SAULT
Air
Forever Living Originals
Listen Below
Marvin Gaye knew there were only a few things certain in this life—taxes, death and trouble made his list. To that we can add a new SAULT album being released at a moment’s notice with little to no fanfare. Their sixth album, entitled Air, was released this past Friday and landed in exactly the same fashion as its precursors, but any similarities with their previous albums end there.
The most obvious difference is that Air is predominantly instrumental and orchestral. Vocals do feature, but they are mainly in the shape of choral phrases rather than lyrics. Cleo Sol’s instantly recognizable luxurious tones only appear briefly to sing refrains on the title track and at the climax of “Time Is Precious.”
Rather than its SAULT predecessors, the best signposts to this work are the orchestrations Inflo produced on Michael Kiwanuka’s albums (2016’s Love & Hate and 2019’s KIWANUKA) and the interludes on Little Simz’s magnificent Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (2021) album. When listening to Simz’s album, those interludes seemed to offer Inflo the space to stretch his wings and demonstrate even more of his talents. Whether these seven tracks developed alongside those interludes or are wholly new, we will likely never know due to Inflo’s desire to stay hidden from the world. But they are the best way to join the dots for this release.
Looming large in the rear-view mirror are some of the early Twentieth Century’s finest composers—there are glimpses of Stravinsky, Ravel and even Copland in the orchestrations and arrangements. But at times, the blaring punch of the horns is too much and they lapse into sounding like an entrance theme for a sci-fi space opera villain, like at the climax of “Solar.”
When the beauty of the choral singing and strings are allowed to breathe (on “Reality” and “Air”), it is lushly successful. But when the deep bass of the horns punch dramatically and dominate proceedings, things become too stolid and overwrought. In these cases, less is more.
Two of the many thrilling moments come toward the end of the album. Midway through “June 55,” there is a change to a finely balanced tapestry of strings, horns and vocals, where they all work much better together, instead of one overwhelming the other. Final track “Luos Higher” also has a great balance—here a stringed instrument (perhaps a Japanese koto) works alongside the strings and brass to create a piece that ebbs and flows, bringing both serenity and drama. The addition of a choral part that sounds less Western European than other operatic choruses on display also contributes to its success.
In February of this year, Inflo was named Producer of The Year at the BRIT Awards and it was well deserved, but truthfully the accolades must go beyond just the sphere of production. As co-writer of all of SAULT’s albums plus Simz’s and Kiwanuka’s albums, he is a stellar songwriter and musician whose skills know no limits and this album testifies to that fact.
That Air isn’t entirely successful is not wholly the point—here is a Black man breaking boundaries left, right and center, forcing himself into realms that are off limits to people either by dint of prejudice or their own limited imagination. SAULT accept neither of those things and in doing so inspire others to take flight and express themselves in ways that might otherwise have seemed impossible.
Air, though slightly less brilliant than previous SAULT endeavors, represents another string to the bow of a dazzlingly dynamic group and forms a fanfare for a man of uncommon talents.
Notable Tracks: “Heart” | “Luos Higher” | “Reality”
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