This week’s most notable albums: Paul Simon, Alfa Mist, Bongeziwe Mabandla and Andrey & Merlin

Pop

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Paul Simon Seven Psalms

The voice of Paul Simon (81) sounds frail and hoarse in a series of sketches of songs with the acoustic guitar as a guideline. The album navigates between pious thoughts and musings about love and old age. His wry sense of humor is intact: in a bluesy song about a ‘Mister Indignation’, he addresses his reflection with professional advice to go back to bed. Read the whole review.

Jazz

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Alpha Mist variables

Usually it’s even better live than on record. With the London keyboardist and producer Alfa Mist (Alfa Sekitoleko) it can be the other way around at times: that the live performance lags behind in energy compared to the record. His fifth album Variables, on which jazz leans on soul and trippy hip-hop rhythms, offers a more interesting, much broader perspective on the style mixer and leader that he is. Read the whole review.

Pop

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Bongeziwe Mabandla amaXesha

Half way through the new album amaXesha by South African singer Bongeziwe Mabandla, Dutch cow dung plays an important role. The song ‘Ndikhale’ was created during a corona-ravaged European tour. The band had the opportunity to record together in a studio in the Dutch countryside. It smelled so much of manure that the windows had to be closed and the sound was affected. Read the whole review.

Classic

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Lionel Andrey & Flore Merlin Color Gradient

The cross-fertilization between French classical music from a century ago and jazz is the starting point for this wonderful album Color Gradient. Composers Claude Debussy and Francis Poulenc moved on that interface with their colourful, harmonically adventurous duos. From there, the journey continues via Leonard Bernstein and the somewhat elderly Welsh composer Alec Templeton, among others, to a brand new work by the Frenchman Fabien Touchard (1985). Read the whole review.