A sixth album in just three years by the collective run by prolific producer Inflo, aka Dean Josiah Cover, has a striking new direction - instrumental, orchestral works with brass and largely non-verbal choir parts, yet this cinematic release still has echoes of the black experience. With no drum, funk, jazz, hip-hop or soul element to be found, on first listen it does indeed sound like a film soundtrack or a work by a modern classical composer such as György Ligeti or even the repetitions of Philip Glass, particularly in opener Reality or the title track, but beside the exquisite beauty to all of this, there are also cultural references making another point - that European classical traditions, like many forms of music have also drawn from black cultures. The track Luos Higher, with prominent plucked traditional stringed instruments and chanting makes an echo reference to the Luo culture of Kenya. There are also Alice Coltrane echoes on the track Heart, in while and Solar, more of a symphonic suite certainly has influence in the New York African-American minimalist composer Julius Eastman, such as Femenine (1974) for chamber ensemble and in another passage, soulful gospel of Donny Hathaway’s I Love the Lord, He Heard My Cry. Overall, a transportive, gorgeous piece of work, one of the best yet for its bold, authentic departure, and once again another supreme surprise. Out on Forever Living Originals.
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