“All time is now, and now is all you have.”
It is hard to come up with a better motto for a band that records albums as if they were the last. AKA BELLE from Boise, Idaho, are known and popular in the Pacific Northwest region. The band has 5 members. At the beginning they were an original duo of Catherine Merrick and Sam Merrick — its core, then friends Anthony Mulparry, Jake Stigers and later Christine Nygard joined, first finding herself at a concert at 17 and at 19 becoming a full member of the collective. That happens too. And Christine can be understood, because AKA BELLE concerts are called a trance ritual.
On April 24, 2026, their double album “All Time is Now, Now is All You Have + The Time for Love is Always Now” will be released on vinyl via Moon Ruins Records, aiming to translate the energy of their live performances into a physical format. The project is arranged in an original way: “All Time Is Now, Now Is All You Have” – a full-length album with new material; “The Time for Love Is Always Now” – a collection of tracks previously released only in digital format. As a result the listener is offered marble vinyl, an ethereal cover, packaging conceived as a work of art. “It was important for us to make something beautiful that you can hold in your hands and look at just as you listen to it,” says vocalist Catherine Merrick. An antidote against disposable music that disappears from the playlist before you manage to remember it.
The recording was done by the method the band calls “Live, 2-Stage Cosmophonic Recording”: first – all instruments in a single live take, then – the vocalists stand in a circle and also record live, without edits. The magnificent five worked in studios in Boise and La Grande, Oregon – living through and experiencing every stage of the recording process. Explaining AKA BELLE’s music through genres is like describing a smell through the periodic table. Nevertheless I will try. Formally: psychedelic blues, bossa nova, teenage pop of the sixties, punk irony of the seventies. Vibraphone and theremin carry the melody and hold the atmosphere, sometimes taking it into another orbit.
The recording includes 12 tracks and I want to offer a description of some of them. I will start with the first three tracks. In my opinion they clearly make it understood what will come next. Everything begins with the track “Fittin’ In (Garage Mix)”. There are several versions of this song on the album – and this one is the sharpest. Daring guitars, forceful drums and the vocals of two vocalists tell a story about the struggle with imposed forms. The song resembles a conversation in raised voices. Next, “Six Severed Feet” -a miniature thriller in sound. A calm introduction is interrupted by male vocals – steel and confident. In his sharp intonation one feels composure and strength, but the female voice answers him as an equal. Their duet – a sound duel – beautiful and dangerous. The instruments build in layers, turning into a storm from which the track emerges into soft reconciliation. Everything dissolves in soft sound. But “Radiant”, on the contrary, shines like a meteor in the night sky. Floating guitars, two-part vocals and the ghostly cosmic breathing of the theremin form a track as if from light and air. Behind this musical frenzy – an important theme: time and love are the same dimension where everything happens only now.
The track “Sunlight (Is Like Kissing for the First Time)” turned out successfully on the album. It unfolds with a soft guitar line and reflects on how to relearn to feel happiness. A sunbeam is compared to a kiss – a metaphor of rebirth, awakening and bodily joy. The musical fabric of the track is refinedly psychedelic, reminiscent of frames of an old film passed through the filter of morning fog: slightly faded, but therefore even warmer. The song is a kiss: fleeting, fragile and infinite like space in the track “Call From the Cosmos”. An interesting instrumental composition with an original combination of dreamy and psychedelic mood. A smooth vocal chant of “pa-pa-pa-pa,” an echo from the ether. Live cosmophonic recording.
The album unites fascination with nature and the Universe, but the theme of urgency runs through it. And here the track “The Envy of Venus” copes with the task best of all. A dramatic “evangelical” curse from the face of Mother Earth, condemning human thoughtlessness. The smooth rhythm of bossa nova, expressive vocals, refined interweavings of guitar solo and eclectic instruments add imagery. The final track, a hypnotic call to bodily autonomy and a brief history of the suppression of women in “Raise Power”. It begins with percussion beating a shamanic rhythm. The vocals tense, confident, lead through the story for more than six minutes. Closer to the finale the guitar breaks away and goes into a long ringing solo. And then – an a cappella chord. One. Powerful. Final. After it you sit quietly for a few more seconds, because speaking feels awkward.
The double album “All Time is Now, Now is All You Have + The Time for Love is Always Now” – revelations directed to all living – they are about the divine essence, about beauty in the reflection of light. Here the sun kisses, time is sold, and the morning fog calls to dive into dreams. AKA BELLE embrace the universe, saying: “this radiance is yours, do not forget.”
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