Ancestors loom large over the playlist this week, signalling the way before finding themselves subsumed by the throb and hum, as Björk tallies with familiar collaborators James Merry and Andrew Thomas Huang, her son Sindri, and the Siggi String Quartet for a ritual trek across an Icelandic valley by way of tribute to the foibles and idiosyncrasies, the inspirations and transmutations of her mother. The New York native Wiki follows up on Half God by banding with the Jersey producer Subjxct 5 to pay homage to hip hop’s mixtape era, while for their second album Wau Wau Collectif take a different sort of tack, highlighting the voices of children amid shimmering synths, the plunking percussion of the balafon, and the 22-string kora as they dedicate Mariage to the memory of Ousmane Ba, the Senegalese group’s gently rippling flautist.
Keeping the firelights burning in the name of spiritual jazz at the end of a week which brought the death of Pharoah Sanders, the Polish bassist Wojtek Mazolewski and his longtime quintet attend to spiritual needs while surveying the breadth and unity of their surroundings. Never stepping into the same river twice, Photay and Carlos Niño flow with the current on their first collaborative full-length, while Charles Lloyd partners up with Gerald Clayton on piano and Anthony Wilson on guitar as the second album in his series Trio of Trios also takes thematic cues from the ocean.
Recorded in the 150-year-old Lobero Theatre in Lloyd’s hometown of Santa Barbara, a venue which the saxophonist has graced more than any other artist with his roving mind and lyrical tenor, the piece ‘Jaramillo Blues’ is dedicated to the painter Virginia Jaramillo and her husband, the sculptor Daniel Johnson. Finally with horns ablaze, the limpid pluck of strings, or the mallet crash of vibraphone and marimba, Noah Garabedian construes the connections and complexities of life, as Makaya McCraven imbues his organic beats with lush orchestration and beguiling movement.
More gnarled the Polish composer Aleksandra Słyż explores the physicality of acoustic instruments allied to her modular synths, drawing on the spectrality of Gérard Grisey and microtonality of Giacinto Scelsi for a trio of enveloping drones in the company of Marcus Wärnheim on the alto saxophone, Kosma Müller on violin, Kamil Babka on viola, and Anna Szmatoła on cello. Meanwhile Bill Nace expands on the looped-and-screwed methodology of Both as the fraying rhythms of his frazzled guitar collide with staggered phrases on the taishōgoto, quelle est belle, doughnut pipe, and hurdy gurdy.
Through love and strife, Lucrecia Dalt’s special envoy Preta navigates alien terrain and the swirl of time with a passion for merengue and a teetering buoyancy. Classically trained and rigorously de-trained, the semi-feral Lori Goldston settles down by the shore of an island in the Salish Sea among fawns, chipmunks, and birds for the video to ‘The Waves and What’s Under’. The amplified drone serves as the centrepiece to a series of solo cello improvisations and duets with the drummer Dan Sasaki, with the upcoming album High and Low serving to pay tribute to Goldston’s erstwhile friend, the Canadian illustrator and musician Geneviève Elverum.
A mirror image of Goodbye, the Planet Mu honcho Mike Paradinas heralds his third record of the year as µ-Ziq through manic breaks, hellacious choirs, an ode to his father’s hometown in Spain, and nods to RP Boo and the seminal Lunatic Harness. Scattered from Copenhagen, the experimental duo Vanessa Amara eschew disciplinary correctness while deviating towards a scabrous blend of tactile humour and disparate music samples. Rainy Miller contemplates ways out alongside local luminaries Blackhaine and Moseley in conjunction with The White Hotel. Tracks by Laila Sakini, Montparnasse Musique, and Indigo Sparke complete the roundup.
Playlists: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube
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Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet – ‘Spirit To All’
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Photay with Carlos Niño – ‘C U R R E N T’ (feat. Mikaela Davis)
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Laila Sakini – ‘That Wave, That Line’
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Lori Goldston – ‘The Waves and What’s Under’
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Wau Wau Collectif – ‘Xale (Toubab Dialaw Kids Rhyme)’
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Aleksandra Słyż – ‘The Ruthless Act’
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Montparnasse Musique – ‘Malele’
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Noah Garabedian – ‘Pendulum For NG’
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Rainy Miller – ‘Way Out’ (feat. Blackhaine & Moseley)
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Charles Lloyd – ‘Jaramillo Blues (For Virginia Jaramillo and Danny Johnson)’
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Vanessa Amara – ‘There’s no end (at least none to make meet)’
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