Audiopile Review: Birthed nearly a decade ago, the Baltimore-based composter/improviser Jarrett Gilgore and his Phét Phét Phét project finally issue a debut album. Previously working with Jaimie Branch, Tashi Dorji, Lonnie Holley, Susan Alcorn, Dan Deacon, and Cass McCombs, to name just a few, Gilgore’s penchant for collaboration comes to full fruition here, pulling in disparate artists from all over the Americas for this exciting debut recorded in Mexico City. Incorporating everything from spiritual jazz, minimalism, latin folk, fourth world and motorik-pop, Shimmer defies simple categorization, coming closer to the Leaving Records “All Genre” motto than it is to a straight forward jazz or pop album. “Half Glass” opens the album with a soft rollout of wordless harmonies, slow rising ambient tones and a laggy rhythm section, eventually subsumed by Philip Glass inspired minimalist horns and synths, eventually reaching a heavenly crescendo. The album highlight is “You Are the Eyes of the World”, which takes over the entire B side. A 20 minute slow ascent heavenward with extended tonal drones, the lull of feedbacking guitar and then slow motion vocals of Guatemala’s Mabe Fratti, who brings this right to brink of ecstasy. Fantastic debut!

Shimmer’s tones are unexpected, the combinations of instruments far off the beaten trails of familiar genres. It’s not quite jazz, not quite neoclassical, not quite soul, but something all its own. Saxophone, clarinet, glockenspiel, cello, pedal steel, synths, guitar & human voice merge in ethereal counterpoints that nod to chamber music, while the rhythm section drives the whole thing forward with an uncanny propulsion that feels cool, self-possessed and hyper contemporary. All the while Shimmer makes sure to keep one foot outside of time—stepping alone toward the ageless inward horizion. Its A-side contains four tightly orchestrated tracks recorded in Mexico City in 2023; the B-side is a single long experiment in texture, which Jarrett Gigore began writing at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 and finished remotely in 2023.

Think Jacques Brel’s “Je suis un soir d’ete.” Think Chicago fusion a la Tortoise. Think the wall-of-sound production of David Axelrod. Think Steve Reich’s organs in polyrhythm. Think Arthur Russell’s neo-classical Tower of Meaning. Think them all at once, then forget all that and open yourself to something new.

Features Mabe Fratti on vocals, cello; I. La Catolica on electric & acoustic guitar, bass, percussion; Marc Miller on electric & acoustic guitar; Gibran Andrade on drums; and Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar.