Jack Wyllie’s sophomore set as Paradise Cinema is somehow connected, inspired by the Many Worlds theory of Quantum Physics. One of the more popular “Multiverse” hypotheses, this is based on the idea that every decision, every outcome leads to a branching of events, creating a new timeline, birthing a galaxy. I can only guess that the concept relates to the album’s plentiful percussive possibilities, since hand drums are central to the set, and perhaps their patterns drove the genesis of the tracks. Guests Khadim Mbaye, Tons Sembe and Laurence Pike supply a circle of tama, sabar, tama, congas, bongos, and big bass surdo, cathartic climaxes of crashing cymbals, and dancing talking drums. Around these, multi-instrumentalist Wyllie weaves woodwinds, reeds, and synthetic textures, organ and harmonium drones. Splashes of field recordings and found sound.

A Morning In The Near Future is mellow, uplifting music, mediative, but moving, shaken awake by bagpipe-like blasts and boasting a Brazilian vibe. Kinda like Lula Cortes and pals jamming round a campfire, or the artists featured on John Gomez’s Outro Tempo collections. Folks who preserved traditional playing while pushing it forward. Similarly, it echoes the pioneering electro-acoustics of Spain’s Finis Africae. The album’s title track, Returning, Dream, is raised about a fluttering hypnotic, cyclical flute loop and waves of bewitching ethereal melody. Free jazz sax soars above Python’s ritual rhythms. Its circular breathing screaming and shouting climbing toward raw righteous screeches. Tide is tailored from delicate metallic chimes, wistful woodwinds, and a whistling resonance. Recalling Steve Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians. Dizzy, disorientating, delirious, ecstatic. Night Search combines both the saxophone skronk and the cut-a-rug counterpoint, adding a North African / Middle Eastern tonality, Moroccan modality. Mimicking the tribal Sufi trance riffing of the Master Musicians Of Joujouka. When it rises to a roar it’s Pharoah Sanders-esque. A triumphant tribute to the creator. On Nowhere, Home Wyllie blows sad and romantic. Rippling psychedelic shimmering surrounding his horn’s lonely, Noir song. The result like Vangelis` Blade Runner Love Theme removed to a rainforest. End, Setting is a final, short explosion sonics treated, twisted into a Jon Hassell / Fourth World fog.

Released on September 13th, Paradise Cinema’s Returning, Dream can be preordered from Gondwana Records.