This feels like an album that Adam Scrimshire, producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist has been edging towards for some time now. After the politically-charged ‘Paroxysm‘ in 2022 and the gently introspective ‘Music For Autumn Lovers’ from a couple of years ago, he’s arrived at ‘Bring Our Light To Every Corner’, an album reaches out with a welcome.
Tapping into Scrimshire’s ongoing relationship with transcendent Spiritual Jazz, this music has been fermenting as offshoots of ideas for several years now. His other projects may have nudged ahead, more necessary at the time, but as the composer explains: “You keep writing, keep exploring, and eventually the pieces reveal the picture they belong to. This album feels like a moment where that picture became clear.” Make no mistake ‘Bring Our Light To Every Corner’ is an album for the moment in these turbulent times. Not over-complex or doom laden but an uplifting, articulate soundtrack which instils hope and uncontaminated warmth.
The expansive cinematic jazz of My Land Is Your Land, My Sky Your Sky ushers the album in. It’s a tune that shimmers with a Portishead aura, the distant strings, teasing trip-hop beats and reverb-soaked guitar chords dripping with intensity. Mark Zentai’s wirey electric sitar adds to these film-noire atmospherics while Jake Telford’s emotive soprano sax urges the song to a higher place.
What’s immediately noticeable from the start is that Scrimshire is not only expanding his soundscape but he’s trusting a wider range of musicians to realise the potential of these compositions. This gives a new energy to the tracks on ‘Bring Our Light To Every Corner’, a spontaneity freed up by collective engagement.
This ensemble dynamic gives air to the breezy With Our Eternal Hope and Joy. There’s a Steely Dan/Donald Fagan-like flow to this gorgeous tune, led by Brit-Jazz lynch-pin Jessica Lauren’s groove defining piano. The song’s palette is refreshingly uncluttered: bright chord patterns; whippy wah-wah guitar; burbling bass; and a light funk swing spiced with Idris Rahman’s flighty flute solo. Vocals are also key to the song’s character, first with spoken-word soothsayer Joshua Idehen’s verses and then a spirited choir-blessed finale. “I got hopes to see this over/good times coming in the rota” Idehen purrs during a track that always sparks belief.
An impromptu choir of collaborators also brings a communal glow to the fulsome MPB of the title track and those Brazilian vibes again colour the frisky samba rhythms of Asleep, Awake. Here the singular voice of Dwight Trible brings another dimension, a stirring baritone mixed with otherworldly sighs and trembling poeticism. “Got to give hope” he reminds us, soulful but tinged with desperation as the flute and strings swirl. Such celestial moments also come with more contemplation. When your Heart is my Heart, My Hand is your Hand blends synth chimes and gentle Rhodes piano with devotional singer Mahesh Kale’s delicate mantra. There’s something hypnotic and healing going on here, the song shimmering with the resonance of a Dorothy Ashby moment.
Perhaps it’s on the closing track, Awake a Dream that Scrimshire makes his deepest and bravest statement on the album. This epic, ambitious fifteen-minute suite featuring long-time Scrimshire collaborator Faye Houston on vocals, is restrained and thoughtful, a space for the listener to weigh up what’s around them. The beginning suspends Houston’s dreamy sighs amongst fluttering guitars and plaintive piano. You expect some sonic surge but instead the piece steps into the funkiest shuffle and a swirling jazz-chorale. Nothing is hurried here, the grooves roll on until a point of natural rest and a final ascendant gospel-toned passage. “Everything we dream” Houston appeals, her voice quivering with belief.
Scrimshire has revealed that his aim for this new album was “… to create somewhere people could stay for a while.” Well ‘Bring Our Light To Every Corner’ is a space you’ll be wanting to escape to, time and again.
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