StrangeFlow
This album got me fast! I love the sun ra vibes and the mixture between structureless and earworm melodies. Warm, sometimes quiet, sometimes lively and so atmospheric! Such a great spiritual jazz band with a superb sound. If you dig e-piano with a good portion of delay this will be a feast for you.
Favorite track: Like Glass.
The Nonsemble
This was an easy pull. We've been following [and supporting] PHI-PSONICS since their first few releases and - with the announcement that they are joining the GONDWANA family - we couldn't be more excited for the man, the band and the new music [soon come].
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For now, time to dig in, play on and Enjoy In Joy!
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@TheNonsemble
Günther W.
The diversity between the structured, the free and the spiritual jazz that Phi-Psonics has created here is rarely achieved. Thank you for this great enrichment!!!
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
Download available in 24-bit/96kHz.
£7.99GBP or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Double Black BioVinyl, printed in reverse board gatefold sleeve in Pantone colours.
Artwork and design by Daniel Halsall
Printed on beautiful black BioVinyl, a sustainable, responsible alternative to traditional vinyl, which is a petroleum by-product.
This innovative product uses bio-based PVC in the production process. It is identical in quality to a conventional pressing, allowing us to press to the highest audio quality whilst using a responsible and sustainable PVC supply chain.
This release was uploaded at 24 bit / 88.2 kHz and available in FLAC, WAV, AIFF or MP3
Includes unlimited streaming of The Cradle (Deluxe Edition)
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/96kHz.
ships out within 1 day
Purchasable with gift card
£26.99GBPor more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
CD edition printed in reverse board gatefold sleeve in pantone colours. Artwork and design by Daniel Halsall
Includes unlimited streaming of The Cradle (Deluxe Edition)
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/96kHz.
ships out within 1 day
Purchasable with gift card
£12.99GBPor more
Limited Edition Double Transparent Violet Vinyl in Gatefold sleeve
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Strictly Limited edition double transparent violet vinyl, printed in reverse board gatefold sleeve in Pantone colours. Artwork and design by Daniel Halsall
Includes unlimited streaming of The Cradle (Deluxe Edition)
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Gondwana Records sign LA bassist and composer Seth Ford-Young’s Phi-Psonics project and announce a remastered deluxe-edition of The Cradle featuring bonus material
Phi-Psonics is a meditative, immersive instrumental group from Los Angeles, led by bassist Seth Ford-Young and featuring Sylvain Carton on woodwinds, Mitchell Yoshida on electric piano, and Josh Collazo on drums. Their deeply soulful music draws on jazz and classical influences together with Ford-Young’s own musical experiences, relationships, and his introduction to spirituality, yoga and philosophy at a young age, to create something uniquely its own. Phi-Psonics’ name and ultimate aim is to find ‘Phi’ – the golden mean – in art, nature and self. Ford-Young explains:
“It's a bit of a cliché, but music saved my life many times and instilled in me a belief in the great power of healing through art. It is my hope and intention that this music provides healing to someone somewhere.“
Originally from Washington DC area, Ford-Young moved to California in the early 90s and fell in love with the deep sounds of the upright bass and the music of Charles Mingus, John and Alice Coltrane, and Duke Ellington along with Bach, Chopin, Pärt, and Satie. He immersed himself deeply in music and keen to learn combined intense personal study with collaborations, tours, and recordings with artists such as Tom Waits, Beats Antique, and John Vanderslice. In 2010 he moved from the San-Francisco Bay area to the Los Angeles hills and continued his explorations. But great music is rarely just about music and Ford-Young’s meditative, soulful music draws on more than just the twin wellsprings of jazz and classical music:
“My mother was a yoga teacher from the early 70's until recently and taught me yoga and meditation at an early age, my stepfather is an Aikido instructor and student of the teachings of Gurdjieff. Those were all early areas of study that I came back to many times throughout my life. Phi-Psonics has been a project that unapologetically synthesizes some of these ideas into our music”.
It’s this mixture of influences, musical and extramusical, that gives the music of Phi-Psonics it’s immersive quality and quiet power. Revealingly the music that would become The Cradle, wasn’t written specifically for an album, originally Ford-Young was just writing down what was coming through. As time went by and the album began to take shape, the world situation seemed to be getting darker and his compositions aim to offer hope as a response to the negative influences that abound today. Remarkably for such a beautiful sounding record, it was recorded at the composer’s home, rather than in a studio, but the relaxed nature of this process gives the music an airy lightness that propels the music to some magical spaces.
Originally self-released on vinyl in a limited run just as the world went into lockdown, The Cradle reached Matthew Halsall (founder of Gondwana Records) when he aws looking for music for his Worldwide FM show and he was blown away, hearing a kindred spirit at work. Halsall explains:
“Phi-Psonics make beautiful, humble and honest music, it’s not showy, but it has a deep vibe that will elevate your mind and soul if you let it. When we heard The Cradle we reached out and are really super delighted to welcome Seth and his band to our label”. Whereas for Ford Young: “Connecting with Matthew and the Gondwana records family has been a light in the darkness of the last years - to have my music make connections even as we are more isolated.”
Ford-Young is currently putting the finishing touches to the second Phi-Psonics record, but aware that only a select few had heard The Cradle, let alone had the chance to buy a copy, and entranced by its deceptive simplicity and elevating energy, Halsall suggested that Gondwana present the album as a remastered ‘deluxe edition’ with an extended running time featuring extra tracks and new artwork from Daniel Halsall.
The Cradle starts with First Step, perfectly setting the tone for the whole album, it is a beautiful, soulful slice of musical calm gently propelled by Ford-Young’s resonant bass and elevated by sublime flute and Wurlitzer electric piano solos. The seductive title track The Cradle was written way back in 2011 during a time of great personal change that led the composer to a feeling of newness and nurture. The magical, winsome Desert Ride is inspired by many rides through the grandly cinematic Mojave Desert. You can experience how incredibly full of life it’s harsh landscape is if you slow down to its tempo. The gentle, sublime Mama is a tribute to mothers of all kinds, beautiful and heroic. Drum Talk was largely improvised, Ford-Young and the band agreed on a topic and recorded their conversation. Choosing their notes based on how Josh's drums were tuned. Like Glass is named for the special properties of Glass. Like some music, glass is delicate, yet has structure. The first of the two bonus tracks Still Dancing was written during the early days of 2020 in response to the challenges we all were facing then. It's a reminder that the figurative dance continues and that real dancing is essential. And the second, The Searcher, also written as a response to 2020, is a gently hypnotic song about the introspection and growth that can spring from a difficult situation.
This then is The Cradle, a quiet self-contained masterpiece, life-affirming and elevating in equal measure and the first offering from a wonderful new voice in spiritual jazz and the latest members of the global Gondwana Records family.
This release was uploaded at 24 bit / 88.2 kHz and available in FLAC, WAV, AIFF or MP3 and available in FLAC, WAV, AIFF or MP3.
It sounds like Takuro is exploring a voice that sounds as fresh for us as it must feel for him. Beautiful, unexpected discoveries on this LP... Phi-Psonics
