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
| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 235 | Still working even when feeling lousy | Programming, Organisation behaviour, Blood pressure | |
| 457 | Sequencing "Lost" | MIDI, Van der Graaf Generator, Peter Hammill, Reason | |
| 552 | Sansa clip+ mp3 player | MP3 | |
| 1726 | The Dublin Murder Squad, continued | Song writing, Police procedurals | |
| 1906 | Emergency room blues | Health |
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