“We started with a cosmic idea that we were taught from a very young age – that the stars and planets make a sound, that deep in outer space there is audible harmony.”
Book Of Sound is the brilliant, richly resonant exploration of these interstellar low ways. By turns urgent and contemplative, funky and reflective; varied in its textures, but entirely of one piece. Underpinned by cosmology, held in place by meditation, swirling with notions of history, science, theology, ancestry — this is a heady conceptual brew. But the music speaks loudest: ‘the sound of surprise’, magnificently retrieving Spiritual Jazz from the knacker’s yard.
It’s a deeply Chicagoan record. “It’s got the vibe of the lake,’ continues trombonist Cid, “the vibe of the prairies opening up to the west.” Also the Sun Ra albums recorded there in the 1950s, and — of course, being the dad of all seven ensemblists — Phil Cohran’s wonderful albums from the 1960s.
“You know, it’s tough trying to satisfy everybody with our music. It’s hard enough satisfying ourselves, let alone the jazz scene, the hip hop guys, what have you. With this album we just dropped all that as a consideration, and tuned into deeper principles.”

Celebrating the twentieth year of ensemblehood, BBOJ delivers the band’s signature, funked-up melange of soul, afrobeat and hard riffing jazz. Or, as they call it, ‘now music’. Featuring the humdinger title track of last year’s EP, In The House, this is, as always, uplifting as hell.

Lovely. Classical songs by such exemplars as Schubert and Schumann, re-imagined with heart and soul as bare, doleful folk. Just voice and electric guitar.

Terrific — lit-up, reaching and odd — Josephine playing harp, guitar and piano (and singing), with Alex Nielson on drums and Victor Herrero, lead guitar.

Patti Smithed. ‘Lyrically, stylistically and musically, this is a fearless, soon to be classic post-punk rock and roll record that delivers the goods from start to finish.’

Settings of the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

Intimate four-track home recordings from 2001. After years of just writing songs down, without thinking of recording them, the spur was her work as a music teacher to young children.

JF goes to Nashville — a home from home for her song-writing, its odd allure, sex and sorrow lit up by harp and pedal steel, double bass and piano.

‘A maze of spirituals, on four levels. Ritual prayers, blues laments, vestal hymns and jubilant benedictions hearkening back to the esoteric balladry of This Coming Gladness, the native rhythms of Blood Rushing, the somnambulist waltzes of I’m A Dreamer, and the Shaker primitivism of Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You. Self-accompaniment on guitar, piano, organ, harp and autoharp, with Victor Herrero (lead guitars), Gyða Valtýsdóttir (cello), Chris Scruggs (pedal steel) and Jon Estes (bass), as well as cameos by members of The Cherry Blossoms and others.’
Clear vinyl.

Originally released by Topic in 1974.

Her 1959 LP, with the first run out for signature classics like Hares On The Mountain.

Deluxe LP edition, with gold foiling on the sleeve, a four-page booklet, 140g vinyl.

Shirley and her sister recorded in concert in the late 1970s; and a handful of demos from the 1960s.