This week’s guide is by CF Smith and contributors Words By Shoaib, Gavin Senaratne and Irfan Ayaan.
It’s Friday and time for a new Between The Cracks. This weekโs selection moves between jazz, folk, groove culture, cosmic synth, hip-hop sampling, R&B, electronic production and a little offโcentre experimentation. Trombonist Kalia Vandever offers a beautifully immersive sound world. London-based alto saxophonist and composer Jasmine Mayra brings 9 cinematic, folk-influenced spiritual jazz compositions. The everโinventive New Jazz Underground crew push things forward with their trademark energy and communal spark, while Danalogue offers a cinematic, analog-synth space journey processing grief. Thereโs more tucked inside, of course, so dive in, explore, and enjoy. Hope the sun is shining over you this weekend!
Albums
Kalia Vandever – Mana
Withย Mana,ย Kaliaย Vandeverย crafts an immersive listening experience that feels both delicate and emotionally rich, allowing every note and lyric room to breathe. Built around processed solo trombone, sparse piano, and understated electronics, the album embraces stillness without ever feeling empty. Its spacious arrangements give every note room to resonate, creating a reflective atmosphere that feels both fragile and deeply absorbing. ‘Hubbard Road‘ captures the essence of Mana, pairing spacious arrangements with a sense of calm introspection.ย Vandever’sย warm trombone lines drift through layers of ambience and delicate accompaniment, balancing melancholy with a quiet sense of comfort. The piece unfolds patiently, highlighting the composer’s gift for extracting emotion from the smallest gestures. Next is ‘Murmuary‘; this track steps deeper into ambient abstraction. Vandever utilises their pedalboard to process and stretch the trombone,ย transforming the horn into a slow-moving drone. ‘Waiting’ย reveals another side of the record. Stretching beyond six minutes, it pairsย Vandever’sย atmospheric sound design with some of the album’s most affecting vocal work. The song’s slow-building structure and candid lyrical presence add a new level of vulnerability, demonstrating how naturally their voice fits within this evolving sonic palette. The short but sweet ‘Tough Play‘ leans heavily into minimalist, spacious piano styling reminiscent of late-careerย Ryuichi Sakamoto. ‘Holding’ย closes the album, Vandever’s own take on a breakup song. It opens with a wistful, tromboneโled sigh, and as it unfolds, suspended chords gather beneath the horn โ swirling, thickening, and finally settling into soft, synthโlike drones that fade into the distance. Throughoutย Mana,ย Vandeverย blurs the boundaries between ambient music, jazz, and songwriting with remarkable confidence. The result is a deeply personal and immersive album that rewards careful listening, confirmingย Vandeverย as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary experimental music.ย –ย WBS
Danalogue โ Teleportations
Teleportations lets Danalogue take his cosmic synth language fully into solo territory. The record plays like a journey away from and back to Earth. Awakening On The Planet opens with slow-forming chords and tentative patterns. It feels like stepping onto unfamiliar ground. Mother Of Mars and the single Far Beyond The Sun accelerate the trip. Arpeggios race forward while the deep low end keeps the music grounded. In the middle sequence, tracks such as Moebius Triptych and Theta Wave Convergence dig into hypnotic repetition. Sequences loop and fold over one another, creating a sense of suspended time. Later, Arrival At Rho Ophiuchi and Fallen Out Of Phase bring a darker, more disoriented mood as if the route has shifted. Closer Earth Remembrance Day slows everything down and turns reflective. It feels like watching memories of home through a soft filter. The album is tightly structured but leaves ample space for the listener’s own images. – IA
Bลoto + Ion D – Atmosfera
