Sasha Berliner - Fantome (Gate) [LP]

Fantome is not your stereotypical jazz record. Fantome is what happens when a contemporary jazz vibraphonist with a rock music background finds an R&B and funk audio engineer and some of the best international improvisers to put a twist on what we know as jazz today. It'[s neither here nor there - neither traditional nor futuristic, neither fully electronic nor acoustic, casting a shadow on binaries and illuminating all the inbetweens in a captivating blend of sound. It is steeped in several jazz idioms and their influences over the last 80 years, yielding a new phase for jazz in the future. You can try to put it in a categorical box, but you will fail. The box is effectively phantom. It is, rather, everything. It is a musical journey that should defy expectations, garner feelings of excitement, power, tension, darkness, sorrow, self reflection, and hope. It will connect to you, challenge you, and it will stay with you long after it's over.