Akusmi: Terra Incognita (color) LP

French-born, London-based composer and musician Pascal Bideau presents a new album of intrepid sonic exploration that delights in the sensation of being somewhere you've never been before. ‘Terra Incognita’ invites us to seven faraway sonic imaginariums fusing global and spiritual jazz with life affirming minimalism into a hypnotic, polyrhythmic odyssey. This time, the album's sound palette is more vibrant, earthy, and abundant, drawing inspiration from the radiating optimism and high-energy sources heard in Afrobeat, Highlife and Electronic Afro-pop music, sounding looser, free, and primarily interested in raw sensations. Antithetical to the precise ostinatos and gamelan patterns of the acclaimed debut ‘Fleeting Future’ (2022) and ‘Lines’ (2023). ‘Terra Incognita‘, then, is a hybrid blend of traditional music and modern electronics, a trip into the unknown that ambulates freely, taking pleasure in its repetitions and never staying still. Bideau suggests this unmarked territory could be as much a fantasyland as it is a transportive journey into the inner self.