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LP
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FRB 017LP
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$35.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 1/24/2025
The music of Green Cosmos makes listeners realize that their never-ending quest for love can find fulfillment. You take a long, slow breath and feel the magic of transcendent wisdom. It's like looking up from your room to the brightly lit windows of the home of your neighbors. Might someone be standing there, watching? Listen to Abendmusiken and imagine what life would be like if you were one again with God's original ideas. Green Cosmos enchant listeners with their blend of jazz, the sound of heartbeats, emotional outburst, and folk-music. There is not one note too many, and everything gets to the heart of the matter. A saxophone that sails ahead on a world-map of sound, driven by the beat of Kalimba and drums, sometimes fraternizing with a bass that's now insistent and then shy, and closely listens to a reassuringly omniscient piano until the music merges into a unit that's greater than its parts. It's no exaggeration to say that this band has created something new and unique, and that the excellence of the moment got captured in this recording. This, quite simply, is beautiful and exciting music that steers us through the night. And if you are standing by a window seeing someone looking at you from their window -- give them a wave!
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LP
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FRB 020LP
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Søren Skov Orbit's debut album, Adrift, is at once subtle and profound. The saxophonist and his collaborators have created something quite special and consistently deep. This record may not easily be classifiable, but the most interesting music creeps between the lines. Danish tenor and soprano saxophonist Søren Skov (Debre Damo Dining Orchestra) and keyboardist Peder Vind co-founded the trippy quintet Søren Skov Orbit in 2016 to explore "more jazzy ideas," as the saxophonist puts it. Joined by a rhythm section steeped in contemporary improvisation and psychedelia, bassist Casper Nyvang Rask, drummer Rune Lohse and percussionist Ayi Solomon of the legendary '80s Ghanaian roots/highlife band Classique Vibes, the Orbit belts out a richly focused helping of broadly African-inspired modern jazz with a hazy sheen. As a tenor player, Skov has done his homework and has a kinship with Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, J.R. Monterose, and the Dutchman Hans Dulfer, but he clearly has got his own robust phraseology and expressiveness. He also cites multi-reedists John Gilmore, Yusef Lateef, and Bilal Abdurahman as, "some of the players I've been listening to the most for the last 10-15 years." A healthy dose of reverb is present throughout the album, echoing Alton Abraham's studio wizardry with the Sun Ra Arkestra or the trance-inducing and compressed fidelity of certain Ethio-jazz and Mystic Revelations of Rastafari sessions. Skov notes that, "everything is recorded live at the same time in the same room. I wanted to do it that way in order to catch the dynamics and authenticity of the music." There is, in fact, a complex teetertotter between crisp and hazy execution, achieved by a delicately balanced mix that keeps the group's sound simultaneously advancing and receding. Vind's phrasing is terse and introspective, a vibrating echo that nudges and reflects on Skov's brusque tenor in a dance of sonic displacement. The coupling of Solomon and Lohse is a big part of the group's detailed energy; as the leader puts it, "Ayi knows everything about regional differences in drum patterns. He is always listening and super responsive, and his and Rune's dynamics are amazing." The music both presents a "vibe" and keeps the door open for engaging well under the surface as repeated listens will be extremely rewarding. RIYL: Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Fela Kuti, Nat Birchall, Nubya Garcia.
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