Nicole Mitchell Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds 2LP (Vinyl)

TAS Super LP List! Special Merit: Informal

Acclaimed Jazz Flutist & Black Earth Ensemble Founder On Double LP!

Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds is Nicole Mitchell's second album for Chicago-based FPE Records. Recorded in May of 2015 at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, it features her longtime collaborators Renee Baker (violin), Tomeka Reid (cello, banjo), Alex Wing (electric guitar, oud) and Jovia Armstrong (percussion), along with new members Tatsu Aoki (bass, shamisen, taiko) and Kojiro Umezaki (shakuhachi). Also in the mix is Chicago artist, scholar and poet avery r young, who brings the composer's lyrics to life with visceral humanity.

Composer and flutist Nicole Mitchell, once hailed by Chicago Reader music critic Peter Margasak as the "greatest living flutist in jazz", continues the work begun when jazz visionary Sun Ra and his Arkestra first touched down on Planet Earth and told humanity that space (outer and inner) is indeed the place. As with contemporary Afrofuturist pioneers like cosmic jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington, post-everything beat maker Flying Lotus, R&B cyborg Janelle Monáe and dystopian noise-rappers Death Grips, she uses Afrofuturism as a platform to launch her own, unique vision. Her vast sound often encompasses contemporary classical, globally oriented fusion, gospel, spoken word, funk-inspired groove research and even brittle shards of avant-rock. Mandorla Awakening II collides dualities such as acoustic vs electric, country vs urban, simple vs complex, while also sounding through intercultural dialogue between Black, European and Pan-Asian improvisational languages. The outcome is a creative music suite that blurs musical styles into recognizable fragments that weave a unique sound fabric, where human emotion and the struggles of today swim.

"Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds is not only Mitchell's best work it is a bona fide masterpiece that is simultaneously acutely relevant and brilliantly timeless." - All About Jazz

"ambitious, adventuresome, defiant of genres and conventional wisdom and wildly dynamic." - JazzTimes

"Mitchell's album works through the anxieties of 2017 with a swirling, spiritually charged trip." - LA Times

"fools you into thinking you're hearing recently-unearthed Sun Ra" - NPR Jazz Critics Poll

"This vibrant ensemble sometimes coalesces around elements of noise-rock propulsion, or else progressive funk—often in the same track." - Bandcamp Daily

"…a brilliant storyteller as well as composer-player in contemporary creative music." - Jazzwise

"Mitchell doesn't merely explore on Mandorla Awakening II, she asserts the possible in a language so various, ranging, and utterly beautiful, she cannot help but communicate meaning to anyone willing to encounter it." - AllMusic

"Afrofuturistic flautist and composer Nicole Mitchell's 'Shiny Divider' can be found on the ambitious 2017 album Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds, which was part of a larger multi-media project. Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble serves up copious amounts of free jazz and multicultural sounds as the backdrop to avery r. young's impassioned gospel about struggle. The song nestles nicely between Sun Ra and Kamasi Washington on any jazz enthusiast's playlist." - NPR Music, The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+

Features:
• Double LP
• Gatefold sleeve

Musicians:
Nicole Mitchell, flute, electronics
Renee Baker, violin
Tomeka Reid, cello, banjo
Alex Wing, electric guitar, oud, theremin
Jovia Armstrong, percussion
Tatsu Aoki, bass, shamisen, taiko
Kojiro Umezaki, shakuhachi
avery r young, vocals

Selections:
Side A:
1. Egoes War
2. Sub-Mission
3. The Chalice
4. Dance Of Many Hands
Side B:
1. Listening Embrace
2. Forestwall Timewalk
Side C:
1. Staircase Struggle
2. Shiny Divider
Side D:
1. Mandorla Island
2. Timewrap