Earthbeam
Incredible work, Jairus. Beautifully done, I get stuck listening to Mawu on repeat.. that Sax speaks to the Soul and moves the Spirit <3
Favorite track: Mawu.
Dmillz
Pre-order vinyl arrived today, and I’m taken by just my first listen! Side A gently brings me into this sonic world (a Malcolm Mooney appearance!) before side B explodes the horizon with sax squelches and beautiful alien sounds.
There are numerous near-inaudible layers that haunt every track on Jairus Sharif's forthcoming album Basis of Unity. His decision to embed this whispered patina of faint percussion, voices, and other sounds at the innermost core of his compositions is most certainly unconventional, but this secret world percolating well below the surface ties to various ideas that are foundational to this ecstatic new release—especially the energetic capacity of human beings both throughout life and after it.
The Calgary-based multi-instrumentalist and composer garnered considerable attention with Water & Tools (2022), a record that was driven by Sharif's contemplation of race and identity. The music refracted free-jazz-derived gestures through a prismatic and staunchly self-taught approach. Noise was definitely an ingredient in Water & Tools' peculiar recipe providing urgency
and colour to its brusque and decidedly homebrewed sound palette, but on its more meditative successor, noise has become a central element that resonates on the symbolic and conceptual level.
Getting Basis of Unity off the ground was not easy for Sharif. "I got to this point where I wasn't able to create truthfully anymore," he concedes of the initial process. In addition to having lost one of his parents immediately following the completion of Water & Tools, there was also the looming sense of expectation that the release had established in its wake. The deeply intuitive and solitary nature of his musical practice also made it tricky for him to evaluate the nascent ideas he was producing; it became a closed circuit that amplified his doubts and the grief.
His breakthrough came as he ventured further inward through meditation where he managed to tap into a force beyond empathy. The overall sound and conception of this new album is a direct reflection of this path. For Sharif, the music on Basis of Unity plays out from the perspective of Lisa, his departed parent. Upon sharing the completed album with his close circle, he wrote: “This is Healing Music. This set of recordings is the initial result of a change in perspective. […] Basis of Unity is a series of sound sculptures, and much of the recordings are from the perspective of my lost loved one, Lisa.” Indeed, the album imagines the various potential states and locations of Lisa following her departure from the physical realm.
One place where this is heard quite explicitly is on the second track “Looking Down (We Be),” which includes the album's lone guest contribution.
Early Can member, and fellow Calgary resident Malcolm Mooney and Sharif became friends following a live collaboration. “Working with Malcolm is both beautifully practical and uniquely cosmic,” enthuses Sharif, mentioning Mooney’s shared sensibilities and fascinating personal history. Once Sharif had laid the foundation for “Looking Down (We Be),” he brought Mooney aboard. According to Sharif, Mooney’s otherworldly, echoing monologue was freestyled and executed in only a single take.
The supernatural channel is also how noise enters the equation. "Because of the nature of how I grieved, and the nature of how my memory works," states Sharif, "my memories of her
deteriorated pretty fast and became fragmented; filled with noise where there was once clarity." Sharif makes extensive use of various unorthodox processing methods to emulate this degradation, giving all five compositions on the album a unique grainy quality. Most notable among these techniques is the use of various FM radio transmission devices, each of which allows him to project his musical signals as radio waves—a domain that's known for being subject to interference.
Coincidently, radio is also a tool that is frequently implemented by paranormal researchers, so it may not be entirely surprising that sometimes Sharif's radio-processed saxophone crackles and strains in a manner that resembles the dusty murmurs of an EVP recording.
Where the radio fuzz and digital crunch of downsampled audio are clearly emblematic of interference (on both the earthly plane and beyond), Sharif's intention with the aforementioned thrum of percussion and voices was to charge his music with subliminal layers of palpably human energy. Yet in spite of this crucial conceptual contrast, they both produce the effect of enveloping the music in a sort of fuzzy sonic cocoon. The fact that these two supposedly opposing notions ultimately converge in the realm of sound also could be regarded as gesturing toward Sharif’s assertion that there is permeability between the realms of the living and the dead.
While various hues of noise are a significant aspect of the five constituent pieces, the bleariness they produce is tempered by a meditative focus and tranquility that wasn't present on Sharif's prior efforts. Previously he often gravitated toward brazen Rock-like heft and flailing free-form catharsis. Meanwhile on the present collection, he can be found patiently orbiting a single texture or idea, allowing his careful inspection of the material to carry him deeper into its very essence. Even on pieces where melody assumes greater importance, these figures trace the same winding, inward trajectory. On the nine-and-a-half-minute "Bear Witness," Sharif's dizzy, shawm-like sax seems to spiral with such velocity that it eventually dissolves. Rather than climbing toward greater ecstatic heights, in the track's final two minutes, the instrument's sonority is totally engulfed in static, leaving only vague silhouettes of phrases adrift in the murk.
Basis of Unity is a powerful and singular statement from Sharif and the fact that it is nourished by an intensely personal vision of spirituality bolsters its uniqueness on the musical plane.
- Nick Storring
supported by 15 fans who also own “Basis Of Unity”
Even at 80 years old, Pharoah Sanders played his tenor sax with the conviction of a gospel preacher. Every second of this album is arrestingly beautiful. As far as I'm concerned, this is essential listening for anyone who considers themselves a fan of music. 3sidesinasquare
The first release on Cacophonous Revival, from experimentalist Samuel Goff, uses avant-garde approaches to get at personal narratives. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 4, 2020
A forward-looking record that imagines the future of Rio de Janeiro, built on intimate textures, ambient, drone, classical, and bossa nova. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 4, 2017
supported by 13 fans who also own “Basis Of Unity”
Freestyle hectic jazz that soars and plummets and goes on weird dixieesque diversions, or gets stuck on an idea and plays it like a mental tic. Aggressively polite, overly welcoming and carrying an edge. Tom Colquhoun
