My Voice

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With his first album Beautiful Vinyl Hunter, released in 2020, London pianist and composer Ashley Henry, then 28 years old, made a strong impression. He propelled himself into the limelight on the back of this movement, initiated in England by a mixed bag of musicians who are laying the foundations of a new language to reflect their reality (historical and daily). Blending unprecedented hybridizations of jazz, grime, Caribbean traditions, hip-hop, and electronic music, they give rise to a cutting edge genre wholly rooted in the present.

He is doing it again today with the release of a six-track EP on his own label, Royal Raw Music. Continuing on from the previous album, he now develops his intuitions in an even more personal way, as suggested by the title, by putting “his voice” at the forefront. It's his way of plunging into his piano in particular, both minimally and virtuosically, to stir scholarly arrangements together with acoustic and electronic sounds to precipitate complex and evolving grooves in the dance floors. While we find in the project all of the art forms we might typically expect from Ashley Henry, this complexity also opens new horizons to his music with the addition of some unexpected songs. These are very composed and largely atmospheric, showcasing a warm and sensual voice of great emotional strength. Designed as a kind of musical “manifesto” through which to experiment with how his voice can connect with his history, family, and heritage, and can allow both his intimacy and the anonymous choir of his ancestors to be heard, My Voice is undoubtedly a crucial step in Ashley Henry’s young career. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz