Whilst I was walking the dog early this morning, I was planning in my mind
what today's blog would be about. After I came home and read my email, my
plan was thrown out of the window (or more accurately, out of my mind) as I
received an email (actually three, but they were all basically the same)
informing me of something. But after breakfast and before I could brush my
teeth, I heard a familiar sound. The dog heard this slightly before me
because she entered our bedroom - also our security room - before I was
totally conscious of what the sound was, as it was competing with a song on
the radio and some noise from my phone.
At about 8:15 am, alarms were sounded throughout Israel, to inform us that
the
long-awaited war1with Iran had begun. The dog was already in place, I closed the
door to the security room then closed the secure windows; my wife turned on
the TV so that we could hear what was going on. I also turned off the alarm
that had been sent to my phone.
So we're back to the situation that we were in
eight months' ago2. As I wrote then,
At the moment, life is like a hybrid of the early Covid days and the days
following October 7: everywhere is quiet, people are mainly at home and
only essential services are open (e.g. the supermarkets are open but the
train station and post office are not). Of course, today is Shabbat, so most services are closed anyway.
There was supposed to be a chamber concert taking place in the kibbutz in
another few hours, but I assume that this will be cancelled. And indeed it
is: checking the electronic kibbutz noticeboard, I see that a message to
this effect was posted ten minutes ago.
What I was going to write about after reading my email is this: Jasmine Myra
has recorded a new album that will be released in a few months' time (15 May
2026)! Over the past 12 months, there has been silence from her camp and I
seriously wondered whether she was continuing with music. Letters to her
website and to her record company's site were not replied.
Quoting from
BandCamp, where the album is available for pre-order: Saxophonist and composer Jasmine Myra presents nine beautiful and
powerfully grounded compositions that express her ruminations on life,
growth, and progression, powered by the artist’s vision of duality. “It’s
those bittersweet moments which are heart-breaking but so important. Looking
forward and trying to make sense of life,” she says. “Pain is unavoidable,
and you’ll have hardship no matter what, but you don’t grow or learn about
yourself or the world around you without it. The duality is the growth and
coming out the other side. I had the concept from the start.”
Jasmine Myra’s verdant musical vision and talent for instrumental
storytelling came to life over five days, with her long-standing ensemble
gathering in one room at The Nave studios in Leeds with the addition of a
string section – all recorded live.
Myra had crossed paths with Ancient Infinity Orchestra bandleader Ozzy
Moysey before she moved from Leeds to London, often attending and playing at
the same jam sessions. This made him the perfect choice to conduct the
13-piece band, freeing her up to bring maximum tenderness and elegiac tones
to the alto sax lines she’d written. Her own playing sits deliberately
within each track, never flying above. Instead, it wraps gently around
precision melodies she wrote for strings, piano, flute, guitar, vibraphone,
and harp which themselves furl and unfurl gorgeously around tenor sax,
double bass, drums, and percussion. Melodies that sparkle like sunlight on
water.
The one track that is available for streaming, "Where light settles", is
not particularly impressive on first listen, but that's not too surprising.
Most of her music is quiet and reflective, responding well to repeated
listens. I assume that the album will be available for digital download at
some stage, meaning that I will be able to hear it before I receive the
physical cd.
Today's original topic will wait till tomorrow (it's not topical so
delaying it won't blunt its impact) and what might have been tomorrow's blog
will wait until ... whenever.
Internal links
[1] 2080
[2] 1950
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