Nala Sinephro - Endlessness Review
It is a medicinal album, a welcome panacea, one that offers a moment of essential respite in an increasingly loud landscape.
Endlessness is the second album shared by London-based musician, Nala Sinephro, following Space 1.8, which was released in 2021 and also via the renowned Warp Records. On both albums, Sinephro plays her signature harp and keys, using her experience and education in jazz to explore soundscapes with her collaborators, who each find a realm between the serenity of ambience and the responsiveness of improvisation to contemplate and express themselves. Sinephro also produces and mixes each work, engineering tracks with Rick David, founder of Pink Bird Recording Studio, being involved in each aspect of creation, from writing to mastering.
Aesthetically, too, both Space 1.8 and Endlessness could superficially be compartmentalised together; each sprawls through a different dimension (space and time, respectively) and does so while meditating on their themes, navigating the inevitable ebb and flow of jazz conversation through numerically distinct tracks. They also both feature the hypnotic painting and design work of Daniela Yohannes and Maziyar Pahlevan. However, to overlook Endlessness in anyway as a repetition of Sinephro’s debut would be a mistake because, with only a half a decade between the releases (Space 1.8 was produced from tapes recorded between 2018 and 2019), Endlessness is a profound album that is demonstrative of Sinephro’s importance in both the London jazz scene and modern music.
Endlessness is ten continua, each founded around an arpeggio, a gentle beacon that phases in and out of audibility as musicians move closer and further away. Led by Sinephro, who’s modular synth begins the album’s signature, collaborators respond to the pace and atmosphere of each slow-motion shift, and each does so with absolute modesty. During, Space 1.8, for example, regular bandmates Dwayne Kilvington and Natcyet Wakili (formerly Edward Wakili-Hick), seize a greater opportunity to accelerate, becoming the captain of tracks like Space 6, lending to the debut album’s degree of unrestraint. Yet, appearing again on Endlessness, and even in the similarly timed midpoint musical rise of Continuum 6, the two are more notably nuanced, an arrangement that better supports the continuous narrative of tracks, helping them to better connect and, and a result, the album to feel distinctly refined.
Each artistic voice is placed perfectly, with featuring musicians absolutely conscious of the shared expression being cultivated. Other collaborators appearing on Sinephro’s second album include Nubya Garcia, Ezra Collective’s James Mollison, Sheila Maurice-Gray, Black Midi’s Morgan Simpson, and Lyle Barton, all of whom unequivocally embrace the album’s lead. There’s even a sampled baseline in Continuum 4, from bassist Alice Sinephro, that when paired with Nala’s ethereal composition (and strings of Nala’s own arrangement), forms a contender for the album’s most deeply affecting track. It is such harmony, even amid groups of notable musicians, that ensures jazz albums find their place in history.
With Endlessness, Sinephro affirms her capabilities and asserts her integrity. The album is an immensely impressive experience, masterfully navigating the potential challenges associated with the sub-genre ‘ambient jazz’, neither feeling excessively tranquil or uninhibited, and, as such, Endlessness finds itself accomplishing the devotional best of both individual worlds. It’s an alchemy that has clearly struck a chord with modern listeners. Other jazz artists such as Shabaka Hutchings and Alabaster Deplume are also now taking to explore a more sedated environment of modern jazz, one that tends toward the devotional. Promises, the phenomenal accomplishment of Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, and the London Symphony Orchestra, should also be mentioned, a release apparently primed to capture society’s hunger for vastly spiritual albums that strive to, I believe, offer a form of healing.
It is for this reason, as well as my own personal affection for the music, that I regard Endlessness so significantly. It is a medicinal album, a welcome panacea, one that offers a moment of essential respite in an increasingly loud landscape, going beyond the already brilliant heights of Space 1.8 and the brief divinity of Live at Real World Studios to assert Sinephro as one of the exciting musicians creating today.