Jairus Sharif - Basis Of Unity
There are numerous near-inaudible layers that haunt every track on Jairus Sharif's forthcoming album Basis of Unity. His decision to embed this whispered patina of faint percussion, voices, and other sounds at the innermost core of his compositions is most certainly unconventional, but this secret world percolating well below the surface ties to various ideas that are foundational to this ecstatic new release—especially the energetic capacity of human beings both throughout life and after it.
The Calgary-based multi-instrumentalist and composer garnered considerable attention with Water & Tools (2022), a record that was driven by Sharif's contemplation of race and identity. The music refracted free-jazz-derived gestures through a prismatic and staunchly self-taught approach. Noise was definitely an ingredient in Water & Tools' peculiar recipe providing urgency and colour to its brusque and decidedly homebrewed sound palette, but on its more meditative successor, noise has become a central element that resonates on the symbolic and conceptual level.