Announcing The Perilous Fight ... Volume II !

Following the success of the first volume of The Perilous Fight, Centripetal Force and Seawind of Battery Announce The Perilous Fight – Vol. 2: We the People,
A Benefit Compilation Supporting Immigrant Communities in Minnesota

Following an overwhelming response to a recent call for submissions, The Perilous Fight has emerged as a multi-volume benefit compilation bringing together dozens of artists in a shared act of solidarity and resistance. Curated by Mike Horn of Seawind of Battery and Mike Mannix, founder of Centripetal Force, the project channels collective fear, anger, and resolve into direct support for immigrant communities under threat.

On Friday, February 13, The Perilous Fight – Vol. 2: We the People will be released digitally on Bandcamp. Proceeds from this volume will be donated in full to the Minnesota-based Immigrant Rapid Response Fund, which provides urgent legal, financial, and community support for individuals and families impacted by immigration enforcement.

While national news coverage has largely moved on from Minnesota, the harm caused by the administration’s intimidation tactics and enforcement actions has not. The struggle remains. The damage is ongoing. And the need for resources, advocacy, and care is immediate. Even as recent headlines suggest that ICE and Homeland Security may be stepping back from the state, the long work of rebuilding lives, restoring trust, and supporting traumatized communities continues.

The Perilous Fight is not a traditional benefit compilation. It is a statement by everyday people using music to push back against cruelty, fear, and the normalization of state violence. Many contributors are not directly targeted by these policies, yet feel how close the threat has come, how easily it could touch their own towns, streets, and families. That fear is not incidental; it is cultivated. This project exists as a refusal to let that fear turn into paralysis.

Seawind of Battery is the project of New York–based guitarist Mike Horn, whose work—like that of Centripetal Force—has long treated music as a tool for solidarity and collective action. Together, they invite listeners to engage not only with the music, but with the responsibility to stand alongside those most affected.

The Perilous Fight – Vol. 2: We the People is a collective gesture of care, resistance, and material support—an attempt to meet this moment with action rather than silence.

Support The Perilous Fight here.

The Perilous Fight – Vol. 2: We the People

  1. Seawind of Battery - What's The Use (Phish)

  2. Barry Walker Jr - Windchill

  3. House Band - Tropical Budget

  4. More Klementines - Whisky's Way

  5. Brad Rose - Memory Doesn't End

  6. The Royal Arctic Institute - Voice Memo

  7. Jarrod Annis - Interstate Flowers

  8. The Far Sound - Be

  9. John Hernandez - Jot This Down

  10. John Swanke - Open Range

  11. Heron & Crane - Light Fearmongering

  12. Jon Camp - Habitat - 2025.11.06 - Waterloo Arts - Cleveland

  13. Emergency Group - Untitled for Renée Good

  14. Liam Grant - Noon

  15. Steenkiste - Bischoff feat. Giacomo Salis - Obsigend 3

  16. Monks Pond - Waves in the Cosmic Ocean

  17. Golden Brown - Chatoyancy

  18. Herb Lore - Navigation By Autumnal Stars

  19. Burial Cake - You Already Were One (the Last Ghost Left in Your Closet)

  20. Ancestree - Organize

  21. Eve Maret - aadays tiasais aadays

  22. flormancy - leaving

  23. Dark Leaves - Grantchester Meadows

  24. Little H Collective - Indistinct

Announcing Tacoma Park's 'Baltimore'

Tacoma Park, the North Carolina–based duo of John Harrison and Ben Felton, have a new album on the way, arriving April 24, and it feels like a natural next step rather than a sharp turn. Made after a long stretch of playing, recording, and touring, and during a period of personal and everyday change, the record doesn’t trace a single storyline so much as capture where the band found themselves.

For this album, Harrison and Felton spent more time thinking about shape and pacing. They wanted to keep the loose, exploratory feel that’s always been part of Tacoma Park, while making music that felt settled, focused, and playable beyond the studio. Working mostly from home studios and often apart, they let the music take its time- editing carefully, trimming things back, and committing to an album that feels intentional from front to back.

Across the record, electronics and guitars sit side by side, with moments that lean mechanical followed by ones that feel warm and human. Drums appear sparingly, adding an organic counterweight. Space plays a big role too: parts thin out, hang in the air, or give way to silence, letting patience and repetition do some of the work. The album moves easily between acoustic, electronic, and heavier electric moments without worrying too much about staying in one lane.

More than anything, this record is built on trust- trust in each other, in the editing process, and in the idea that if they keep showing up and playing together, people will hear themselves in it too. The album was mastered by Chuck Johnson, a former North Carolinian whose touch helps bring cohesion and clarity to the final sound.

The first track to be revealed, “Untied,” is streaming now and offers an early glimpse into the album’s world. The full record is out April 24. A limited vinyl pressing of 100 copies is available now for preorder at centripetalforcerecords.bandcamp.com.

Announcing The Perilous Fight

Centripetal Force and Seawind of Battery Announce The Perilous Fight – Vol. 1: Justice for All, a Three-Volume Benefit Compilation in Support of Immigrant Justice

Last week, Mike Horn of Seawind of Battery and Mike Mannix, founder of the music label Centripetal Force, issued a call for submissions for a benefit compilation titled The Perilous Fight. The response was immediate—and overwhelming. Within days, more than 70 artists had answered the call.

What began as a single release quickly grew into something much larger. As a result of the outpouring of support, The Perilous Fight will be released as a three-volume digital compilation. The first installment, The Perilous Fight – Vol. 1: Justice for All, will be available on Bandcamp on Friday, February 6, via both the Centripetal Force and Seawind of Battery Bandcamp pages. The remaining two volumes will follow over the next two weeks.

This is not an ordinary benefit compilation. The Perilous Fight is a collective statement of solidarity—a response to the escalating rhetoric, intimidation, and violence shaping daily life in communities across the country. The contributors are everyday Americans using music to speak out against cruelty, authoritarianism, and the atmosphere of fear fostered by the current administration.

“Let’s say the quiet thing out loud,” Mannix explains. “A lot of us are scared. Scared of how close this violence feels, how easily it could reach our own towns, streets, and families. That fear isn’t accidental—it’s the result of a sustained campaign of intimidation coming from the highest levels of power. And it weighs heaviest on already vulnerable communities.”

If those with relative stability and support feel unsettled, the burden carried by the direct targets of these policies—particularly immigrant communities—is impossible to ignore. Rather than being frozen by anger or exhaustion, The Perilous Fight channels that urgency into action.

All proceeds from The Perilous Fight – Vol. 1: Justice for All  will be donated directly to the National Immigrant Justice Center, supporting critical legal and humanitarian work for immigrants facing detention, deportation, and systemic injustice. This first volume represents a collective gesture of care, resistance, and tangible support.

Seawind of Battery is the project of New York–based guitarist Mike Horn, whose work—like that of Centripetal Force—has long treated music as a tool for solidarity, community, and resistance. Together, these three volumes stand as a reminder that fear does not have to be the final word—and that collective action, however imperfect, still matters.

Support The Perilous Fight here.

