Cosmic Cliffs
Adhyaropa, 2025
8/10
An outfit spearheaded by the trumpet player Aaron Shragge, as Whispering Worlds he’s joined by Luke Schwartz, Damon Banks and Deric Dickens for these creative and unconventional jazz tracks.
The title track leads with Shragge’s radiant horn alongside Dickens’ frisky drumming, as the setting builds into a thick and busy delivery, and “Pillars” follows with a soft ambience, where Schwartz’s dreamy guitar complements the mystery.
In the middle, “Seen By The Moon/Secretly Happy” unfolds with a nearly meditative quality, where the soulful trumpet guides the light drumming and atmospheric electronics, while “Light Echoes” is an exercise in ambient minimalism via the 11 minutes of gentle and cinematic qualities.
“Crystals” and “Serpentine Suspension” exit the listen. The former blends the quartet’s individual skills into a chilling and eloquent album highlight and the latter is another 11 minutes of dynamic and careful instrumentation that emits beauty and wonder.
Shragge also handles shakuhach here, and the processing/sampling adds another avenue to the sonic intrigue of this very distinct body of work.
Travels well with: David Leach- The Ground That Holds You As You Fall Forever; Ezra- Froggy’s Demise