Spiritmuse Vinilo y CD

Review: Surya Botofasina's new album, Ashram Sun, follows his acclaimed debut Everyone's Children and marks his first major release since touring with Andre 3000 and contributing to New Blue Sun. This album is a tribute to Surya's spiritual and musical upbringing under Swamini Turiyasangitananda, also known as Alice Coltrane, at California's Sai Anantam Ashram. Ashram Sun is a profound work of spiritual jazz and it features close collaborators Carlos NiNo and Nate Mercereau with production by the prolific NiNo, whose vision is central to today's progressive jazz scene. This album is an immersive world of classy, spiritual and meditative jazz sound.

Review: Yet more futurist jazz tones and rhythmic harmonies come straight from the mind of Kahil El'zabar, the musician and bandleader whose avant-garde practise centres on the artist's own black African roots. Channelling every instrument from kalimba to 'spirit bowls', a near-endless line of El'zabar's ancestral spirits are invoked, as dual tributes to spirituality and city life are laid bare actoss a chilled-out but grandiose 9 tracks, from the opening 'A Time For Healing' to the tributary 'Eddie Harris'.