James Holden & The Animal Spirits
In the last few years, Holden has only released collaborations: three swirl… Read Full Bio ↴In the last few years, Holden has only released collaborations: three swirling folk dances with Moroccan Gnawa musician Maalem Mahmoud Guinia, and a 47-minute tribute to minimalist shaman Terry Riley with tabla player Camilo Tirado.
The Animal Spirits is an album-length amalgamation of all of these collaborative projects, expanding his live setup with Tom Page to include saxophonist Etienne Jaumet (who previously lent his freeform skronk to The Inheritors), cornetist Marcus Hamblett, multi-instrumentalist Liza Bec on recorders and North African ghaïta, and Lascelle Gordon of free jazz group Woven Entity.
It’s also his most dramatic rejection yet of anything resembling “dance music” in the functional, DJ-led sense. The album was recorded live in one room at Holden’s Sacred Walls studio in London: single takes, no overdubs, no edits. While his modular synth still guides much of the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic material, Holden occupies the role of bandleader rather than frontman, simply laying the stage for his collaborators’ off-the-cuff creativity; he specifically names Don Cherry and Pharoah Sanders as inspirations, drawing a link between the universal preoccupations of their spiritual jazz albums and the sense of ritual abandon at the heart of what Holden calls “folk-trance.”
The Animal Spirits is an album-length amalgamation of all of these collaborative projects, expanding his live setup with Tom Page to include saxophonist Etienne Jaumet (who previously lent his freeform skronk to The Inheritors), cornetist Marcus Hamblett, multi-instrumentalist Liza Bec on recorders and North African ghaïta, and Lascelle Gordon of free jazz group Woven Entity.
It’s also his most dramatic rejection yet of anything resembling “dance music” in the functional, DJ-led sense. The album was recorded live in one room at Holden’s Sacred Walls studio in London: single takes, no overdubs, no edits. While his modular synth still guides much of the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic material, Holden occupies the role of bandleader rather than frontman, simply laying the stage for his collaborators’ off-the-cuff creativity; he specifically names Don Cherry and Pharoah Sanders as inspirations, drawing a link between the universal preoccupations of their spiritual jazz albums and the sense of ritual abandon at the heart of what Holden calls “folk-trance.”
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04Incantation for Inanimate ObjectJames Holden & The Animal SpiritsJames Holden & The Animal Spirits
06The Beginning & End of the WorldJames Holden & The Animal SpiritsJames Holden & The Animal Spirits
10The Beginning And End Of The WorldJames Holden & The Animal SpiritsJames Holden & The Animal Spirits
11Each Moment Like The First (6 Music Session, 5th Dec 2017)James Holden & The Animal SpiritsJames Holden & The Animal Spirits
12Go Gladly Into The Earth (6 Music Session, 5th Dec 2017)James Holden & The Animal SpiritsJames Holden & The Animal Spirits
13Pass Through The Fire (6 Music Session, 5th Dec 2017)James Holden & The Animal SpiritsJames Holden & The Animal Spirits
14the beginning & the end of the worldJames Holden & The Animal SpiritsJames Holden & The Animal Spirits
18Spinning Dance (6 Music Session, 5th Dec 2017)James Holden & The Animal SpiritsJames Holden & The Animal Spirits
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We have lyrics for these tracks by James Holden:
10101 My thoughts are commodities My lies are me My price is a…
I Have Put Out The Light Like the moon in blue heaven I′m alone in my room I…
Nothing Don't you know it's gone too wrong Early warning How…