Fusing decades of underground New York jazz with contemporary electronics, Daniel Carter and N/UM’s Sphēra takes listeners on a spontaneous and daring journey through generations of improvised music. Across a bed of electronics, Carter’s sensitive soloing on reeds and trumpet unfolds across seven sections, alternately melding with the synthesized textures or forming an organic contrast to the abstract sounds surrounding him. More ambient segments alternate with groove-heavy sections like ‘Curvature’, ‘Rotation’ or especially ‘Fraction’, where the sung mantra “a prisoner of consciousness, prisoners of consciousness” alludes to darker, buried themes. A telepathic meeting between the mellowed out, octogenarian free jazz legend and an experienced trio at the peak of their powers, Sphēra coalesces into a whole far exceeding the sum of its parts.
