Corona year 3 kicks off with Bonobo’s warm and melancholy dance album Fragments

The second corona year kicked off in January 2021 with a beautiful dance album, which served as hope in anxious days for a year: Isles by Northern Irish duo Bicep filled the void left by their somewhat defunct club life. It must have served as an example to British producer Simon Green aka Bonobo. The club circuit is still closed, but corona year 3 is now somewhat illuminated by Bonobo’s comforting Fragments.

Bonobo places the warm and quite penetrating house of songs like rosewood and Otomo in sets of graceful strings, plucking harps, fairytale voice samples and rich details that draw you further and further into the compositions. And the melancholic, introspective dance gains even more momentum with a number of striking tracks with guest vocals.

On his previous album migration (2017) his choice of voices was less successful, and the somewhat obligatory parts disturbed the aura of his music. That’s different now: the contributions of Jordan Rakei (shadows) and Jamila Woods (Tides) provide the album with appropriate depth, in dance songs that stick. In From You Bonobo skims past the melancholy soundcloud hip-hop, with the Japanese rapper (and ex-youtuber) Joji.

Also impressive is a rest piece hanging heavily in classical music like Elysian, that sounds like a dramatic soundtrack to a sad documentary about the lost night culture. But like Bicep, Bonobo points to a streak of light on the horizon. With the breakbeats, compelling basses and subtle climaxes of the delicious dance tracks Age of Phase and sapien you can feel the excitement that will soon be sweeping through the clubs and festival tents again.