Audiopile Review: Behold the much-anticipated return of spiritual jazz maestro and Warp Records recording artist Nala Sinephro. More anticipated than you may realize. You know how it is: a record blows up and everyone’s excited. Then they move on to the next thing. But if a record is seriously good, it doesn’t exactly go away. On the DL, a record of that quality will tend to grow in stature. Then, by the time a follow-up is announced, a veritable swarm of tremulous anticipation descends from the aether. The point is that Nala Sinephro’s debut album, ‘Space 1.8’ (2021), was seriously, seriously good. Three years on, the prospect of ‘Endlessness’ has head-wigs flipping. There are a lot of understandable reasons folks would be so excited about Sinephro. Though Belgian, she’s most associated with London’s vibrant spiritual jazz scene. Sonically, she’s arguably closer to the LA-centric ambient jazz sound. And she ties her work into grand concepts that are at once disorientating in their cosmic scope and deeply human in their healing intent. We love all the above, and we know plenty of you do too. And any world-weary cynics out there should get ready to be won over. While Sinephro’s mix of pedal harp and modular synths is as mellifluously melodic as ever, ‘Endlessness’ is light years away from anything flakily insubstantial. She is, after all, a jazz player, as are her many collaborators on this album. These folks really know how to create rich, complex harmonies and run subtly mismatched rhythms up against each other. Nubya Garcia shows notably fine form on sax, and Sinephro’s harp (used sparingly) is more agitated than you might expect. Also, her synths have a glassy, vivid tone that always sounds alert and engaged. So yeah, there’s some concept about the cycle of life in there and all the tracks are called ‘Continuum’. If a very cool, very now spiritual jazz sound-bath is what you’re after, then ‘Endlessness’ absolutely delivers. But this is serious music. It’s art of real substance. Either way, the praise already being heaped on this album is 100% deserved. The hubbub may die down in a few weeks but, take it from us, Nala Sinephro will not go away. She will only grow in stature.

Endlessness is a deep dive into the cycle of existence. The 45-minute album delicately spans 10 tracks with a continuous arpeggio playing throughout, creating an expansive, mesmerising celebration of life cycles and rebirth. Following Sinephro’s critically acclaimed 2021 debut album Space 1.8, Endlessness further elevates her as a transcendent and multi-dimensional composer, beautifully morphing jazz, orchestral, and electronic music.

The album was composed, produced, arranged, and engineered by Sinephro. Performing on the album are Sheila Maurice-Grey, Morgan Simpson, James Mollison, Lyle Barton, Nubya Garcia, Natcyet Wakili, and Dwayne Kilvington, joined by Orchestrate’s 21 string players.