Hail The Sun

Description

Akasha - the founding masters of the art of brooding, uplifting, chill-out trip-jazz fusion grooves are back with their first new album in over a decade. Hail The Sun (the follow up to the 2003 transcendent release "Love Philtre Magick") is due for release September 2015 and fans of the band's earlier work won't be disappointed. "Hail The Sun is in many ways a return to our jazzy and chilled roots…but there's something a little more poppy and song-based in the mix here as well," say Akasha. With a title track that evokes a misty sunrise following the best night of your life, the album flows gracefully, playfully and joyfully through musical and lyrical motifs, lifting and carrying the listener on a journey through a world of soulful introspection to hedonistic celebration with every step marked by sympathetic soaring melodies and counterpoint rhythms. Danceable trance chords echo from every bar, and familiar themes are reworked into the band's own image. While still exploring esoteric mystic themes, Hail The Sun is a complete contrast to the 'eerie gothic explorations of the dark side' featured in their second album Love Philtre Magick (described by DJ Magazine as "One hell of a rocked out, jazzed up orchestral ride"). Vocal guests on the new album include St Ettiene's Sarah Cracknell (who tells a poignant end-of-affair story in the sixties jazz style groove laden The Last Weekend), Heidi Vogel, (often the voice of The Cinematic Orchestra makes an appearance on the tripped out Berkely Green), while Polish star Anita Lipnick graces the title track Hail the Sun - a beautiful contemporary take on the sixties Californian hippy sound featuring golden vocal harmonies, backwards guitar and good vibes aplenty. Charlie Casey and Damian Hand began their sonic adventures in 1994 with a manifesto geared to mashing up their hugely varied musical tastes and making unique music outside any genre or style other than that of the Akasha sound. Now widely recognized as the original purveyors of noir-ish Jazadelica and members of the original Wall of Sound bratpack of 1995, Casey and Hand have worked with some of the best exponents of psyched-out trip-hop jazz-fusion around, including Lemon Jelly, Neneh Cherry, Groove Armada, Art of Noise and Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA Orchestra. The duo's eclecticism meant they were equally admired by drum and bass devotees, jazz fans and DJs alike for their fusion of new production techniques, madcap musical ideas and skilled musicianship and saw an earlier Akasha track take on anthemic proportions, with Mescalin appearing on the classic nineties compilation album Give 'Em Enough Dope Vol 2 (1995).