Irreversible Entanglements Celebrates Communion On ‘Protect Your Light’
The new album features appearances from musicians within the jazz group’s creative community
Irreversible Entanglements has returned with its fourth album, Protect Your Light, on which the free jazz collective celebrates communion.
The new record was released on the legendary Impulse! Records and featured liner notes written by the Washington D.C. poet, historian, and alter-destiny prophet Thomas Stanley.
“‘Protect Your Light’ is a celebratory evocation of communal gathering as spontaneous parade,” Irreversible Entanglements said in a statement. “It is also a sound amulet; the proper way to deploy it is to be with the people.”
The album is packed with dance rhythms and delivers an unconditional statement of intent. As well as the band members – poet/vocalist Camae Ayewa, bassist Luke Stewart, saxophonist Keir Neuringer, drummer Tcheser Holmes, and trumpeter Aquiles Navarro – it also features contributions from those within Irreversible Entanglements’ wider creative community. Pianist Janice A. Lowe, cellist Lester St. Louis, and vocalist Sovei help illuminate the band’s musical dexterity and expand the breadth of its beautiful consciousness.
These eight pieces were composed both individually and collectively, with some themes brand-new and others rooted in Irreversible Entanglements’ spirited, wholly improvised live performances, with Ayewa adding words that elevate what she calls the band’s “in-communion” practices.
What defines this band and the beauty of Protect Your Light is representation of the moment, a love of the people, of the Black musical tradition, of each other, and of playing it like they’re saying it.
Irreversible Entanglements will wrap up a short run of live dates in North America today (September 10) in Philadelphia. It will head to Europe in November for a series of festival and headline dates. You can buy tickets from the band’s official website.
Buy or stream Protect Your Light. View Irreversible Entanglements’ tour itinerary below.
Sep 10 – Philadelphia, PA – Solar Myth
Nov 4 – Berlin, DE – Jazzfest Berlin
Nov 6 – Brussels, BE – Ancienne Belgique
Nov 10 – Paris, FR – Festival d’Automne à Paris
Nov 11 – Rotterdam, NL – LantarenVenster
Nov 12 – Utrecht, NL – Le Guess Who?
Nov 14 – Dublin, IE – Whelans
Nov 15 – London, UK – EFG London Jazz Festival
