Shabaka – “Black meditation”

Saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings is one of the key figures in the exploding London jazz scene right now. Hutchings is essentially the leader of Sons Of Kemet, the Comet Is Coming, and Shabaka And The Ancestors, and he’s also played with acts like Sun Ra Arkestra and Floating Points. On his own, he also releases music as just Shabaka. Later this month, he’ll release Afrikan Culture, his first solo EP.

Shabaka wrote and recorded all eight tracks on Afrikan Culture himself, and he co-produced the EP with Dilip Harris. The EP uses a number of wind instruments, as well as African instruments like the kora and mbira. Opening track “Black meditation,” the EP’s first single, sets a deeply contemplative tone, with surrounding a soft and slow central riff with lots of flutes and tingling bells.

In a press release, Shabaka says:

Afrikan Culture was made around the idea of meditation and what it means for me to still my own mind and accept the music which comes to the surface. It features various types of Shakuhachi flutes and a new technique of creating that I’ve been experimenting with in layering many flutes together to create a forest of sound where melodies and rhythms float in space and emerge in glimpses.

Below, check out “Black meditation” and the Afrikan Culture tracklist.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Black meditation”
02 “Call it a European paradox”
03 “Ital is vital”
04 “Memories don’t live like people do”
05 “Ritual awakening”
06 “Explore inner space”
07 “The dimension of subtle awareness”
08 “Rebirth”

Afrikan Culture is out 5/20 on Impulse! Records.