David Ornette Cherry

★★★ Organic Nation Listening Club (The Continual) SPIRITMUSE. CD/DL/LP

American musician serves up a cosmic meditation.

Like his father, Don Cherry – the famously nomadic avant-garde trumpeter who was also a pioneer of world music – this 63-year-old multiinstrumentalist creates music that defies categorisation. His first album since It Could Be Different in 2013, Organic

Nation Listening Club is an unclassifiable melange of natural sounds and advanced technology brought to life by both live and electronic instrumentation. The 10-track set’s marriage of past and present is epitomised by the track So & So & So And So, where digital bleeps collide with looped tablas, woozy sitar drones and a manic warbling flute. Elsewhere, you’ll find eerie free jazz (Cosmic Nomad), an organ-led tango (Eagle Play) and African folk melodies punctuated by mellifluous birdsong (Najour). Though underpinned by a deep spiritual vibe, Cherry’s immersive soundscapes have an intoxicating, life-affirming joy.