Protect Your Light

Irreversible Entanglements

Released on 9/8/23 by Impulse!
Main artists: Irreversible Entanglements
Genre: Jazz

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Chicago's Irreversible Entanglements thrive in the dense, fiery world they have created between jazz and spoken word performance art. While their official bio strains to describe this album as an "artistic and social statement that simultaneously plugs into and tweaks the zeitgeist," Irreversible Entanglements, while still noisy and hungry for fearless confrontation, have begun to bank some of the anger and defiance that fueled the lyrics on their first trio of albums. Opener "Free Love" has a bass line and lyrics with more than a whiff of the hymn of praise that John Coltrane reaches in A Love Supreme. After a plucked note opening by bassist Luke Stewart, "root⇔branch,"—a salute to the late trumpeter and fellow free jazz explorer jaimie branch—becomes an invitation to "fly" to a world where all can be "free from the pain, free from the struggle." The soaring horns of Aquiles Navarro and Keir Neuringer echo across synth curlicues and black hole reverberations. Sun Ra is a constant influence in this universe. Premiering as a trio of vocalist Camae Ayewa, saxophonist Neuringer and Stewart at a Musicians Against Police Brutality event in Brooklyn in 2015, they became a quintet with the addition of trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and drummer Tcheser Holmes. Here each band member plays numerous instruments, with nearly everyone getting a turn on synthesizer. Recorded by Lily Wen at Figure 8 in Brooklyn and Maureen Sickler at Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey—both of whom do an admirable job of keeping the band's dynamic sounds separate and intelligible—Protect Your Light guests include cellist Lester St. Louis, pianist/vocalist Janice A. Lowe and vocalist Sovei. Set to a rolling Afro-Cuban rhythm with a banging cowbell, the funky title track becomes a storm between horns as they fidget and jerk, eventually drawing together at the conclusion. "Soundness" is an exploration of sax and trumpet tones that both skronk, squiggle and wail while Holmes rumbles and keeps an even rhythm on splash and high-hat cymbals. This horn extravaganza ends with cellist St. Louis adding low notes while both horns eventually wind down to final exclamations and twisted notes in an impressive example of how International Anthem's art can coalesce into a coherent, heady, original mix of music and statement. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

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Protect Your Light

Irreversible Entanglements

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Free Love

00:04:54

Kevin Reeves, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Don Sickler, Asst. Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Shahzad Ismaily, Unknown, Other - Maureen Sickler, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Andrew Lappin, Mix Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Camae Ayewa, Author, Percussion, Synthesizer, Voice, AssociatedPerformer - Aquiles Navarro, Composer, Percussion, Trumpet, Synthesizer, AssociatedPerformer - Keir Neuringer, Clarinet, Percussion, Alto Saxophone, Synthesizer, AssociatedPerformer - Luke Stewart, Percussion, Upright Bass, Electric Bass, Sound Effects, AssociatedPerformer - Irreversible Entanglements, Producer, MainArtist - Tcheser Holmes, Drums, Percussion, Voice, AssociatedPerformer