five Archives - Structures Capable Of Joy

Ilona Bannister

Five

Released May 5th, 2026 via Crown

Per Spectrum Culture:

Ilona Bannister does a lot of things in Five, keeping a taut balance between them. It’s a mystery novel where the death comes at the end, rather than the beginning. It’s an interrelated short story collection with a strong framing device. In places it’s touching; in others it’s horrifying. The characters are all flawed in fascinating ways; the crowd that demands their protagonists be their morally pure best friends will hate it. There’s a lot to unpack from it, and if you’re the type to undertake such an unpacking with glee, you’ll find a lot to admire in Ilona Bannister’s latest.

Hedvig Mollestad Trio – Smells Funny

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★★★★☆

(February 1st on Rune Grammofon Records)

The worst thing about fusion has always been how seriously it’s practitioners take it. It’s basically all the power of both jazz and rock ‘n’ roll put into a tuxedo and made to look for respectability among the moneyed classes of the world. The Hedvig Mollestad Trio, however, wants no such respectability. Their fusion is haunted by the ghost of Jimi Hendrix, and as such it’s explosive, heavy, and outfitted with guitar lines that whip and strangle as much as they slither and caress.