From Chantal Acda to Jessica Pratt: these are this week’s pop and jazz albums

Setting and rising again with Chantal Acda

Chantal Acda takes us into deep waters on her seventh album.

Since 2013, Chantal Acda has been building a story that is as convincing as it feels fragile. She is the singer whose small ripples show the way in deep waters. “I felt so alone and not needed or wanted/ Don’t throw me away with all you really wanted”she sings in one of the nine songs on this very intimate, tender album that expresses how memories of pain, failed communication, and loneliness dragged her down.

Her soprano intuitively searches for a tone that almost stammers, to express a feeling of wanting to leave and stop to understand the fake world. But because she expresses this, and thereby also processes personal memories, she converts powerlessness into strength. The sea, the birds and the moon beautifully color the fragile lyrics. And with Bill Frisell, Shahzad Ismaily and Thomas Morgan, among others, she has an empathetic bond, which gives the slowly rippling songs all the warmth and space. And which strengthens the moments of hope, because “your soul will rise above/ spirits dancing in arms”. A moving album about survival. (corporate corporation)

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Willow Smith finds the answer in isolation

After soul and pop punk, the still only 23-year-old Willow Smith reinvents herself with an album on which funk and jazz predominate.

On her fifth album Coping mechanism we heard a Willow Smith thrashing around wildly. She shouted away her doubts with punk guitars. To successor Empathogen the still only 23-year-old singer asks a pertinent question. Okay, you’ve vented. But what do you do now? Smith found her answer in lonely seclusion: songs like ‘The fear is not real’ explore what happens when you stop trying to drum away your own thoughts. She lets her voice slide gracefully between nervously tapping drums – as if to say that she found peace in the chaos.

The nu metal influences of Coping mechanism were exchanged for funky and jazzy elements: the Grammy-winning jazz musician Jon Batiste provides ‘Home’ with swinging keys. Smith herself allows her voice to move smoothly between Fiona Apple and Lianne La Havas. In interviews she testifies how many people think she owes her success to her parents. There is little doubt that Dad Will will have opened doors. But she walks through it gracefully.

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The wonderful folk of Jessica Pratt is pitch perfect

Jessica Pratt is increasingly emerging as a unique singer-songwriter. Her fourth album is a gem on which she counters darkness with warm melodies that seem to have matured in the sixties.

Jessica Pratt knows that you have to be careful with magic. The Californian’s albums do not last a second longer than necessary, she limits arrangements to the essence. This is no different on her fourth album, although opener ‘Life is’ seems to herald a change of course. A drum rhythm that comes from the sixties of The Ronettes kicks off the song, bongos and strings add further color. But Pratt keeps his finger on the money. Just like Brian Wilson, she gives a lot of space to her angelic voice, which sounds at the same time childlike and a bit mysterious. Pratt says a lot with very little. ‘Nowhere it was’ hypnotizes with some muted hand clapping, an almost inaudible guitar and a thin line of organ. ‘By hook or by crook’ shuffles to a tender bossa rhythm. The songs often evoke a mystical atmosphere. Pratt sings about longing and loss, returning in time to view the present through a new lens. A slumbering darkness that she counters with the lightest, sweetest melodies. (tbh)

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Ibibio Sound Machine can pull the rope a little harder

Ibibio Sound Machine sends you onto the dance floor with big thoughts, supported by a vibrant marriage between afrobeats and eighties funk.

“Even though we’re eager to pull the trigger, let’s pull the rope“, Ibibio Sound Machine immediately gives its mission statement at the kick-off of its fifth album. The future looks cloudy, together we can push the doom aside. The insights of the London collective around singer Eno Williams and producer Max Grunhard are not new: social media must suffer, what really counts is unity, equality and positivism. Empowerment gets a high five in ‘Let my yes be yes’. But what those lyrics lack in punch, Williams and co. good with smooth funkhooks, tingling electronics and sizzling afrobeats. The eighties dominate on their dance floor. ‘Political incorrect’ serves an angular groove that Gang of Four had a patent on at the time. The title track picks at a no-wave bass, ‘Got to be who you are’ moves from a thumb piano to a disco beat. When Ibibio Sound Machine pulls the rope fiercely, as in closing tracks ‘Far away’ and ‘Dance in the rain’, the roof goes off. (tbh)

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Stéphane Galland: fascinating hunt for rhythms

In his solo work, Aka Moon drummer Stéphane Galland also proves to be a master of the most exotic rhythms.

Of course, Stéphane Galland is first and foremost a drummer, but the man from Aka Moon also writes strong melodies, judging by the opening song of this album, which immediately makes you want to whistle along. And there are still songs that stick in your head.

Galland gathered five young musicians around him for this project, who follow him in his hunt for rhythms from the most exotic places, from Africa to India to the Balkans. A striking role is reserved for Wajdi Riahi, the Tunisian-Brussels pianist, who more than lives up to his growing reputation. Pierre-Antoine Savoyat plays trumpet, Sylvain Debaisieux can be heard this time on alto sax, the tenor sax is in the hands of Shoko Igarashi, who gives it a very unique sound. And what a pleasure it is to hear Louise van den Heuvel on her electric bass again, her solo in ‘Positivv’ is to die for. In combination with Galland’s phenomenal drums, she forms a rhythmic duo of great class. Strong album by a grand master of rhythm. (pdb)