Ambient, ethno, freestyle: retrospective of the legendary bassist and sound vagabond from the second half of his career.
In 1999 Jah Wobble decided to move from London to Stockport, a few years later he set up a recording studio in an old mill in Manchester. There he began working with a multi-effects board, creating several contrasting bass recordings for tracks like “Cadiz” and “Fly”. His Chinese and Japan dub recordings in the late noughties marked another wild outgrowth in the already wide sound universe of the ex-PIL bassist, who worked as a composer, producer and sound collaborator (along with Holger Czukay, Jaki Liebezeit and The Edge from U2) had left numerous traces.
Wobbling Ambient in a kind of late night edition
The 4-CD box DARK LUMINOSITY now follows the diverse sound paths of Jah Wobbles in the 21st century with 66 carefully compiled tracks – up to the recordings of NOCTURNE IN THE CITY (2020), complex mood music from the time holes in lockdown, or otherwise said: wobbling ambient in a kind of late night edition. The box also features recordings made with the Modern Jazz Ensemble, with the Moroccan musicians from MoMo, with keyboardist Bill Sharpe from Shakatak, and spoken word contributions from ODDS & SODS & DIALOGUE from 2013.
CD 4 contains tracks from the album REALM OF SPELLS, which was created in 2018 with his band Invaders Of The Heart and his former partner-in-crime Bill Laswell. You don’t have to juggle it all, but these bass and world explorations may have a common origin, in Jah Wobble’s words, “the darkness of the subconscious” that he brings to light. He reviews the last 20 years of his history for the fan community in a beautifully illustrated booklet.