Between 1949 and 1989, the Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests on the steppe of northeast Kazakhstan, south of the valley of the Irtysh River. Exposing an estimated 1.5 million people to fallout while reshaping their surrounds, by 1989 the author Olzhas Suleimenov had helped to establish Nevada Semipalatinsk, one of the first anti-nuclear movements in the Soviet Union. With thousands of people joining its protests, finally on 29 August 1991 the Semipalatinsk Test Site was closed for good, a couple of months prior to Kazakhstan declaring independence. Exploring forty years of cultural and ecological devastation on her impending album Polygon, the Kazakh-British composer and violinist Galya Bisengalieva commences her narrative through the bristling strings and winnowing drones of ‘Alash-Kala’, evoking the provisional Kazakh government which strove for an autonomous and democratic state between 1917 and the imposition of Soviet rule in 1920.
Helmed by Ishmael Butler, the experimental hip hop group Shabazz Palaces are Robed in Rareness on the opening single ‘Binoculars’ which features the Seattle rapper Royce The Choice. In the same week that she unveils La Permanencia De Los Ecos, her upcoming album on 577 Records which stars the vertiginous talents of Joanna Mattrey, Maya Keren, Cecilia Lopez and Lesley Mok, the Buenos Aires-born and Berlin-based Camila Nebbia drops Una ofrenda a la ausencia on Relative Pitch, a solo splurge on absence with spoken word and effects as the tenor saxophonist explores the harsh extremities of her instrument.
Drawing inspiration from the improvisational sweep of the raga, as Plume Girl the Austin-based experimental artist and Hindustani classical singer Sowmya Somanath divests the imagined binaries of east versus west, over sun-drenched synths, arid winds and soaring choruses managing to blur the lines between the Sufi devotional poetry of Arooj Aftab, the mouth mantras of Sheila Chandra and the early slowcore stylings of Mazzy Star. Swapping ambient shards, acid cuts and cosseted refrains for something balmier as on ‘Lavender Milk’ with its driving rhythms and ‘warm hues of textures’, citing the flow and freedom of the classic Young Marble Giants album Colossal Youth, the duo of Pavel Milyakov and Perila debut on wax ahead of a September outing at Berlin Atonal.
Reflecting another side of the pandemic, on ‘The Light’ the drummer Yussef Dayes celebrates the birth of his daughter Bahia, who features on the track through various voice memos. Born in 2020, the breakout London percussionist calls his ensuing months with Bahia ‘one of the most special times in my life’, describing ‘The Light’ as a lullaby song while adding that ‘being able to take time from touring and nurture my family at home was something I’ll cherish forever’.
The acclaimed saxophonist Joshua Redman marks his Blue Note debut, accompanied by Kurt Rosenwinkel on guitar, Aaron Parks on piano, Joe Sanders on bass, Brian Blade on drums and the vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa for a stirring and sultry rendition of ‘Streets of Philadelphia’. On his approaching album Outside, the Italian composer Fabio Capanni continues to refine his singular approach to the electronic guitar, with architectural bravura conjuring a sense of silence and space whose pulsing keys and quavering strings steadily yet surreptitiously permeate the exterior.
Stewards and sentries on the lead single from VOIR DIRE, frequent collaborators Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist are joined for familial reminiscences by the New York rapper MIKE, with a coda which samples a recital of Une Tempête by the Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, his postcolonial response to The Tempest of William Shakespeare. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy settles on the sturdy oak as the wily old prospector discerns folk by their perennial value, and from a residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts with her flagship Fly or Die ensemble, the inimitable Jaimie Branch and her fellow harbourers of free thought wade through the billowing smoke with upraised arms and clenched fists, even in death cleaving the way for a bright and boisterous future.
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Galya Bisengalieva – ‘Alash-kala’
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Shabazz Palaces – ‘Binoculars’ (feat. Royce The Choice)
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Camila Nebbia – ‘Dejo que me lleve’
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jaimie branch – ‘burning grey’
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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – ‘Willow, Pine and Oak’
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Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist – ‘Sentry’ (feat. MIKE)
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Yussef Dayes – ‘The Light’ (feat. Bahia Dayes)
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Joshua Redman – ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ (feat. Gabrielle Cavassa)
