Ishmael Ensemble - A State of Flow review | John Lewis's contemporary album of the month

The Guardian 80

(Severn Songs)
Combining genres from jazz to minimalism with a great city’s musical heritage, without resorting to pastiche, is no mean feat

Ishmael is a saxophonist, DJ, producer and bandleader, known to his friends as Pete Cunningham. Over the past few years, he’s conducted some madly varied DJ sets, created stately remixes of tracks by Detroit techno legend Carl Craig and performed a whole album’s worth of songs by the Yellow Magic Orchestra. He’s also brought his studio-bound inventions to life with the help of a band, the Ishmael Ensemble, making music that’s pitched somewhere between astral jazz, burbling electronica, trippy minimalism, psychedelic dub and 20 years of club culture.