Mellifluous and rich, the astonishing new studio album from London-based experimentalists Kinkajous – led by drummer/ producer Benoît Parmentier and saxophonist Adrien Cau – is a whirling dreamland of electronic orchestrations and instrumental sensibility. Tentatively titled “Nothing Will Disappear”, on one hand their compositions play like little manifestos against an overstimulated world: an effort to propagate here, and to nurture something more steady in its place. But as the alchemy settles over these nine tracks, their contradictory excitement is unmistakable; beyond any grand statements so easy to attribute to instrumental music, its ethos is more marauding and curious than any other music in the Kinkajous catalogue, revelling in new sounds rather than lamenting the excesses behind its theme.
“Nothing Will Disappear” is maximalism at its most subtle and tender – ambient music at its most rejuvenated. There are echoes of Sam Shepherd’s collaborative work with Pharoah Sanders as Floating Points, and the subtle timbre shifts of Jon Hopkins and James Holden more so than their capital-“J” jazz contemporaries. Bruised electronics go back-to back with compulsive drum patterns in a strobe-lit dance; it’s vulnerable but bursting with colour. It comes good on the brave new spaces Kinkajous pushed into with sell-out headline shows at London’s Jazz Café and King’s Place, alongside a gargantuan collaboration last winter with the London Contemporary Orchestra at London’s EartH Theatre, and performances at Bluedot and EFG London Jazz Festivals.
“Nothing Will Disappear” is maximalism at its most subtle and tender – ambient music at its most rejuvenated. There are echoes of Sam Shepherd’s collaborative work with Pharoah Sanders as Floating Points, and the subtle timbre shifts of Jon Hopkins and James Holden more so than their capital-“J” jazz contemporaries. Bruised electronics go back-to back with compulsive drum patterns in a strobe-lit dance; it’s vulnerable but bursting with colour. It comes good on the brave new spaces Kinkajous pushed into with sell-out headline shows at London’s Jazz Café and King’s Place, alongside a gargantuan collaboration last winter with the London Contemporary Orchestra at London’s EartH Theatre, and performances at Bluedot and EFG London Jazz Festivals.
