Cassie Kinoshi is a composer and alto saxophonist who writes for and performs with her ten-piece ensemble, seed. Kinoshi composed “gratitude” for seed, which was accompanied by the turntablist NikNak and the London Contemporary Orchestra at a special performance at London’s Southbank Centre. The live recording of that performance was later augmented with overdubs from members of seed. “gratitude” is a rich and compelling album, one that successfully blends sounds from post-rock, jazz, trip-hop, and modern experimental music—but effortlessly, naturally. However complex these compositions are, it never sounds like that—it sounds beautiful, life-affirming, exciting, deeply felt. “gratitude” is a masterfully crafted album, with each piece flowing smoothly into the next, a momentary theme from one section picked up and given longer expression in another section. Kinoshi and seed are pushing it forward, joining the ranks of other great acts in London (and Chicago and L.A.) who are finding new ways to make music within the tradition of jazz but also incorporate other forms as well.
“ii” starts off from the tail end of “i” and picks up with percussion, piano, softer horns, and some scratching from NikNak (the turntable work here and throughout the album, in conjunction with the strings and some of the other sounds brings to mind Portishead’s classic “Roseland NYC Live” album). The horns dominate the first part of this track, so forceful and bright, and then it slows up around 1:30 in. The guitar solo that starts at 2:10 is so fluid, so much in conversation and reaction to what the bass and drums are doing, and then the guitar pulls in everyone else, so that the last part of the track involves the full complement of players.
“iv” is another monster track. It picks up from “interlude ii,” which is the calmest, most droney track on the album, filled with strings, guitar, electronic filigree in the background, ripples moving outward to the end of the track, until the transition to “iv” when the percussion enters again, guitar, bass, for one of the most powerful sections of the album. Trumpet occupies most of the space for the first minute or so, then there’s a downshift momentarily, and a whole host of other horns come in. The sax solo on this track—by Kinoshi?—is insane. It’s so sinuous, so authoritative, making a case. And then from 3:30 until the end of the track, the whole ensemble is full force until the strings come in at the end and take over with a swirling, fidgety field of noise.
“gratitude” is such a fascinating piece of music. You can listen to it merely for surface enjoyment, for the beautiful melodies, for the playing, but you can also really dig into the sounds, the way Kinoshi positions the instruments in the compositions and how they interact with each other.