03/01/2026
2025 was a big year for Ideologic Organ with nine new album releases (plus three reissues and a film), the most in a single year since the early days, perhaps ever. We had the incredible honour to work with these superb artists and musicians, and friends, not only as fans of their music but as a vehicle to get that music into the world—a statement on the label’s path of curation, without artistic compromise. I thank everyone for your interest, trust, and collaboration!
And a huge thank you to my partner, Bartolomé Sanson of Shelter Press, for managing the back office, logistics, and production. It’s a great partnership, and we couldn’t do this without your solid enthusiasm, guidance, opinion and supreme calm.
2026 holds several special projects already. Looking forward to sharing them with you.
Thank you to our audiences for your curiosity, listening and support! If you haven’t listened to these records yet, everything is available to stream and you can buy physical copies on our label Bandcamp (link in bio)
Special shout-out to Secretly Distribution and Handle With Care and Rarely Unable for their support!
Here’s the 2025 IO round-up in the comments below
–Stephen O'Malley, 31 December 2025, Avon, Colorado
January: Nate Wooley’s beautiful compositions for voice, sound waves, and brass, “Henry House”: these conceptual pieces were a sleeper for me, and their vitality emerged in a powerful, affecting way.
February: Nina Garcia’s debut solo electric guitar record “Bye Bye Bird”. Fresh, vital, exciting, amusing: everything you could wish for in an experimental electric guitar solo, a great play of distortion and feedback, a beauty. Nina really made the most of this release, touring heavily throughout 2025. Viva Nina!
March: Golem Mecanique’s "Siamo Tutti In Pericolo", her conceptual ode to a moment, the night of Pierre Pasolini’s passing and the mystery enveloping. Our third release with Karen Jebane is marvellously affecting.
April: Lucy Railton’s monumental solo cello work “Blue Veil” is a statement of beauty, harmony and mood all I could wish for to produce and channel via the label. A project Kali and I were involved in, from the recording to the release, made it an extra-special personal one.
April: Kali Malone's "The Sacrificial Code" is a milestone album for the composer and for the pipe organ music world at large. Initially released in 2019 on Ideal, we had the honour of releasing a new edition as part of our campaign to make Kali's music available worldwide through broader distribution.
June: Hampus Lindwall’s "Brace for Impact" compositions for organ are amongst the more radical music we have released on the label. Hampus is deeply established in the organ world, and it was a pleasure to bring these compositions to light as an LP for the more experimental music audiences.
August: We released our first film of the performance of Tarek Atoui & Ensemble "Live, Église du Saint-Esprit, Paris, 25 April 2024 (LIV ep5)", a documentation of a special collaborative concert in Paris as part of Hampus Lindwall and my series Les Inspirations Visibles.
August: Benny Nilsen's "True Than Nature", field recording compositions bring curiosity and delight to the listener, all the time representing a slightly subjective affectivity of the recording artist. Focus can reveal a reality you wish for... I've been friends with Benny for nearly 20 years, and working together on this release was a dark treat.
October: When I first heard Slomo's "The Creep" on a CDR in 2005, there was no perspective that I'd be involved with an LP release 20 years later, much less any 20-year prospectus! Holy McGrail and I have been through the stones over the years, and it was an absolute pleasure to connect again and make this special 60-minute single LP emerge from the void.
November: Kali Malone & Drew McDowall's "Magnetism" is an exuded gem of strange synthetic melody, with masterful timbre and harmonics. Besides being created by two close friends who I love dearly, what struck me the most were the hooks and earworms inherent, a level of deep moods and momentary characters, while embodying an absence of transient mania.
November: Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter took a long pause before unveiling "Forever, I've Been Being Born" to the world. What can I say? It's a masterpiece, and Jesse's voice enraptures. The depth of our friendship and collaboration over the years on records and on stage is a history I cherish, and it's an incredible honour and privilege to be part of sharing Jesse's music with the world.
In addition to all of these new titles, we reissued SOMA025 The Necks "Unfold" and SOMA011 Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang "The Face Of The Earth". Both masterpieces. We also provided the conduit for another seven albums from our sub-distributed labels and friends XKatedral & Kou Records.