Mike Horn aka Seawind of Battery

The Perilous Fight – Vol. 1: Justice for All

  1. Robbie Lynn Hunsinger – ICE/CPD Protest 2026

  2. Rob Dobson – Subspace Reverie

  3. Ernie Francestine – Things Have Changed

  4. Elijah Mclaughlin – Balloon

  5. The Modern Folk – Automation

  6. Tacoma Park – GC2

  7. SUSS – This Land is Your Land

  8. Tarotplane – a grazing occultation

  9. Sean Hendley – Mourning Bells are Ringing

  10. Drew Gardner – Red Tailed

  11. Skyminds – Whispering Palms

  12. Parking Space – Table Scraps for the Gods

  13. SOMA – Song of the Lotus Born

  14. Drifting North – We Gotta Get Sicker

  15. Hipwell – I chose you, too

  16. Andrew Tuttle – An Infinite Mixtape

  17. J.M. Hart – Can You Keep Up (Minnesota Mix)

  18. David Bales – Instructions For The Livingman's Grave

  19. Sisterhood of Sleep – Benevolence

  20. Whettman Chelmets – A Wave of Red Tears

  21. Christopher Bruno – Sir Desmond of the Valley

  22. Big Blood – 100 Days (of War)

  23. Matthew Geary – I'm Work!/I Shall Not Be Moved

  24. ragenap+dathon – Blue Dream (by Toby Oler)

Announcing Agnes Martian's 'Elsewhere'

Formed in 2019 in Oakland, California by Benjamin Rodgers and Zekarias Thompson, Agnes Martian began as a weekly ritual of unstructured, cosmic exploration—a musical extension of gatherings at their shared home, Agneshaus, named in part for painter Agnes Martin. What started as open-ended warehouse jams with friends from the Bay Area’s improvisation scene evolved into a live ensemble known for immersive, largely improvised sets that bridge the Kosmische pioneers of the 1970s with the region’s deep experimental lineage.

Their 2022 debut, The Future Light Cone (on Centripetal Force/Cardinal Fuzz’s Altered States imprint), introduced their blend of propulsive rhythm and meditative drone, featuring poet gideon hart and Icelandic composer Pétur Eggerts. Since then, the group has expanded its collaborative network through a series of quadraphonic performances around the Bay Area, treating sound as a spatial and sculptural medium.

Following that debut, Elsewhere finds Agnes Martian widening their sonic and philosophical scope. Conceived from the ground up through synthesizer exploration, the album incorporates FM and wavetable synthesis alongside acoustic instrumentation to create a richly textured suite that moves between propulsion and stillness, balancing analog pulse with organic resonance. The title extends the “light cone” concept from special relativity—“Elsewhere” describing a space beyond both past and future events, a metaphor for the band’s search for new soundmaking approaches and imaginative futures.

Developed over three years through remote and in-person collaboration, the album features contributions from Primary Mystical Experience (Galecstasy) on drums, Rocco Freeman (Banshee, Mirage) on guitar, and Eggerts on violin and acoustic textures, with Thompson and gideon shaping its narrative and emotional core. The project’s evolution reflects connection as much as distance, continuing the spirit of open collaboration that began at Agneshaus.

At its heart, Elsewhere moves from tightly wound repetition to open, exploratory drift—a journey that captures Agnes Martian’s fascination with the spaces between rhythm and release, sound and silence. Drawing inspiration from Harmonia, Upper Astral, The Far East Family Band’s Fumio Miyashita, and Philippe Besombes & Jean-Louis Rizet, the band channels the spirit of self-recorded experimentation that defined the outer reaches of Kosmische and new age sound.

Elsewhere will be released November 14th on Centripetal Force, available in a limited vinyl edition and digital formats. Recommended for fans of Harmonia, Popol Vuh, Cluster, The Far East Family Band, and other travelers of the cosmic range.

Preorders for Elsewhere are currently live and can be found at Centripetal Force.

Announcing Jon Camp's Proceed

Centripetal Force is proud to announce the forthcoming release of Proceed, the new full-length album from guitarist and composer Jon Camp, arriving October 17th, 2025. The album marks Camp’s second release on Centripetal Force and follows 2022’s critically-praised solo-leaning collection. With this release, Camp shifts fully into electric full-band territory, presenting his most dynamic and collaborative work to date. Proceed will be available digitally, as well as on vinyl and CD.

