Nala Sinephro - beautiful new cosmic/spiritual jazz/fusion/electro/REALLY GOOD debut on Warp

This is a real stunner of a debut LP. Seems to be sold out on vinyl instantly with no re-press until January 2022.... one record store dude told me new copies were going for £100 on discogs the week of release. Anyway it's fantastic and will be one of my records of the year. Sad to have missed a London show a few weeks back before I was aware of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqi_EZ0DgrA

probably throw 'ambient' in the mix too? it's a gorgeous record

i thought that the second after I hit post. there's a huge amount going on in there, really interesting journey through the album, sort of bought to mind the recent (also great) Howie Lee album.

this is really stunning. hoping to score a copy of the 2nd pressing.

Yes, great album. Uses dynamics really well with very pretty ambient pieces contrasted against the jazz fusion to make both feel super vibrant.

I like the compositional spectrum on this, which is often dead or absent in ambient, she found great collaborations here. Each invited instrument shines. Piano on Space 2. Space 5 has a nu-jazz exotic feel that reminds me of Jagga Jazzist. The sax on Space 4 (Nubya Garcia I presume ?) is splendid. I wish the synths-drums on Space 3 were extended on a proper composition, but they return on Space 6 with a nice tension. In the end it's only a few moments that make me think of Coltrane. Space 8 is long and maybe the true meditative ambient piece, but a real highlight. The only issue, I keep imagining Jon Anderson is going to start singing "High Vibration go on To the sun, oh let my heart dreaming". Sorry if that spoils the experience for anyone.

Or maybe I'm thinking of "I get up I get down"

I...don't like this as much as y'all do. It's okay.

I delayed on purchasing this and missed it. The clips weren't totally selling it to me but I have subsequently listened to the whole thing and am into it, well almost all of it. The NTS released 12" is most excellent too.

This is really nice, although I'm not as into the final track that takes up over a third of the record.

For now: Space 1.8 > Nafs at Peace > Promises, although they're all worthwhile.

Anyone seen her live? Just noticed she is playing here next month.

New intro track sounds so good. very promising.

New album is terrific

On Continuum 1, what melody/phrase is the fluttering saxophone quoting at around 01.50 ? It's something I know well, but it's driving me mad to identify it.

It sounds like a bowl of space noodles but overall, and minus the classical orchestration, I liked it. Not unlike what The Comet is Coming offered last year.

A bit too polite in general for my ears (felt the same way about Floating Points/Pharoah as point of comp), but my fave passage is def "Continuum 9", by which pt everything is slowed and pared down v nicely IMO--just sequencer, slight FX and sax is the optimal vibe given her go-to palette to this set of ears

On Continuum 1, what melody/phrase is the fluttering saxophone quoting at around 01.50 ? It's something I know well, but it's driving me mad to identify it.

― Bob Six, Saturday, September 7, 2024 6:47 AM (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it sounds like mulatu astatke's "yèkèrmo sèw" to me, aka horace silver's "song for my father"

also this record is cool

mulatu astatke's "yèkèrmo sèw" to me, aka horace silver's "song for my father"

whoa, i love both tunes never noticed this before, mind kinda blown

^same!

it sounds like mulatu astatke's "yèkèrmo sèw" to me, aka horace silver's "song for my father"

Good answer - good ears. I also love these.

I think I was reminded of Archie Shepp's Steam [Part 2] on Attica Blues, especially at the end [ around 4.42 onwards]

wow, nice

Like the album generally but the synth apreggio on "Continuum 6" sounds eerily like the music that plays when Mario goes into a pipe and it's kind of putting me off

this album reminded me of kaitlyn aurelia smith. take that as you will

Interviewed Nubya Garcia for Stereogum (it'll run this coming week) and asked her about this record since she plays on it. Apparently she and Sinephro are IRL friends and she was absolutely raving about the record and talking up Sinephro, who not only produced and mixed the record but even mastered it herself, she's a brilliant engineer according to Garcia.

yeah I bought the CD yesterday and it sounds amazing. really like the whole album a lot, though I haven't quite absorbed it yet. one part reminded me a bit of the strings in Alice Coltrane (e.g., on Universal Consciousness) — not a surprising influence for a harpist lol but it stood out as something I haven't quite heard elsewhere

i absolutely love this and gutted that i will miss the barbican show :(

her visual art is really cool too, imo

https://www.instagram.com/nala_sinepro?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

As mentioned, I covered this album in my Stereogum column.

Here's what Nubya Garcia said:

In addition to her own album, Garcia can be heard on two other excellent 2024 releases. She’s on Casimir’s album Balance, which I reviewed last month; it’s a big band record with strings, densely orchestrated and compositionally stunning. “I remember him transcribing scores when we were on the road, maybe in 2022,” she says. “He always had his iPad and his pen out, or his laptop, in the car or the plane or whatever, and I was like, What are you working on? And he would tell me, I’m transcribing this Rachmaninoff, or something. I’m inspired by him and inspired by his album. The tunes are full of energy… it’s really progressive and forward-thinking and unique in his musicality and he’s a masterful arranger, composer, and orchestrator, as you can hear.”

She also appears on Nala Sinephro’s Endlessness, which is discussed below. A 10-track disc that’s actually a single 45-minute composition, it’s an unclassifiable mix of ambient electronic music, modern classical, and spiritual jazz, and Sinephro did everything: she wrote it, played synths and electronics, produced and engineered it, mixed it, and even mastered it.

“Nala is my friend, and we travel together and regularly get into the nitty gritty about music and life,” Garcia says. “And it was just a really peaceful, welcoming, open, beautiful space. Witnessing her construct this sublime album as we were both working on our own records, it’s been amazing to see… I think I feel really honored to be a part of this record because it’s stunning. The sessions, I remember just feeling like light and emotive and like they could go anywhere. And that’s always super exciting as a musician.”

And here's what I wrote about the album itself:

Composer and electronic musician Nala Sinephro’s previous album Space 1.8 received rave reviews back in 2021; it was hailed as a new classic of ambient spiritual jazz. This follow-up features several of the same musicians, notably Nubya Garcia, who’s only featured on three of the 10 tracks but feels like one of the album’s key voices. On “Continuum 2,” she’s joined by Sheila Maurice-Grey on flugelhorn, Lyle Barton on piano, and Natcyet Wakili on drums, plus a 21-piece string section. Sinephro plays modular synth, keyboard-driven synth, and harp. Garcia’s solo, slow and patient, seems to come floating in on a cloud, not unlike Pharoah Sanders’ work on the Floating Points album Promises. Like that album, Endlessness is built around a simple, repeating figure, but expands outward until it’s an entire world you can walk around in, dreaming. It’s one of the most beautiful records I’ve heard all year, utterly beyond category.

cannot stop listening to this

Lush record.

Continuum 7 has a strong hint of Casino Versus Japan, specifically 'Single Variation of Two'.

my fave passage is def "Continuum 9", by which pt everything is slowed and pared down v nicely IMO--just sequencer, slight FX and sax is the optimal vibe given her go-to palette to this set of ears

I think I agree with this. I'm sensing Steve Reich [Music for 18 Musicians] and Hiroshi Yoshimura's [Something Blue] in her palette.

Giving this a whirl now

My first impression was that I might prefer Space 1.8, but I need to give the new one a more attentive listen. This thread's a good reminder

This is still good.

Prefer Space 1.8 by quite a large margin.

Bagged a ticket for her London Royal Festival Hall concert in November, after missing the Barbican show.