Psychedelic, euphoric, cinematic and refined are just a few of the words that describe the incoming record “Parallel Dimensions” by Giuseppe Paradiso & Meridian 71. Today also marks the release of Tony, the first single from the album.
We have been lucky enough to preview all six tracks of Parallel Dimensions by visionary composer Giuseppe Paradiso & Meridian 71, out in full on 15 April on CD and digital formats on the Ubuntu Music label, with distribution through The Orchard, so we thought we would take you through a teaser of the experience before you hear it in full!
The record opens with Kaizen featuring a hypnotizing drone-chant with introductory textures followed by a beat drop, notably Giuseppe‘s “muscular drumming” and fusion sounds evolving into a guitar-enforced psychedelic and percussive jazz experience.
The second track, Memories of the Future, takes a melancholic turn with haunting and timeless piano played by Utar Arun alongside some feisty guitar, setting the stage for what the record is to develop into fusing emotive jazz before the bowed double bass comes in really defining the lower notes in the outer body journey that we are already on. The sax which is present on the whole record, played by Mark Zaleski has a transcendental energy that blends jazz and futurism. We then experience Joriki which lends itself to a more tribal energy.
Moving into the second half of the record, we experience the cinematic It’s Only The Beginning which evokes a sense of folk nostalgia and wonderment. The title track, Parallel Dimensions, features multi-cultural conversations that we first experienced at the start of the record and boasts a finessed bass line played by James Hazlewood-Dale. You can understand why this is the title track!
Closing the record is the groove-enhanced, Tony, also the only song that is already available to stream before the April release of the album. Tony is an adventure within itself, bringing together the moods from the previous songs and amplifying the detail with cheeky and futurist jazz, truly the world music that we deserve.
We learnt that Tony was inspired by young Giuseppe checking out his family’s and friends’ African music records, and that the composer spent a decade drumming for a Nigerian church. Iconic.
He says, “It’s very fun and enlightening to play in such a context, especially for a drummer, because you have to have a groove. “It’s a learning experience, especially when you have to combine your drumming with the dancing of the people in the congregation- you have people moving with your rhythms, and that’s always a very deep and powerful experience for me. I have always been inspired by and learnt so much from the relationship between dance and percussion over the years.”
Meridian 71 is a cross-cultural music project created and led by Giuseppe Paradiso since 2012. The project name comes from Boston’s longitude: the 71st meridian that passes precisely through the eastern part of the city.
Parallel Dimensions features original compositions by Giuseppe and performances by an eclectic and multicultural ensemble of well-established Boston-based musicians.
“Boston is the location where I met musicians from different parts of the globe. We are deeply connected and spoke the common language of music together”, reflects Paradiso. “It felt like I had known for a long time that at some point in my life I would have met musicians just like them, way before moving across the Atlantic in 2008. Meridian 71 became the creative laboratory and space to develop this music.”
Although conceived in a pandemic, Parallel Dimensions offers a sense of hope and optimism that fills the spirit. It’s a multicultural product which is filtered through life in one of the oldest cities in America during a society altering pandemic. That said, the alarum experience is transportive and helps us leave behind the woes of the physical world through simultaneously admiring and being grateful the sonic creation and analogue instrumentation that created this record.
Stream Tony today, and stream Parallel Dimensions and buy the CD from 15 April.