Beings seem to have come together entirely naturally: drawn to play with one another by unspoken affinities. Four New York-based musicians – Zoh Amba, Steve Gunn, Shahzad Ismaily and Jim White – found common ground improvising together, and sharing their ideas with no fixed plan. A group formed by default, and Beings was born. Their first album, There Is A Garden, is infused with relaxed explorations of sound, a loose improv/jazz/psych music that feels open, inclusive and, at times, transcendental.
The four who have coalesced into Beings are a highly select group of avant garde figures. Zoh Amba is a lauded saxophonist, still young but compared with Albert Ayler. Jim White is the drummer in the Dirty Three. Guitarist Steve Gunn is known for his solo work, his album with Mary Lattimore, and as a former member of the Violators. Shahzad Ismaily is something of a legend, playing bass, synth and percussion for everyone from Laurie Anderson to Tom Waits. It’s an exciting, generation-spanning prospect even on paper. And from the first notes, the connections are clear.
For a moment, ‘Small Vows’ sounds like a track we know how to navigate, a ringing, eerie guitar figure and flicking percussion. Then Amba’s saxophone kicks in, like a being from outer space guesting with an Earth band. The sound she makes is throaty and wild. The Albert Ayler comparisons start to make sense as she shows her range, from visceral squeal to dark, sensual notes. The album includes several instrumental tracks like this that are loose, evolving, exciting entities, and a couple that are more structured. ‘Flowers That Talk’, featuring Amba’s light, insistent vocals, is from some perspectives a standard song with an unexpected groove, a little like Kristin Hersh with Can playing in the background. Amba sings on ‘Morning Sea’, too, a track that channels dawn over the waves. It is short and complex, and induces an instant urge to rewind, to hear more of the intriguing things going on from all four musicians. The playing is rich, expressive and very satisfying.
There Is a Garden peaks when the listener is sucked into the studio, where the musicians are simply playing together. ‘Happy To Be’, a relaxed but multi-layered instrumental, exerts a force as powerful as any track. Lead by Amba’s sax, this time she reins it in, with a low, crackly solo like someone dialling in from a different century. Knowing the sound she could make gives her soft, strange playing great weight. Then she takes it up a notch, as do her companions – the muffled pounding drums marching from a distance, and a guitar talking to us, telling important truths. It is a stunning example of what very good musicians can do.
Beings are the sound you want in your head walking the streets of Brooklyn on a spring Sunday: confident, complex and rooted in the place. Their music makes no compromises, and talks down to no-one, but welcomes all who want to listen. There Is A Garden is a highly accomplished album which captures Beings’ live playing so well it sounds as though they’re recording it right now, inside your head.
