliance between two nations that represent so much for us.

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For the second session, as usual, I've put my SP-404 to use by sampling a couple of snippets from this Electronic Rock/New Wave song from an early 80s cassette tape. There's a retro-futuristic vibe to those samples that I chopped. The way I played around with them, I believe I created something quite trippy/mesmerising, but at the same time, quite epic too! Rafael laid a drum beat on top, alongside some long & dense bass lines that indeed keep your eardrums glued to the tune.

We intend to keep it as epic as possible for every section of the track's structure.

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Rafael had to drop me off at Northampton train station around 8:30 pm; however, the train back to London got delayed nearly a full hour, so we still had time to go for a pint at the Foundrymans Arms pub, not too far from the station.

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November sessions are coming next month. Until then, don't miss out on Nordi's Blufff & the Atlas track series (so far), as well as Stairstep's single, IV & the Manuscrito EP coming out on Halloween day.

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Stay safe during this trick-or-treat season, fellow monks! 👻