Description
//Brownswood / International Anthem//
£27.99 – 1xLP, Limited Edition Indies Exclusive Yellow Coloured Vinyl with Obi Strip
£24.99 – 1xLP, Limited Edition Black Vinyl with Obi Strip
‘Kaleidoscopic Visions’ unfolds across two distinct sonic landscapes.
Side A presents entirely instrumental compositions performed by Skinner’s live Bishara band—bassist, Tom Herbert, cellist, Kareem Dayes, and Robert Stillman and Chelsea Carmichael on various woodwinds and reeds—with electric guitar on two tracks courtesy of Portishead’s Adrian Utley.
A drummer-composer bringing his wealth of experience to bear on the role of bandleader, Skinner composed primarily on guitar, embracing the freedom that came with writing on his secondary instrument. These compositions include “Auster,” dedicated to late novelist Paul Auster, and “Margaret Anne,” which honours Skinner’s mother, Anne Shasby, a former classical concert pianist prodigy who abandoned her own promising career in the face of systemic misogyny, only to impart on her son what Skinner calls “the gift of music.”
Skinner’s musical world opens further on Side B, where a collection of poised vocal collaborations stretch out from jazz and improvisation towards a more dream-like, soulful sound. The centerpiece is “The Maxim,” a ten-minute collaboration with Grammy Award-winning Meshell Ndegeocello, a dubby, spacious meditation on life and death, delivered with a free-spirited grace. For Skinner, working with Ndegeocello—whom he first saw at Glastonbury as a teenager in 1994—represents a full-circle moment, indicative of the indirect paths and inspirational detours that have shaped his life.
The album goes on to feature South Carolina-based singer, Contour (Khari Lucas), who appears on the low-lit soul ballad, ‘Logue’, and closes with ‘See How They Run’, featuring London keyboardist-vocalist, Yaffra (Jonathan Geyevu). It is the album’s most overtly lyrical track, an articulate exposition of jazz-inflected spoken word that speaks not only to the genre-fluid nature of the music but the breadth of Skinner’s palette. This should come as no surprise.
On ‘Kaleidoscopic Visions’, one of London’s most vital musical figures gives us a sparkling glimpse of the multi-coloured lens through which his unique sound is now refracting.
Tracklisting:
A1 There’s Nothing To Be Scared Of
A2 Auster
A3 Margaret Anne
A4 Kaleidoscopic Visions
A5 MHA
A6 Still (Quiet)
B1 The Maxim (feat. Meshell Ndegeocello)
B2 Extensions 12
B3 Logue (feat. Contour)
B4 See How They Run (feat. Yaffra)
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