The sounds of crickets and cicadas fill the air this week, as Florist salute a decade-long journey of friendship from a rented house and screened porch in the Hudson Valley, while Sam Gendel swings by the San Antonio River, a ranch in Texas Hill Country, and a historic ballroom in Corpus Christi to ring out his inimitable brand of abstract yet tactile jazz. Meanwhile Brian Eno conjures the endless loss of a future grimly foretold by the climate crisis, alongside his brother Roger overlooking Athens from the Acropolis on a day when wildfires raged and lit the margins of the Greek capital with a reddish hue.
Sharing a love for loops, the saxophonist Ben Vince shrouds the vocal swoons and melodic motifs of the folk singer Cucina Povera in smudged jazz and spectral synths. Trios with a plus one proves a theme as Katie Ernst crafts a melody alongside Jeremy Cunningham, Dustin Laurenzi, and Paul Bryan based on a poem which Cunningham wrote about the passing of his father in 2020. And the composer and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis teams up with The Messthetics, formed by the Fugazi rhythm section of Joe Lally and Brendan Canty with Anthony Pirog on guitar, for a sonic poem full of energy and resilience which holds out hope for a brighter tomorrow.
Hinako Omori enters a world of blue as she reworks a track from her debut album, which was inspired by the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku or forest bathing. Rosalía the street racer reverses over the misdeeds of a former lover, making haste for the club where she embraces the merengue in the spirit of the iconic Dominican accordionist Fefita la Grande. Dan Wriggins of the Philadelphia band Friendship accepts a healthy dose of on-the-nose advice, the Italian producer Heith explores textures of consciousness through the lens of ritual animism, and from Boston the Future Teens seek solace in a fifth of bring-your-own booze.
James K arrives on Incienso armed with shoegaze missives and cellphone recordings seized from an hallucinatory tropical island, while $OMBI cuts in on the Berlin-based Infinite Quest Records with a carnival blend of Afrobeat and self-styled cosmic club or galacticore. For his new album on Whirlwind Recordings, the double bassist Harish Raghavan leads a stellar quintet with Charles Altura on guitar, Joel Ross on vibraphone and marimba, Morgan Guerin on woodwinds, and Eric Harland on drums. Tracks by Lean Year, TSHA, and Oumou Sangaré complete the latest roundup of best new music.
Playlists: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube
* * *
Florist – ‘June 9th Nighttime’
* * *
Cucina Povera & Ben Vince – ‘Sumu Puistossa’
* * *
Future Teens – ‘BYOB’
* * *
Hinako Omori – ‘Heartplant (Revisited)’
* * *
ROSALÍA – ‘DESPECHÁ’
* * *
* * *
Brian Eno – ‘There Were Bells’
* * *
Heith – ‘Your Element (a spell of equality)’
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
TSHA – ‘Water’ (feat. Oumou Sangaré)
* * *
James Brandon Lewis – ‘Fear Not’ (feat. The Messthetics)
* * *
* * *
Jeremy Cunningham, Dustin Laurenzi, and Paul Bryan – ‘The Way We Remember’