Anchored in rich storytelling and expansive guitar arrangements, Proceed Proceed is a powerful statement on forward motion in the face of life’s joys and challenges. Inspired in part by nightly conversations with his parents, the album weaves together themes of family history, ecological and political concerns, and quiet perseverance, all delivered with Camp’s signature emphasis on melody and compositional depth.

“Thematically, it’s about moving forward and persevering amidst heaviness—absorbing the past, living in the present, and confronting an uncertain future,” says Camp. “The title Proceed reflects both a personal survival instinct and the broader cultural need to keep going, even when it’s hard to see what’s ahead.”

The album’s recording was made possible in part by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, a testament to the artistic depth and regional significance of Camp’s work. The grant allowed for additional instrumentation and studio time, helping realize the album’s vision with clarity and force.

While Camp is sometimes categorized under “ambient country,” Proceed resists easy genre definitions. It’s rooted in folk, not in form, but in ethos: a music crafted late at night after the day job ends and often influenced by his immediate surroundings.

“I think of myself as a folk musician in the sense that my music is just baked into my life,” Camp says. “I work on it every day—it’s how I process the world.”

Preorders for Proceed are currently live and can be found art Centripetal Force.

Photo by Chris Bruno

NATE MERCEREAU AND LUKE SCHNEIDER TO PERFORM AT HISTORIC OAKLAND CHURCH

Centripetal Force and Optical Sound Experience are excited to present a unique sonic experience at Oakland’s beautiful First Presbyterian Church with guitarist, improviser, and composer Nate Mercereau, alongside ambient pedal steel visionary Luke Schneider. The evening, rounded out by Oakland's Heavy Arts Ensemble, promises to be a transcendent night of creative sound and community. 

Well known for recent work with frequent collaborators like Andre 3000 and Carlos Niño (among many others), Nate Mercerau will perform a solo set drawing on his expansive catalog, leaning into material from Excellent Traveller (Third Man Records, 2024).  In the words of frequent collaborator Carlos Niño:

 ‘An excellent traveller on the surface of Earth, throughout our Human World, and within the vast internal depths of Vision, code and eternal vibration, Mercereau keeps moving . . . This exquisite album of spontaneous solo composition and nuanced improvisation features Living Legends Laraaji, Luis Pérez Ixoneztli and Idris Ackamoor, as well as 3000, Niño and their close collaborator, keyboardist, Surya Botofasina. Nate's (3 years young) Daughter Juniper is on the album.”

Over the past three decades Luke Schneider has established himself as an in-demand session and touring musician across the Outlaw Country, Indie/DIY, and experimental scenes in Nashville. Most recently, He has found his place in the landscape of New Age and pastoral Americana music.  His well-received debut solo album, ‘Altar of Harmony’ (Third Man Records), is a collection of cinematic ambient compositions created entirely by pedal steel. In the years since, Luke has continued his experimental elevation of the pedal steel guitar and delved deeper into meditative and calming sounds.

Opening sound provided by Oakland’s Heavy Arts Ensemble

August 29, 2025 | First Presbyterian Church of Oakland | Doors 7 pm | $20 adv. / $25 DOS | Get tickets.

Announcing Wonderful Aspiration of the Source

Ambient experimentalist Michael Hix — best known as the founder of the Nashville Ambient Ensemble — steps into new territory with Wonderful Aspiration of the Source, his debut solo release under the same name. Out September 19th on Centripetal Force, the album strips away expectations and genre lines to deliver something raw, spacious, and deeply personal. The album will be available on limited edtion pink vinyl, CD, and, of course, digitally.

Built entirely around electric guitar and shaped by Hix’s Buddhist meditation practice, Wonderful Aspiration of the Source unfolds like a quiet conversation with the self. Hix explores new territory using a B-Bender Telecaster and live looping — no synths, no pedal steel — creating textures that echo ambient legends like Eno and Budd, with subtle nods to Hedges, Metheny, and even the soulful clarity of Gilmour.