Polish jazz quartet Bลoto expands its lineup with Romanian producer Ion D to reinvent its sound with ‘Atmosfera’. With its thrillingly murky sound, this album is shaped by influences ranging from Wrocลaw groove culture, dub hypnosis and post-club psychedelia. Built conceptually as a record exploring “the tensions of late capitalism and the search for freedom,” the album’s two-act structure gives it shape. The first half leans into oppression with titles like ‘System / Sistem‘ and ‘Korupcja / Corupศie‘, which are defined by their dark and dreary aesthetic. The second half gradually opens out into ‘Aura‘, ‘Ekstaza / Extaz‘, and finally ‘Wolnoลฤ / Libertate‘, where the record searches for release without becoming naรฏvely uplifting. While the opening tracks are characterised by a dark, driving pulse, the album’s psychedelic and emotional ambitions feel most fully fused in the latter half. Some listeners may miss the clearer jazz identity of older Bลoto, but that risk is exactly what makes Atmosfera compelling. – GS
Jasmine Myra – Where Light Settles
On Where Light Settles, Jasmine Myra creates a jazz record that feels quietly transformative. Across nine compositions, Myra explores growth, grief, and emotional renewal with remarkable patience, letting melodies unfold naturally rather than forcing dramatic peaks. The album’s live-recording approach gives everything warmth and breath, while the expanded ensemble, conducted by Ozzy Moysey, adds a luminous depth that never overwhelms the intimacy at its core. ‘Reflections’, one of the album’s early moments, captures that balance beautifully. The track drifts forward with gentle momentum, its soft piano and flowing strings allowing Myra’s alto saxophone to speak with understated emotion. Nothing feels rushed. Instead, the piece settles into a meditative calm. The title track, ‘Where Light Settles’, reaches even deeper emotionally. The arrangement slowly expands around Myra’s restrained performance, building toward something hopeful without becoming sentimental. The album really unfolds as one whole piece, with ‘Likeness and Shadow‘, ‘Some Rain Must Fall‘ and ‘Echo‘ shining brightest. What makes the album so compelling is its restraint. Jasmine Myra understands that tenderness can carry just as much power as intensity. – WBS
Black Nile – Indigo Garden
For Black Nile, jazz isn’t so much a genre as it is a language, a living, breathing form of Black American communication. Brothersย Aaronย andย Lawrence Shawย use it as a vocabulary that stretches across music, visual art, movement, and performance, carrying history, memory, and imagination in equal measure. Their approach treats improvisation not as a stylistic choice but as a worldview: an instinctive way of shaping sound that slips easily into any form born from the Black experience, whether that’s soul, hipโhop, spiritual jazz, or something entirely new. In their hands, jazz becomes a connective tissue, a way of speaking across disciplines, eras, and communities. Though grounded in Los Angeles, Black Nile’s new album Indigo Garden speaks across the Black diaspora and far beyond, moving through ritual, memory, and experimentation with no predetermined endpoint. Allow the brothers to guide you through a world that keeps unfolding the deeper you listen. Oh, and check out Aaron Shaw’s brilliant albumย And So It Is, from earlier this year as well.ย – CFS
New Jazz Underground – Hoodies
Thanks to our good friend, Imran Mirza, we’ve covered two fantastic releases from New York-based New Jazz Underground on the site. The trio of Abdias Armenteros, Sebastian Rios, and TJ Reddick have built a serious following in a surprisingly short span, their saxโbassโdrums chemistry catching ears fast. Their following grew out of their use of social media platforms to bring jazz directly to new audiences. Their videos, often shot live in small rooms, rehearsal spaces, or on the street, showcased a sound that’s both deeply rooted in the tradition and totally plugged into the present. If you’re new to the trio, get acquainted through their debut album, Hoodies. It captures the exact energy that made their online clips go viral: tight interplay, spiritual fire, and youthful looseness. “The album is a living dialogue between past and present,” NJU explains. “Duke Ellington holds as much emotional weight as Kendrick Lamar; Kansas City swing exists alongside modern straight-eighth grooves and hip-hop-influenced beats.” The standouts for me are the hip-hop workout ‘Oney Ones One‘, the swinging, high-energy of ‘Hoodiejig (III) and the bluesy ‘How Do You Do (II)‘. Also, with its restless time changes and tight sax/bass dialogue, ‘Hold My Halo (Paint Me Perfectly)’ is another moment that really shines. The new kids on the block have dropped a very impressive debut album. – CFS
