Endlessness - Nala Sinephro: Review

Review by Lav:

Nala Sinephro is an artist I really should have known about sooner. Back in 2021 I was blindsided by the release of a new ambient jazz album from a new artist debuting on Warp records. Given my admiration for both the genre and the label I was thrilled to dive into it and the record lived up to my expectations. So this time around as Nala geared up to release her second album three years later, I was prepared. Once again, she's delivered an excellent outing. 

The record starts off in familiar fashion with long ambient jazz compositions that are in line with what I was anticipating. The 7-minute opener Continuum 1 is simple in terms of instrumentation worked into the arrangement and yet it still makes it to some interesting places. While Nala's synths and the steady backing drums are omnipresent, it's most playful element if wandering saxophone. The sax dominates the attention of the track while it's around at both its liveliest moments early on and its sparse conclusion. 

Continuum 2 is much more layered in terms of instrumentation which occasionally slips out of ambient jazz entirely with tasteful but lively performances. Moments like the gentle harp playing and layering of synths with actual piano keys creates depth and texture that I like a lot. The only other track that pushes past 5 minutes is the closer Continuum 10. It's a grand finale that expands the scope of the sound the record starts with. It's a delightful conclusion with a genuinely propulsive energy that pairs frenetic drumming blasting away in the background of dizzying alien-sounding synth arpeggios. 

In between these bookends though, the record wanders to some very interesting places. Around the album's midpoint in terms of runtime we have the combo of Continuum 4 and 5 which very much feel like a singular sonic moment. The whispered vocals on 4 are a pleasant surprise that manage to feel to elegantly fleeting in both the minimalist of the performance and the time they're around. It also works as to lull me into submission just for 5 to come around and subvert my expectations, setting the record off on a far more unpredictable second half. 

It leads directly into 6, a moment where the album's serenity is subverted with some squelching synths chords. It's a more involved song than I was anticipating and while it sort of alters the flow of the album it's certainly an engaging moment. Even better is what follows after that Continuum 7. It's another song that is stripped down in terms of volume of instrumentation and yet it's able to feel so grand. It's baroque interpretations of ambient synth compositions remind me of Floating Point's Promises, which is about as big of a compliment as you can give an ambient jazz song. Delightfully, that momentum carries onto Continuum 8 whose surprise jungle drums emerging around the halfway point make for one of my favorite musical moments on the entire record.

But to be the lame critic for a second, I don't completely love every single moment on the record. Continuum 3 is one of the only parts of the album that start to feel superfluous, particularly on the second half where the synth noodling is really all the composition offers. Alternatively, the only point on the album where it starts to seem like it's dragging is Continuum 9. The song gets off to a pretty slow and dry start and while the eerie synths that eventually make their way in sound nice, they don't completely save the song. 

Save for a few moments, however, Nala Sinephro's second album is even more delightful than her first. Endlessness expands beyond the reach of its predecessor both instrumentally and compositionally and yet it manages to hold onto some of the nuance of its songs and subtlety of its texture. Though it isn't the purest embrace of "ambient jazz" possible, I don't really care. The twists and turns of these pieces grabbed me from the first moment I heard them and the record continued to be engaging with every single successive listen. 8/10

For more minimalism, check out my review of Duster's In Dreams