{"product_id":"nala-sinephro-endlessness","title":"Nala Sinephro - Endlessness","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNala Sinephro's music is both reserved and adventurous. It shyly beckons the listener to enter its space, then it soon reveals itself to be illuminating and transportive, full of spirit and in awe of the beauty of the universe. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/theanalogvault.mom\/products\/nala-sinephro-space-18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSpace 1.8\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, her 2022 debut, was a mesmerizing fusion of spiritual jazz and ambient music that felt both celestial and earthly. The 2024 follow-up \u003cem\u003eEndlessness\u003c\/em\u003e is another cycle with each piece bearing a consecutively numbered similar title (appropriately enough, \"Continuum\"). \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIts cast includes returning guests such as keyboard player \u003c\/span\u003eLyle Barton\u003cspan\u003e and saxophone visionary \u003c\/span\u003eNubya Garcia\u003cspan\u003e, in addition to others such as \u003c\/span\u003eblack midi\u003cspan\u003e drummer \u003c\/span\u003eMorgan Simpson\u003cspan\u003e and trumpeter \u003c\/span\u003eSheila Maurice-Grey\u003cspan\u003e (\u003c\/span\u003eKokoroko\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003eNérija\u003cspan\u003e), as well as string ensemble \u003c\/span\u003eOrchestrate\u003cspan\u003e. Sinephro's modular synths trickle in during the softly radiating opening track, which keeps a calm pace even as the drums snake through the gently swelling strings and saxophone. \"Continuum 3\" melds graceful harp plucking with dazzling synth soloing, and a pair of short, cloudy pieces build up to \"Continuum 6,\" which thrills with its racing synth arpeggios and positive energy. Blissful strings carry the feeling into the heavens on the following tracks, which are also imbued with space-age synth textures. Finally, the album culminates with the ecstatic rush of finale \"Continuum 10,\" which accelerates into a head-spinning climax. Much like Sinephro's debut, \u003cem\u003eEndlessness\u003c\/em\u003e is refreshing, enlightening, and awe-inspiring all at once. — (via\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/album\/endlessness-mw0004339978\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003e AllMusic\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe London-based musician’s potent and intuitive second album dissolves the binaries inherent in ambient jazz and imagines a third sort of music that thrives at their midpoint.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eEndlessness\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e, Nala Sinephro’s second record, centers on an arpeggio. The London-based composer modulates this ascendant phrase, extends it, plays it more lento, and lets it slip into inaudibility and disappear. It carries us like a rip tide through the album’s 10 tracks, all called “Continuum”—a perfect name for each, though this LP isn’t a series of variations on a single composition. Listen closely, and its details transform at a relentless clip. Let your mind drift, and its 45 minutes resemble a lake: broad, serene, consistent if never flat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 28-year-old, raised on the outskirts of Brussels by a Belgian mother and a father with roots in Martinique and Guadeloupe, has both ambient music’s cool breeze and jazz’s strong winds at her back. She emerged as the union of these genres was finally losing its hyphen, during the COVID-marooned days of 2021. Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders’ Promises arrived in March, an event that paired the electronic perfectionist on the same bill as the elder-statesman saxophonist, along with the London Symphony Orchestra. Sinephro’s sparkling debut, Space 1.8, dropped in September of the same year, as though she knew a mantle was waiting to be taken up. She had recorded the disc in 2018 and 2019, but that only made her arrival more uncanny—when was the last time that a couple of jazz records, put out mere months apart, seemed to be talking to each other, disagreeing, finding common ground, and cogitating over a future for the form?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStill, Sinephro scopes out the frontier. \u003cem\u003eEndlessness\u003c\/em\u003e dissolves the binaries that define ambient jazz and imagines a third sort of music that thrives at their midpoint. Its seamlessness distinguishes Sinephro’s second album from its still excellent predecessor, which was alternately atmospheric and bluesy. This is more cohesive, more elegant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eEndlessness\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e merges sensibilities with the naturalness of DNA strands bonding into a double helix. It both proves ambient jazz’s endurance and renders the two terms mutually redundant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSinephro has grown considerably as a studio brain and bandleader in the last five years. She produced and mixed every song on \u003cem\u003eEndlessness\u003c\/em\u003e, engineering them with collaborator Rick David. She also arranged all of the record’s strings—never saccharine or maudlin, they feel poignant and as judicious as any other instrumental feature. Sinephro plays harp, piano, and synths both modular and otherwise alongside