Description
2020, 12″ LP, Gondwana Records.
Paradise Cinema is a new project from Poritco Quartet and Szun Waves multi-instrumentalist Jack Wylie, who last year travelled to Senegal in order to record with mbalax percussionists Khadim Mbaye (saba drums) and Tons Sambe (tama drums). The trio’s self-titled debut album explores what Wylie calls ‘impressionistic’ and ‘dream-like’ fusions of gaseous, constantly-shifting ambient electronics, gentle new age synthesizer melodies, cinematic string movements, lone jazz solos and mbalax percussion, the latter occasionally smothered in reverb or delay to give it a strangely otherworldly quality. It’s kind of an update on Jon Hassell’s trademark “fourth world” sound, and it works remarkably well. Or, to put it more simply, Paradise Cinema is a magical and beguiling album that’s well worth your attention. – Juno
