I heard this music once before, in its Chicago debut at the Chicago Cultural Center. I left the performance in a musically altered state, having been transfixed and transported by Nicole Mitchell’s tribute to Octavia Butler, entitled Xenogenesis Suite. The music was expansive, evocative, and perhaps most of all to my ears, a departure from her earlier work stylistically. While it retained her signature flute playing, the compositions were radically different from anything else I had heard from Nicole Mitchell.
So it was with eager anticipation that I awaited the arrival of this album, as I was curious how the power of the live performance of the music would translate to the recorded medium. Having listened to it a dozen plus times since it arrived, I can say with confidence that it makes the transition beautifully, retaining its connotative power.
One of the highest compliments I can pay to this recording is that I always listen to it from beginning to end, and that I don’t really distinguish between separate tracks. It really is a suite in the sense of a continuous flow of feeling and atmosphere that pervades the album. It’s a testament both to Nicole Mitchell’s vision, as well as to her able band’s execution. This is a real, working band, and it shows.
So what does the music sound like? My best description would be otherworldly – there are rhythmically propulsive trance inducing ostinati, glossolalic vocal slurs and murmurs, a strong sense of ensemble and a lack of solos, space imparted by contrasting uses of musical density and silence, and intense dynamic changes. It’s cinematically evocative, and as such extremely effective in creating a musical version of the science fiction fantasy inspired by the work of Octavia Butler.
I think the next step for me is to read Octavia Butler so I can put the music in perspective with its inspired text. I'm looking forward to coming back to the album after I've done so.