Emma-Jean Thackray
Le premier album d’Emma-Jean Thackray ressemble exactement au genre de chose que nous attendions depuis 12 mois : une expérience transcendante, humaine et partagée. Tout au long de ses 47 minutes, Yellow trace de brillants liens entre le jazz fusion des années 70 et le P-funk, les invocations cosmiques de Sun Ra et Alice Coltrane et la magnifique orchestration des Pet Sounds des Beach Boys. « Je voulais que le tout ressemble à un trip psychédélique », explique Thackray. « Vous mettez la première piste, cela vous fait traverser cette chose intense pendant près d’une heure, puis vous ressortez de l’autre côté transformé. »
English
The debut album by Emma-Jean Thackray feels exactly like the sort of thing we’ve been longing for over the last 12 months: a transcendent, human, shared experience. Across its 47 minutes, Yellow draws glowing lines between ‘70s jazz fusion and P-funk, the cosmic invocations of Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane and the gorgeous orchestration of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. “I wanted the whole thing to sound like a psychedelic trip,” explains Thackray. “You put on the first track, it takes you through this intense thing for almost an hour, and then you emerge on the other side transformed.”
Bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Emma-Jean Thackray was born and raised in Yorkshire but is today a resident of Catford, south-east London. Her 2020 EPs Um Yang 음 양 and Rain Dance marked Thackray out as standard-bearer of a spiritually-minded, dancefloor-angled take on jazz that stood at a slight remove from the broader UK scene. But Yellow – released on Thackray’s own Warp Records-affiliated imprint, Movementt – feels like a further step into a fresh and distinct space. Its 14 tracks bloom with brass and strings, choral segments and ecstatic chants. But this deeper, richer sound is not at the expense of immediacy.