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Cassie Kinoshi's seed. - iii sun through my window

ARTiST..[ Cassie Kinoshi's seed.
TiTLE...[ iii sun through my window
GENRE...[ Jazz                    CAT#....[ IARCS281
LABEL...[ International Anthem    ENCODER.[ Lame 3.100
YEAR....[ 2024                    QUALiTY.[ 320kbps
SOURCE..[ WEB (FLAC)              MODE....[ Joint Stereo
PLAYTIME[ 03:46                   REL.DATE[ 03.27.2024
TRACKS..[ 01                      RiPPER..[ TEAM OMA
SiZE....[ 8,64 MB                 SUPPLiER[ TEAM OMA

NR. TRACK.                                             TiME.

01  iii sun through my window                         03:46
(feat. NikNak & London Contemporary Orchestra)

TOTAL: 03:46

https://www.deezer.com/album/536595632

In March of 2023 composer, arranger & alto
saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi premiered a
commissioned suite of music in front of a sold
out crowd at LondonÆs Southbank Centre. She
wrote the piece û gratitude û for her flagship
large ensemble seed., in a special augmented
formation that also featured turntablist NikNak
and the London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO).

Followers of UK Jazz know Kinoshi from her
previous work with seed. (including the Mercury
Prize-nominated album Driftglass, released by
jazz re:freshed in 2019), or as a former member
of Kokoroko. But her compositional resume also
extends deeply into orchestral work for concert
hall, contemporary dance, film, visual art, and
theatre, with high profile collaborators
including London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia
Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra.
That depth of experience is on full display on
gratitude, with the textural and dynamic
flexibility of her large ensemble covering
musical ground from groove-focused modal
melancholia to anthemic brass and string
themes. Striking upon first listen and even
richer on repeat visits, gratitude scores the
soul of contemporary Black London with
philharmonic craftwork in the tradition of
legendary jazz arrangers like Mary Lou
Williams, Oliver Nelson, and Carla Bley.

Similar to those keystone writer-arrangers,
here Kinoshi wields the power of a large
ensemble to convey nuanced human emotion.
ôgratitude was written as a means of guiding my
own healing,ö says Kinoshi. ôMy mother told me
that she keeps a gratitude book where she
writes one thing, no matter how big or small,
every day that helps to re-focus her mind on
practicing gratitude. The examples that she
gave were seeing the flowers that she'd
recently planted in her garden bloom and a
kaleidoscope of butterflies that she saw
flitting about a tree in her garden.ö

Inspired by her motherÆs focus on natural
beauty and the meaningful minutiae of everyday
life, Kinoshi was driven to work through her
own relationship with mental health and to pour
that into composition. ôI was spending a lot of
time on my own, often at my desk writing
continuously,ö says Kinoshi. ôAt 3pm everyday,
the winter sun would be positioned opposite my
window and shine directly onto my face. The
task of writing this piece was one of the most
difficult I've endured û because of the
headspace that I was in at the time û and this
would be the one thing in the middle of the day
that would bring me a very deep sense of
contentmentà my first attempt at consciously
practicing gratitude for something that I so
often take for granted.ö

ôAt this point in my artistic career,
highlighting the often overlooked subject of
mental health and what it means to move towards
creating healthy, positive and introspective
practices in regards to both understanding and
regulating one's own mental health is of the
utmost importance to me.ö

Throughout the writing process Kinoshi had the
privilege of knowing that her composition would
eventually be interpreted by seed. ù an
ensemble of players she founded in 2016 and
whose collective talents she knows through and
through. ôThe binding concept of seed. has
always been to have a creative outlet that
allows me to express and highlight subject
matter important to me alongside musicians that
I deeply respect, admire and enjoy spending
time with,ö explains Kinoshi. ôIt is the one
environment where I feel extremely comfortable
being able to experiment with sound
authentically. Over the years, it has evolved
in the sense that the more comfortable the band
members get with interpreting my music, and the
more we develop a creative language together,
the more honest the music sounds.ö That
profound musical and personal trust helped make
the ensemble a perfect vehicle for a
composition augmented by new collaborators ù in
this case the LCO and NikNak.

Kinoshi and seed. first met turntablist NikNak
at the Marsden Jazz Festival in 2019. After
spending some time talking politics and sharing
jokes it was clear that a creative relationship
was possible. ôI find that working with
formidable artists that I get on well with on a
personal level always leads to my best work,
and knew as soon as I met NikNak that I wanted
to work with them.ö

On the genesis of her collaboration with the
LCO, Kinoshi says: ôI have always wanted to
combine seed. with electronics and orchestral
elements, as I have always envisioned the band
performing multi-disciplinary works. I have
long admired the members of the LCO and their
way of successfully melding orchestral
arrangements and improvisation with more
contemporary artists. I was introduced to them
via Lexy Morvaridi during his time at the
Southbank Centre. It was through his support,
creative insight and trust that we were able to
make this project happen.ö The beauty and
harmony of these communal connections plus the
depth and deftness of all the musickers
involved truly made Kinoshi's dream of this
composition a reality.

Running confidently at 21 minutes and 33
seconds (not including the albumÆs B Side /
final track ôSmoke in the Sun,ö which was
recorded separately at Total Refreshment
Centre) and going straight for the heart,
gratitude is an evolved, emotionally attuned,
creatively ambitious and compositionally
exquisite philharmonic expression of post-
millennial UK jazz.

The only thing that really matters is music!!!

FRiENDS / SiTEOPS / NUKENET

.  ▄.···. !kb^faa  08.MARCH 2009 .···.▄  . ▀  ▀▀ ▀▓▀ ▀     .