The first single, “Cadence,” arrives July 22nd, with album preorders happening at the same time.

“This album came from a place of needing to simplify,” Hix explains. “Music stopped being a standalone pursuit and became part of my mindfulness. These songs are more from the heart.”

Recorded live at The Golden Tone Zone in Nashville with Trevor Nikrant (Styrofoam Winos) behind the board, the album’s tones float between melancholy and warmth, offering a unique sonic voice that feels both grounded and transcendental. Fans of marine eyes, Chuck Johnson, and Nashville’s growing ambient underground will find themselves at home — even if the album doesn’t fit neatly into any single category.

Preorders for Wonderful Aspiration of the Source go live July 22nd via Centripetal Force.

Announcing The Royal Arctic Institute

Centripetal Force is excited to announce the release of the new album from The Royal Arctic Institute. The album will be made available on vinyl, as well as on CD and digitally. The preorder goes live on March 18. Its release date is May 2.

When I sent this album to a close friend a few weeks back, he asked, "What's this?" I said, "My inability to move away from the pedal steel guitar." He got back to me a while later and claimed the album to be "The most Centripetal Force thing I have ever heard." I assure you this was not by design. 

Mike Horn (Seawind of Battery) put The Royal Arctic Institute on my radar a couple years back. I was intrigued. At the time their material did not feature the pedal steel guitar. They gave off a sort of West Coast post-rock kind of vibe that reminded me of bands like Tarentel, Tristeza, and other similar groups that dominated the Bay Area scene in the late 90s and early 2000s.  As the demos of the new album came my way and I learned of RAI's plan to work pedal steel guitar into the mix, I was not disappointed. It was marrying two worlds of music that I enjoy very much. And now, a few months down the road, this album has come to fruition. 

All of the members of The Royal Arctic Institute carry impressive resumes of past work, ranging from Das Damen to Townes Van Zandt to Arthur Lee to Roky Erickson. They've been creating sound for a long time, and as these guys will tell you, this is their most accomplished work to date. 

"Twigs of Cries, Feathers of Sobs" will be the lead "single" and will debut March 18. The album will go up for preorder on the same day. Release day is May 2, 2025. 

Preorder the album from Centripetal Force,

Announcing Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian's Noor-e Vojood

Centripetal Force (North America), Cardinal Fuzz (UK), and Radio Khiyaban (Europe) are excited to announce Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian's second album Noor-e Vojood. The album is being presented digtial;y, as well as a 500 copy vinyl pressing. The album will be made available for preorder on January 24. Its release date is March 7.

Heydarian is a young Kurdish tanbur player from Kermanshah, a city in the mountainous western Iranian region of Horaman. The son of a local instrument builder, he grew up surrounded by the local traditional music styles, studying with a number of well-known master musicians before recently entering university to study Persian classical music.

Noor-e Vojood is much more focused than the first album, Songs of Horaman, The spirit of improvisation is still there, but this time the compositions are more intentional and possess a more poetic flow, a hallmark of Iranian sacred and classical music. And while the music is not explicitly psychedelic, it certainly is a heady affair and lends itself to mediation and associated practices. 

"Bàyeh Bàyeh" is currently streaming and available to listen to on Bandcamp. The song is performed in an ancient tradition of tanbur playing, a modal scale meant to channel feelings of joy and exhilaration. Songs performed in this style are played in ceremonies celebrating victory. In the framework of the entire album, "Bàyeh Bàyeh" helps build the epic nature of Heydarian's musical storytelling. The song also provides a sort of much needed respite for these trying times. 

Preorder the vinyl edition of the album from Centripetal Force, Cardinal Fuzz, and Radio Khiyaban.

Announcing New Albums From Yaryu And Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders

The autumn release schedule at Centripetal Force received a boost this week with the announcement of two new releases, Yaryu’s For Damage and Spacious Minds: Volumes I & II from Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders.

