The 60-strong sound collective Alligator Gozaimasu have announced a new release called Solange Bunte Balken Durchlaufen. Translating as As Long As Render Bars Go Colourful, the title’s a nod to the process of rendering audio or video. Alligator Gozaimasu was founded in 2014 when Stephanie Müller of Beisspony and Kimya Dawson worked with Cup & Saucers, Takeshi Hattori, Miboujin, Otaco, Aoi Swimming and Shimettainu during a residency in Sapporo, Japan. The global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns spurred this continuing collaboration, now featuring a much expanded collective taking in artists and musicians from Austria, Germany, Finland, Italy, Japan, Senegal, Spain, Turkey, UK and the US. Their scattered members shared sonic fragments, voices and noises online, culminating in the first episode, Solange Bunte Balken Durchlaufen: “An album that is open for all the different circumstances and needs of such a large band, an album that celebrates mood swings and listens closely to the different tempi in these days.”

Alligator Gozaimasu will release this first episode on 24 July, with future episodes to follow on a monthly basis until December 2020. All money raised will be donated to the Sea Watch eV, a nonprofit organisation that conducts civil search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea.