The microphone is back! And with it, my voice, a few stories between tracks, and, as you’ll discover, my occasionally questionable grasp of geography. We open with Rainburn, whose Indian progressive rock gives this episode an intense start. The kind of opening that makes you stop whatever else you’re doing and pay attention. A proper way to kick things off.

A message from Berlin, a voice on the métro, and a little shelter from the week.

There is a particular kind of kindness in remembering something somebody told you weeks ago. SFSF remembered Maison Vide. She remembered the empty house behind the song. In a message sent from Berlin, after speaking about my dedication to indie artists and the relationships growing around the Salon, she wondered whether that house might feel a little less empty now.

Seventy-five. There it is, sitting at the top of another episode of Le Salon Indie de Mitxoda. A tidy little number for something much less tidy: finding music, making room for it, and hoping someone, somewhere, will hear a song they want to keep. We musicians have a complicated relationship with numbers. Plays, followers, monthly listeners. The little counter beside a video.

The indie artist’s optimism has no sensible limit. Pull up a chair. There is a particular kind of optimism in an artist returning to a song after almost twenty years. The world has moved on. The person who wrote it has changed. Something in those old recordings still asks to be heard. Nikola Zenko’s forthcoming “Who Are We ?” comes from that situation.

Just chilling with some friends, enjoy these Belgian gems, with a bit of collabs too 🙂

Mitxoda Weekly #105 - Three albums, an invisible illness, and a Belgian radio show. This week, three albums from my life are having birthdays. Nirvana’s Nevermind turns 35. In a Bar, Under the Sea by Belgium’s dEUS turns 30. Blind Melon’s self-titled debut turns 34. You remember that cover, don’t you? I could write about the records, the years, and what it felt like to discover them.

This Friday, I received a gift. A real one. A parcel arrived from Germany, from Rosdorf, to be precise, sent by Éléonore Palmegratz aka Aliènor. Its a wonderful pack, a CD inside. But before even discovering its musical contents, the parcel itself, the thought behind it and the simple beauty of the gesture genuinely moved me. And the timing could hardly be better, because today, in…

A new Mitxoda track, a house emptied too late, and one exclusive long version in today’s Salon Indie.

Maison Vide, Some houses become empty. Others keep everything. The house is empty now. That sentence sounds practical. Finished, almost. A task completed, a door closed, a line crossed off a list. It says nothing about what it took to get there. My mother died four and a half years ago. The house where I spent my entire childhood remained, and eventually it had to be emptied.

Indiependence Day 2026 is over. The music has stopped, but something is still moving. There are weekends that end when you get home. And then there are weekends that keep travelling with you. Indiependence Day 2026 was one of those. A few days in Cologne surrounded by artists, friends and people who still believe that independent music is not merely something we release, promote or stream.

Friends, music, one dead coffee machine, and the feeling that next year should be bigger.

There is a peculiar moment at an independent music gathering when the map collapses. Germany, Belgium and all the other places people travelled from stop being distances. Names that normally appear beneath songs become faces. Conversations no longer wait for a reply, an algorithm or the right time zone. Someone is standing in front of you. You can talk, laugh, listen, disagree, make a plan and abandon it five minutes later for a better one.

Going to Cologne for the 2d edition of the Indiependence Day!

Most new music enters my life in the least romantic way possible. An email. A Spotify link. A Bandcamp page. A SoundCloud track. Sometimes a very long press release. Sometimes three words and a URL. An artist I have never heard of asks me to listen. And I do. Not always immediately,  apologies to everyone currently waiting somewhere inside my inbox, but eventually, I press play.

🇳🇿 Vanessa Tottle — Invisible Rose🎛️ Electronic / Trip-Hop • August 21, 2026Born alone at a Wellington hotel bar, complete with real field recordings of cocktails being shaken and poured, Invisible Rose turns distance and longing into a wonderfully cinematic trip-hop landscape.🎧 Listen: ✨ 🇫🇷 Marla Fredonne — Figer le soleil🎸 Rock • April 4, 2026…

Who are we actually talking to? What are we trying to fill, to repair, to affirm? What are we trying to prove - if anything? And perhaps the question that sometimes hurts the most:  is there even an audience for what we create? As indie artists, I think we’ve all asked ourselves these questions at some point. Maybe after releasing a track that disappears almost silently into the endless stream.

Happy is the one who goes on holiday. I wish we could invent little proverbs like that all year long. I’ve just returned from Andalusia, and some of the landscapes are still with me. A region literally dried out by the summer. In places, you could clearly imagine where the river was supposed to be, but instead of water, there was only a bed of stones, dust and sand.

Two hours of music. No microphone. No new submissions this time. Summer has caught up with me a little, and I simply haven’t had enough time to properly listen to and process all the tracks you’ve been sending. I’m sorry for that, they’re still there, waiting for my ears, and they’ll find their way into the Salon soon. For Episode 68, I went back instead to songs that already belong to this strange, beautiful little universe we’ve been building together.

One word from the indie world, six tries, liner notes at the end.

There was something particularly warm about this 67th Salon Indie. Mostly new music, fresh discoveries, and one of those playlists that simply found its own flow. No complicated recipe this week, just a seriously good vibe and a lot of music I was happy to let into the room. And the Salon was properly alive, too. I had the chance to chat live with Across the Frostland, Veronica MoonRay, a solo artist with an absolutely wonderful voice.

I made a game. Play Soundcheck Now Because apparently, creating newsletters, radio shows, playlists, websites and a whole indie universe wasn't enough 🙂 So here we are. Meet Soundcheck - the daily indie word game by Mitxoda. Think Wordle, but instead of guessing random five-letter words, you're stepping into the vocabulary of indie music and the creative ecosystem around it…

No voice from me this week, just two uninterrupted hours of outstanding indie music. Expect a wonderful selection of old-school indie tracks, carefully picked to keep the music flowing from start to finish. It's also a chance to revisit the beautiful La La Tunes that some of you created for my birthday last year. They still make me smile, and they deserve another listen. Sit back, press play, and enjoy two hours of pure indie sounds. Enjoy your summer, love you all!

One word from the indie world, six tries, liner notes at the end.

Some birthdays deserve a proper announcement. Mine is this Sunday, and I had planned to tell you during the show... but once again, technology had other ideas. The little gremlins came back for a visit. Nothing dramatic, just enough to remind me that live radio always has its own personality. Still, the most important thing survived: the music. My children once again found their way into the opening moments, which always makes the show feel a little more like home.

This week's Salon comes to you from somewhere between memories, train rides, family laughter, and the timeless beauty of Budapest. I spent the week away with my family, discovering one of my favorite cities through the eyes of my children. That also means there is no voice from me this time... well, almost. If you listen carefully, you'll hear two very special guests at the very beginning of the show: my kids, proudly opening this episode before letting the music take over.

Summer has finally arrived, and this episode naturally followed its rhythm. I opened the doors of the Salon with a collection of calm, atmospheric instrumentals. Sometimes the best way to start a journey is simply to slow down. Among those beautiful moments was a brand-new track from my Mexican friends Sonophagen, always a genuine pleasure to welcome their music into the Salon.

The heat refused to leave Brussels. If anything, it decided to turn the dial up even further. Yet once again, the music proved stronger than the temperature. This week's journey through the Indie Salon brought an abundance of fresh discoveries, brand-new releases, and those rare songs that deserve their very first moment on the radio. Alongside them came a handful of timeless tracks, songs from another era that quietly remind us why music never really ages.

Some shows happen. Others feel like a celebration. This 60th edition of Le Salon Indie de Mitxoda was definitely the second kind. The heat was everywhere. Brussels was preparing for the music celebrations filling its streets, and all around the world musicians, listeners, dreamers and curious souls were gathering for the annual magic of music. What better moment to celebrate sixty consecutive episodes together?

