Label: Burning Ambulance Records, 2026
Personnel - Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet; Sylvie Courvoisier: piano (#1,3); Marcus Gilmore: drums (#1,3); Bobby Naughton: vibraphone (#2-5); Lamar Smith: electric guitar (#2,3,5); Bill Laswell: electric bass (#3,4); Melvin Gibbs: electric bass (#3,4); Mauro Refosco: percussion (#2,3,5); Brian Jawara Gray: percussion (#2,3,5); Pheeroan akLaff: drums (#2-5).
Trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith assembled various ensembles for his new album, Constellations and Hemispheres, rooted in harmonic intensity, open structures, and modal depth. The project was sparked by quantum physics, parallel universes, and shifting dimensions, in a no-nonsense approach that explores timbre and atmosphere with serious intentions and exceptional versatility.
The album kicks off in trio format, with Smith joining forces with the quick-witted pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and adaptable drummer Marcus Gilmore on “Dark Energy”. Cymbal activity is paired with sparse piano texture, while Smith's declamations extend from sharply piercing to dolefully lugubrious. This mournful reflection swells and intensifies via Courvoisier's phenomenal work, expanding and contracting by way of intricately coiling patterns that work as a perfect foil for Smith's obscure idioms. Gilmore is granted a brief unaccompanied passage.
"Lake Tanganyika" emerged from a sextet session with trumpet, vibraphone, guitar, percussion, and drums. Ancient, water-surrounded landscapes are evoked via the emotionally powerful lyricism brought by Smith over Bobby Naughton's gossamer vibes and Pheeroan AkLaff's gloriously relentless drum flow. The seasoned drummer also gets our attention on the closer, "Meditation on Love", a cosmic, open-ended manifesto of peace and hope.
Smith traces a spiritual and artistic connection with the Rastafari—associated with the reggae music of Jamaica—but I'm unable to spot that influence here. Yet the music is able to knife through the speakers like a lightning bolt. "Dark Matters, Particles of Light, Mirror of the Unseen" is a full-length workout clocking in at 22 minutes. Powerful and moody, the piece is bookended by the same trio that had shaped the opening track, expanding in its middle part into an octet featuring two distinguished electric bassists, Bill Laswell and Melvin Gibbs, who contribute to the dismal, apocalyptic scenario with authority. A lighter, tactile percussive quality appears by the end, relieving the pressure.
The two bassists are also prominent on "Deep Canyons on Mars", diffusing ominous vibes through gravelly distorted sounds. The heavy, nightmarish tones are pacified when vibraphone and trumpet step forward, yet obscurity still lives here when the bass returns with wah-wah bluesy sounds drowned in electronics.
Though the result of multiple sessions, Constellations and Hemispheres feels like a unified experiment—mostly stripped down of gloss but still with haunting and transcendent moments to reflect upon.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Dark Energy ► 02 - Lake Tanganyika ► 03 - Dark Matters, Particles of Light, Mirror of the Unseen