Back catalogue: Modern Classical

Review: Allan Gilbert Balon's debut full-length album, The Magnesia Suite, released by Recital, is a mesmerising and enigmatic work that fuses avant-garde jazz, experimental sound collage and intimate vocal experiments. A Guadeloupe-born composer and visual artist, Balon brings a deeply personal and cryptic narrative to this album, weaving together disparate sonic elements into a beguiling and surreal journey. Opening with 'Stella Maris', the album immediately wrongfoots the listener, blending organ drones and twisted chorals that evoke a subversive take on sacred music. Tracks like 'Lustras' introduce grotty tape recordings, shortwave transmissions, and Balon's slow-motion piano playing, creating a bizarre yet haunting sense of prayer. This patchwork approach, full of field recordings and mysterious sounds, captures a feeling of coastal tranquility and exploratory reverence. The standout track, 'Pleuro Delez Waltz', which initially caught Recital's attention, blends Balon's idiosyncratic piano style with disorienting wails and unconventional percussion. The album concludes with 'Ogadia', where ragtime-influenced piano meets distant saxophone, resolving the outsider-jazz soundscape. The Magnesia Suite is an album of surprising juxtapositions and textures.