Gb​ɛ​fal​ɔ​i (Travelers) by Accra Quartet

From a humble lamp warmth flows, imprisoning us in its hypnotic aura, inviting our eyes to pick apart every minutiae of its output, rays bursting into radiant color within the prism of our minds. The West African jazz innovators in Accra Quartet unveil their unique blend of traditional aesthetics and avant garde sensibilities on their new album Gb​ɛ​fal​ɔ​i (Travelers), a collection of character studies of warm instrumental motifs that yield unbelievable layers of complexity under the right supervision. Each track centers on a relatively simple, inviting riff, a melodic doodle that on most other albums would serve as a minor component of a chorus or the bold core of an anthem. However, the Quartet invites these musical characters to tell us their stories, revealing complementary countermelodies, parallel vocalizations, and cooperative percussion that each pull from the vast repertoire of traditional Ghanaian music. As art everywhere accelerates and metastasizes into content, such a granular, thoughtful reading and appreciation of the smallest and most pleasant moments music has to offer hits us like an ice bath in the piercing, warming sun.