Cutting-Edge Trio The Comet Is Coming To Release Verve! Label Debut
Described by The Guardian newspaper as "an improvisational, intergalactic mash-up," the group were shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize in 2016.
The Comet Is Coming will release their debut album for the storied Impulse! label, Trust In the Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery, on 15 March. The group, described by The Guardian newspaper as “an improvisational, intergalactic mash-up,” were shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize in 2016. The lead track from the release, ‘Summon The Fire,’ is available now:
The group’s first-ever US tour will start in Los Angeles in the week of the album’s release, on 12 March. They’ll play in NewYork, Philadelphia and Washington, at SXSW, Big Ears Festival and, finally, Bonnaroo on 13 June.
The Comet Is Coming features King Shabaka (Shabaka Hutchings) on saxophone, Danalogue (Dan Leavers) on keyboards and synthesisers and Betamax (Max Hallett) on drums. They formed in London in 2013, by which time Shabaka, a member of Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors, was already a MOBO Award-winning leading name in contemporary British jazz.
The group’s first work together produced the 2015 EP Prophecy, followed the next year by the Mercury-shortlisted debut album Channel The Spirits, then Death to the Planet, released on Record Store Day (2017).
The new album represents their 21st century take on spiritual jazz with the influence of Alice Coltrane and a flavour of Blade Runner. “When I first saw The Comet Is Coming,” says Danny Bennett, president and CEO of Verve Label Group, the home of Impulse!, “I knew immediately I was in the presence of greatness that was bound to shake the foundation of music.
“This group is shifting paradigms, enticing listeners to expand their consciousness through this mind-bending music,” continues Bennett. “This is what Impulse! and Verve Label Group is about – always pushing the envelope.”
The trio’s adventurous approach is reflected in such titles on Trust In the Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery as ‘Because The End Is Really The Beginning,’ ‘Birth Of Creation,’ ‘The Universe Wakes Up’ and ‘Unity,’ all created solely on drums, synthesisers and saxophones.
As King Shabala puts it: “We are able to catch glimpses of this lifeforce energy during our music-induced trances, and in doing so can contemplate our position as a human species in the context of the vastness of space and the epic scale of its workings.”
Adds drummer Betamax: “There are going to be some massive shifts in our own lifetime as life begins to transcend biology…so let’s at least find some essential truths and inner peace so we can make wise decisions.” On ‘Blood Of The Past’, guest vocalist Kate Tempest’s delivery summons the spirits of William Blake, Ian Dury, Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking, while ‘Summon The Fire’ is possibly the trio’s most accessible moment to date.
Trust In the Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery is released on 15 March. Scroll down for the tracklisting, and buy it here.
Trust In the Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery tracklisting:
Because The End Is Really The Beginning
Birth Of Creation
Summon The Fire
Blood Of The Past featuring Kate Tempest
Super Zodiac
Astral Flying
Timewave Zero
Unity
The Universe Wakes Up
UK English
