Captained by Bristol-born producer and saxophonist Pete Cunningham, the Ishmael Ensemble’s ship moves across the oceans of electronica and jazz. The Bristol collective, named after the narrator in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, is guided by Cunningham’s genre-crossing eye and explores a vast sonic horizon.
Over the past few years, the Ishmael Ensemble has gone from being a small home recording project to becoming an integral part of the thriving British jazz scene. The group’s debut album “A State Of Flow” came out in 2019 and explores a range of different soundscapes from the lushly cinematic to the psychedelic.
The group’s follow-up album “Visions of Light” further blurred the lines between jazz and electronica. The record was named “Album of the Year” on BBC 6 Music and the ensemble performed at the New York Winter Jazz Festival.
The music magazine Mojo named the record the jazz album of the month with the justification: “Flawless astral jazz with dance floor savvy”.
And this is how The Guardian writes about Ishmael Ensemble: “Music that’s pitched somewhere between astral jazz, burbling electronica, trippy minimalism, psychedelic dub and 20 years of club culture.”
Now Pete Cunningham steers the Ishmael Ensemble’s astral-jazz ship into Fasching for the first time.