Some Fridays feel different. Not louder. Not bigger. Not more important. Just different. Maybe it was the strange silence of a world temporarily disconnected. Facebook was down for hours. Timelines frozen. Notifications asleep. Algorithms taking an unexpected nap. And somehow, it felt fitting. Because indie music never really belonged there anyway. It belongs in quieter places. In a room with half-closed curtains.

Sometimes, a radio show becomes more than a playlist. Episode 58 arrived with unexpected good news landing right in the middle of the broadcast. The kind of news that makes you smile while the music keeps flowing. Yet my thoughts were also with Arnaud from LZMP. Some moments in life ask us to slow down and remember that music is not only about promotion, releases, algorithms, or streams.

Celebrating Lisa, Celebrating Indie Radio

Some weeks arrive wrapped in contradiction. The body slows down while the mind keeps running. Energy disappears without warning, yet curiosity remains untouched. A cough, a fever, a sleepless night, and suddenly the simplest things become victories. Making tea. Opening a window. Listening to a song all the way through. This week's Salon Indie was born somewhere in that strange territory between sickness and joy.

When the Music Persists, We Remember We're Alive

Six years old. There are moments in life where words suddenly become too small for what we feel. Today was one of those moments. So I made a choice. No long introduction. No philosophy. No stories between the songs. No fragile attempt to explain what runs through a father’s heart when he watches time move far too quickly. Just music.

75,000 AI songs a day. Labels, bans, confusion… and one essential question: how do we remain emotionally real?

A deep voice. A painfully slow beginning. The kind of opening that should make people nervous rather than relaxed. And yet, there I was, opening this 55th episode of the Salon Indie de Mitxoda with Abysmal Growls of Despair and their Prologue to Agony. Because sometimes, the indie world is exactly that contradiction. A dark corridor leading toward warmth. A difficult emotion opening the door to comfort.

The sea was not far away this time. You could almost hear it between the songs. A slow tide rolling through distortion, fragile voices, old dreams, unfinished letters, and all these invisible connections that indie music keeps creating between people who may never physically meet, yet somehow already know each other. There are cities that feel like postcards. And there are cities that feel like memories before they even happen.

A Weekly About Rest, Distance, And The Strange Places Inspiration Hides

There is something strange about the first days of May. People open their windows again. Cities start breathing differently. Conversations escape into the streets. Coffee lasts longer. Nights become less defensive. And somewhere between uncertainty and sunlight, music returns to its rightful place, not as noise, not as background, but as company. This 53rd episode of Le Salon Indie de Mitxoda…

I like to turn disaster into something good, and lo and behold, I’m doing exactly that. #edm #edmart #housemusic #psytrance #progressivehouse #psychedelicvideo #psychedelicart #psychedelichouse…

If music can’t stop war, what can it start instead?

One year in Le Salon Indie, and every sound, every voice, every story still finds its place here.

Right after the Salon… while it’s still in the air. Dear indie friends, Just stepped out of the Salon… and there’s this feeling that something is quietly aligning. Nothing loud tonight. Nothing forced. Just a series of tracks that felt… right. As if each one was placing a small piece of something bigger we’re not fully seeing yet. Preparing for the best.

Fifty. Not a number to chase, not a milestone to display like a trophy on a digital shelf, but a rhythm, a pulse, a fragile consistency built week after week, somewhere between intention and instinct, between Brussels and the rest of the world. Fifty times sitting down, pressing play, and letting something happen. Dear indie friends, This one felt different.

Sometimes, words step aside. No stories, no commentary, no explanations trying to shape what you should feel. Just music, flowing on its own path, asking nothing, offering everything. Because there are moments where sound speaks better than we ever could… and where silence, between two notes, carries more truth than any sentence. This episode lives there. In the space of questions without answers.

The Last One? Or Just Another Beginning…

Where new voices arrive, and the unknown slowly becomes unforgettable