Aketi Ray - From Ever Since (F-Ire Records)

Bandleider, melodica-speler en percussionist Mikolaj 'Mikus' Gorecki vat het zelf alsvolgt samen: "I was listening to a lot of digital dub tunes, and much as I love that sound, I felt there was a lack of dubwise music getting made that had that live instrumentation feel of the 60s and 70s. At the same time I didn't want to just rehash the past - the best you can do is come close to replicating that sound, you definitely won't beat it - so I wanted to try something different, and bring in other connected jazz and African influences to the mix and try to take the music somewhere new. Sometimes when people fuse different music traditions it can sound a bit like a collage, the elements are all there, but they don't actually fuse together. I think we have our own sound, and it's greater than the sum of its parts.". Hoewel het hier een volledig instrumentaal album betreft, durft Mikus toch gewagen van een boodschap: "The music definitely has a message. For each track we had a very clear subject in mind when writing it, but it's down to the listener to tune in to that and take from it what they want. Sometimes you can say more with the abstract language of music than you can in words.". Onze persoonlijke aanraders: het naar New Orleans knipogende 'They Don't Care', het door de fluitmelodie van Kevin Robinson voortgedreven 'Call On His Name', 'Sinai', gelijkaardig maar deze keer met Mikus' melodica in de hoofdrol, het duidelijk door Ethio-jazz beïnvloede 'Temple Ball', en de heerlijk souljazz-achtige afsluiter 'Heartease'. Dub with a difference!