a who’s who of friends from South London’s jazz scene. \u003cem\u003eEndlessness\u003c\/em\u003e’ soul is the energy of the session, the ability of musicians in a room to swap ideas in real time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe work begins with a tight combo clocking in: Sinephro signals the start with multiple synth parts, Black Midi’s Morgan Simpson adds his drums, and Ezra Collective’s James Mollison jumps in on saxophone. The bandstand expands on the next cut—\u003cem\u003eEndlessness\u003c\/em\u003e feels auteur-ish thanks not only to Sinephro’s masterminding, but because musicians constantly replace each other, slipping like samples through her deft production. Lyle Barton accompanies on synth, offering a whorling lead part on “Continuum 3”; UK torchbearer Nubya Garcia’s sax sets a spark as “Continuum 5” turns to “Continuum 6”; Dwayne Kilvington lays down sparing synth bass, stabilizing an LP that nearly entirely forgoes any four-stringed foundation; Natcyet Wakili, known for his timekeeping with Sons of Kemet, subs in on percussion; Sheila Maurice-Gray purrs away on flugelhorn and trumpet. \u003cem\u003eEndlessness\u003c\/em\u003e’ pristine exterior hardly conceals the generative buzz of Sinephro’s players, who give the collection both breadth and persistent gusts of fresh air.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHer easy-come-easy-go ensemble labors against the composer’s production like swimmers battling a current. The pulse she offers at the start soon becomes an invitation to challenge its boundaries. Simpson’s tumbling drumwork rejects the arpeggio only minutes into “Continuum 1,” taking control of duration, stretching it like putty, before he passes it back to Sinephro and the track reorients itself. Meanwhile, synthesizers pluck away like Sinephro’s own harp. The concoction eventually reduces to a sax line so intimate and unadorned that you can hear the pads clack against the brass.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eElsewhere, Sinephro reroutes the pulse herself. “Continuum 7” shifts momentum when she slows the arpeggio, transposes it, and buttresses the ostinato with a descending response to its call. For a glorious moment, we’re suspended as though inside of our own vascular systems, watching as little particles of modular synth and chordophone float by us. The drums lock into the central groove again midway through “Continuum 8” and the group hits its stride, loping forth in jaunty lockstep.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrchestration blows open the music’s sense of space. “Continuum 2” is a simmering jam turned strange when a noise emanates like vintage technology trying to mimic the sound of a deflating balloon. Then the band loosens, the strings well up; Sinephro’s harp later trickles to the fore, a trip from delicate to robust and back that lingers long after \u003cem\u003eEndlessness\u003c\/em\u003e concludes. Even when the strings seem to accent the arrangements, as on “Continuum 3,” they move with melodic purpose, their entrances and exits dramatic and without emotional prescription. \u003cem\u003eEndlessness\u003c\/em\u003e invites us to feel but never tells us what our feelings should be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe LP has the potential to be a relaxed listen if you welcome this side of its personality, but it’s also vast and complicated. In the dwindling seconds of “Continuum 9,” Mollison sounds a strained note from his tenor. The gesture is fleeting, succinct, and speaks at once to the album’s epic scale and sense of understatement. Sinephro’s music threads a needle between idioms; she makes a garment that both flows with the force of gravity and combats its weight. \u003cem\u003eEndlessness\u003c\/em\u003e is more than a crafty marvel, or even than the sum of its vaunted parts. It feels like a feat of physics. — (via \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/reviews\/albums\/nala-sinephro-endlessness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003ePitchfork\u003c\/a\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" style=\"border-radius: 12px;\" data-testid=\"embed-iframe\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/51CQQ3tQLRZlZJZ5jcpoGE?utm_source=generator\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e↓\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eLabel: Warp Records\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eFormat: 2x Vinyl, LP \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cspan\u003e            - Vinyl, LP\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cspan\u003e            - Vinyl, LP, Single Sided, Etched\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eReleased: 2024\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eGenre: Jazz, Electronic\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eStyle: Ambient, Experimental, Modern\/Future Jazz\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eFile under: Jazz \/\/ Modern \/ Future Jazz\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e⦿\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Warp Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44332369215646,"sku":"5056614797336","price":60.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0584\/5434\/3838\/files\/R-31651898-1725464057-4817.jpg?v=1727620457","url":"https:\/\/theanalogvault.mom\/products\/nala-sinephro-endlessness","provider":"The Analog Vault","version":"1.0","type":"link"}