Pascal Bideau is the musician / composer behind Akusmi. On his third album, “Terra Incognita”, he uses the alto-saxophone to lead the listener through 7 soundscapes that blur and blend the traditional musics of Africa, Latin America, South East Asia and Eastern Europe. Describing the instrument as “half narrator, half explorer”, the decision to take us on an “adventure without borders” can only be viewed as a political statement in these tragically increasingly divisive days. 

“A Waking Dream” has keys, percussion and reeds all rippling, rustling together, synergistically, in a meditation, a calm, a call to prayer akin to the quieter moments of Alice Coltrane’s cosmic music. Marysia Osu’s hushed harp underlining this comparison, while Bideau’s highlife guitar and swinging brass fanfares bring a unique afro edge. “Anima” raises an organic trance dance from gamelan chimes. Its busy, repetitive patterns like lithe minimal techno loops. That sax switching between soaring solos and clipped, rapid skronks. Rasping. Roaring. Free. Riding a great Jah Wobble-gone-jazz B-line, “Club Subterranea”, is constructed from steel-tongued kalimba clicks and Daniel Brandt’s electronic effects. A darting, dancing kalimba, or sanza, also helps create the counterpoint that drives “Pleine Lune”, which hits like a party-starting shake of Steve Reich’s “Music For 18 Musicians”, and climbs toward an ecstatic crescendo. 

A woodwind, not surprisingly, sets the tempo of “Drongo’s Flute”. A joyful percussive piece with a live, drum circle vibe, Pharoah Sanders-like sax, and Senegalese musician Dudu Kouate’s griot ngoni picking and plucking. On “Rain Dance”, tabla virtuoso Sarathy Korwar uses his instrument to shape incredible drum & bass-like rhythms. Spinning, spiralling, wild, delirious, hypnotic, quickly gaining intensity and short, sharp vocal phrases, like some celebratory dervish ritual. 

The set comes to a close with “Dawning Dusk”, which combines kalimba cascades, saxophone serenades and brass backing with a choir of voices that steadily rises to the fore. Bringing with it a sense of unity, so that the album’s finale feels less like a conclusion, and more like an uplifting, spiritual awakening. A place for a new start. 

Akusmi’s “Terra Incognita” can be ordered directly from Tonal Union.

The project plays live in London, at Rough Trade East, on July 6th. You can purchase tickets here.