Yaryu’s For Damage is a groundbreaking work blends the meditative qualities of New Age music with the soulful, improvisational ethos of jazz, creating a listening experience that is both spiritually uplifting and sonically captivating. It is an album that continues the rich legacy of Japanese psychedelic music. And with members who have been involved with projects like De Lorians, Sundays & Cybele, Dhidalah, and Acid Mothers Temple, they are certainly no strangers to pushing boundaries and moving their sound in new directions.

For Damage is available for preorder from Centripetal Force, Ramble Records (AUS), and Cardinal Fuzz (UK). It’s available digitally and on vinyl, with a CD option available from Centripetal Force.

Initially released on cassette on Arrowhawk Records, Jeffrey Alexanders + The Heavy Lidders’ Spacious Minds: Volumes I & II fgets the vinyl treatment as a two LP set from Centripetal Force and Cardinal Fuzz. The two volumes were pressed as two separate stand alone album, allowing for Jake Blanchard’s artwork to really shine and take center stage. And honestly, with the pair limited to 250 copies each, the production cost was much less than doing a gatefold cover.

Spacious Minds is made up of live cuts recorded primarily at Record Crates United’s backyard garden party back in 2022. Volume I kicks off with a massive 36+ minute “Dark Star” before winding its way into a heavy host of Lidders gems on Volume II, with the title track being a wonderfully fried highlight. Copies of the records, bundled and sold separately, can be found at both the Centripetal Force and Cardinal Fuzz bandcamp pages.

Spacious Minds, both volumes side-by-side

ANNOUNCING NUMÜN'S 'OPENING'

News has come down that numün is releasing its third and latest album on Centripetal Force and the UK’s Where It’s At Is Where You Are (WIAIWYA). Titled Opening,  the new release contains 8 songs of ambience and psychedelic pastoral soundscapes that draw as much on the krautrock of Popol Vuh and Harmonia as they do on the desert soundscapes of Bruce Langhorne. As reviewed in Complex Distractions, “Imagine if Ry Cooder, Brian Eno, and William Tyler all came together under East Coast stars and pressed upon the universe to give them a cosmic splash of inspiration." 

Formed in 2019 by Joel Mellin, Christopher Romero (Gamelan Dharma Swara) and ambient country pioneer Bob Holmes (SUSS, Rubber Rodeo) numün meld and juxtapose an array of instrumentation: cumbuz (fretless Turkish 12-string banjo), gamelan (Balinese metallophones & gongs), piano, bass flute, violin, guitar, electronics, and synths. This release also sees numün expanding their trio line-up to include Victoria Lo Mellin (Dharma Swara) on flute and bass flute, as well as Willa Roberts (Black Sea Hotel) on violin and vocals. 

The album is currently available for pre-order on vinyl and cassette, as well as digitally. In North and South America, please visit the Centripetal Force Bandcamp. For those in the UK and EU, visit the WIAIWYA Bandcamp.

Opening will be released in January of 2025

numün

Coming Back to Nashville!

Centripetal Force is making its first trip back to Nashville since returning to California and will be hosting a show at Vinyl Tap on September, 21st. The evening is lined up to include the wonderfully dark and wistful sounds of Marissa Nadler, the incredible guitar work of Michael Hix (Nashville Ambient Ensemble), and the eccentric creativity of Kevin Coleman, who will be playing with guitarist Scott Mattingly and keyboardist Gray Worry.

The night is modeled after last year’s successful run of Centripetal Sundays, a series of showcases in which the invited artists were encouraged to collaborate, improvise, invent, and introduce new ideas and sounds. This year’s show is happening in the middle of the much lauded AmericanaFest and offers a glimpse of the type of creativity that is happening on the fringes of the Americana world in Nashville.

Music will start at 7PM sharp and wrap up by 10. There's no cover but attendees are asked to tip generously, as is the Nashville way.

Michael Hix

Marissa Nadler

Kevin Coleman