Repress of avantgarge jazz gem for fans of Angel Bat Dawid, Shabaka Hutchings, Makaya McCraven, Kamasi Washington and others

Tracklist LP
A1 Five Rand Airtime Nama-Eveready: 4000 Degrees
A2 Tigerbalm Nobuhlebakho (Interlude)
A3 Ice Squinchies: Waiting For You
B1 Magwinya, Mangola NeWhite Liver
B2 Invocations (Interlude)
B3 Sunlight, Glycerine, 2 Loose Draws
B4 Stametta Spuit: Invocations

Packaging: 1LP (140g) Reverse Board Cover with Custom M3H Inner Sleeve

Audio: https://spaza.bandcamp.com/album/spaza

An entirely improvised album recorded live, in one take, featuring a once-off ensemble of Johannesburg-based avantgarde musicians. A band with no permanent personnel, with each line-up assembled for the express purpose of recording improvised or workshopped material. For this, the initial salvo, SPAZA was put together from a group of musicians with individual and collective links to Johannesburg’s jazz, afro funk and experimental electro scenes. As a body of work created on the spot, there is a heightened and sustained sense of intuition running through this recording whose sonic palette is so wide it captures - through soundscaping, invocation, lament, impressionistic vocal weaving - not only the transient and hybridised nature of life in Johannesburg, but also the heaviness of the air at the time of its recording. Between percussionist Gontse Makhene and bass player Ariel Zamonsky on the bottom end of the scale (both of whom are part of Shabaka Hutchings’ band, Shabaka & The Ancestors), and sound sculptor João Orecchia and string wizard Waldo Alexander on the nebulous end of it, vocalists Nosisi Ngakane and Siya Makuzeni (who also plays trombone) marshal a vocal experiment that is as tense as it is playful. The results, shaped in the Pan African milieu that is Johannesburg, is a freewheeling representation of continental astral travel.


“The trombone, violin, and electronically warped vocals resemble
futuristic R&B one moment, Sun Ra at his most spacebound the next”
- Best Experimental Albums of 2019 on Pitchfork

“SPAZA defied all categorization and fearlessly explored a rarefied new
space” - The Best Albums of 2019 on Bandcamp

“Their cyclical patterns may call to mind the steady tread of an evening
walk in the woods, the comforts of nature and the danger of darkness
closing in around you” - New York Times Playlist

“A spellbinding mix of spiritual jazz and New Age that pays homage to
black South African culture” - Album of the day Bandcamp

“It’s incantatory music – militant, luminous and fresh” - The Wire
Magazine

“South African experimentalists SPAZA sound equal parts incantation
and cosmic message, with shades of Arthur Russell in their rolling
congas and staccato strings. A trip, for sure” - The Quietus

Packaging: 1LP (140g) Reverse Board Cover with Custom M3H Inner Sleeve

For fans of
Avant-garde, Jazz, Experimental, Improvised Jazz, Spiritual jazz, Angel Bat Dawid, Shabaka Hutchings, Makaya McCraven, Kamasi Washington, Flying Lotus, The Comet is Coming, Hiatus Kaiyote, Nai Palm, Bad Bad Not Good, Ben Lamar-Gay