Bobby Hutcherson Harold Land
San Francisco

On their debut album, the Lahore band blends the free-form improvisation of Hindustani classical and jazz with sample-heavy production creating a musical dialogue about faith, spirituality, and the self.JAUBINafs At PeaceAstigmatic Poland

CLASSIC LP, featuring the Brazil boogie slammer, Estrelar, here in a wonderful repress. TIP!

Glenn Fallows and Mark Treffel released their first album, ‘The Globeflower Master Vol. 1’, on Mr Bongo in September 2021. With its lush, warm and timeless productions paying homage to classic 60s and 70s soundtrack composers, it was very well received and struck a chord with the scene’s connoisseurs. Louder Than War emphatically stated, "It’s impossible not to like The Globeflower Masters Vol. 1.”, with Gigwise echoing that praise “slickly compelling retro vibes”.The Globeflower Master Vol. 2 is the slightly edgier and more grown-up sequel to Mark and Glenn's 2021 debut album. For this excursion, the Brighton-based duo wanted to lean a little further into their European film soundtrack influences, with particular inspiration mined from the works of Stefano Torossi, David Shire, and Roger Webb. This expansion of their sound builds upon the rich tapestry of cinematic funk à la David Axelrod, Serge Gainsbourg and Morricone that fashioned Vol. 1. Here the arrangements, melodies, and harmonies have been refined; only what is needed is left.The recordings are drenched in visual imagery; they stimulate the senses and invite the imagination to roam. Ethereal, hazy memories of lost summers are triggered; the beauty of listening to music when driving along a deserted road in the Italian countryside lined with cypress trees heading towards the sun, and beyond. As the musical journey progresses, we even take a voyage to another planet. Whether these memories are real or constructed recollections of scenes from film and television, the tracks evoke a feeling of nostalgia and comfort. Like all the best music, 'The Globeflower Masters Vol. 2' takes us out of ourselves even if it's only temporarily.To consolidate the shape of the sound, drummers Timmy Rickard and Ollie Boorman (who also featured on Vol. 1) and John Maiden (Tricky collaborator) sprinkled their magic and forged their stamps onto the recordings. Collaborating with other talented musicians contributed to the picture Mark and Glenn wanted to paint. The ‘Globeflower Master Vol. 2’ is a fitting tribute to the music they love and care deeply about and a glorious addition to their musical world.

As Ben Ratliff wrote in the New York Times, “the aggressive and sublime first album by the band Elder Ones, Holy Science, is a kind of gauge for how strong and flexible the scene of young musicians in New York’s improvised and experimental music world can be. At the center of it are drones and phonemes. The group’s leader, the 30-year-old composer and singer Amirtha Kidambi, holds forth behind a harmonium, the small keyboard instrument with hand-pumped bellows; it’s commonly used in bhajan, the Indian devotional-singing tradition that was central to her musical experience while growing up in a South Indian family.”Kidambi formally trained in classical music, singing works by avant-gardists including Nono and Stockhausen, but the pull of free jazz and Alice Coltrane drew her toward a different path. The influence of both Alice and John Coltrane is especially apparent on the new album, as is her work with composer and saxophonist Darius Jones, and her study of Carnatic music.While in Darius Jones's a cappella group, Kidambi developed a language for wordless vocals, freeing her from being tied to syntax, a technique she uses through most of Holy Science. The music is anchored by bass-lines and drones on the harmonium, often doubled on the bass by Brandon Lopez. Matt Nelson on the soprano saxophone evokes the sound of the Indian double-reed nadhaswaram, and the playing of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, blending with and harmonizing her voice and the reeds of the harmonium. Drummer Max Jaffe’s ability to seamlessly pivot between complex grooves and timbrally explorative free-playing, completes the equation. Each musician was chosen for their unique improvisatory language on their instrument, ultimately informing Kidambi’s compositional approach.Reflecting on her various influences, Kidambi explained, “I grew up Hindu, but with a pantheist universalist bent, the idea that all religions are different paths to the same God or Truth. Not only is the music of John and Alice Coltrane so influential, they both practiced universalism. Alice's primary guru was the same one that my family followed, and she participated in the bhajan singing tradition. I grew up singing with the harmonium, and I know all the tunes on her Huntington Ashram records. She looms large for me as a figure who blended so many different styles and traditions, uncompromising in her vision and authentic to herself. She was, in a way, a universalist in her music, blending her influences of Stravinsky, gospel, free jazz, the avant-garde, world music, and her spiritual practice into a totally individual sound. I really relate to that way of thinking about music and the universe.”The first piece composed in the suite was "Dvapara Yoga," which began as a meditation on the death of Eric Garner. The album title derives from a 19th century text written by Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, which scientifically explains the yugas, or eons of cosmic time in Hindu mythology. The four movements Sathya-Yuga, Treta-Yuga, Dvapara-Yuga and Kali-Yuga, explore themes of creation, destruction, and rebirth, with the final movement pivoting on the Vishnu Sahasranam Vedic chant, and ending with an apocalyptic reset of the time cycle.

Afro-Brazilian Candomblé rhythms meet jazz on ‘Kan’ by Alabê Ketujazz, the long-standing duo of Brazilian saxophonist/composer Glaucus Linx and French percussionist/composer Antoine Olivier. Captured on vinyl for the first time, the album is set for release on 16 September, marking the first release on Poeira Music, the brand new label of esteemed Brazilian DJ, producer and MIMS resident, DJ Tahira, in conjunction with São Paulo record store and now label, Memória Discos.