*announcing* IARC0060

Tom Skinner - Voices of Bishara

Co-release with Brownswood & Nonesuch Records

LP/CD/Digital out November 4th 2022

Today we are blessed to share this new music by drummer, composer, producer, bandleader, and our brother from London, Tom Skinner.

We came to be acquainted through collective escapades with his main squeeze Sons of Kemet, going back to early 2018 when we bonded over late night jam sessions, record reconnaissance missions and attic seances in Chicago. He's been a constant colleague in all our subsequent sojourns to the UK and all his subsequent returns to the US. Earlier this year he even popped up on one of our releases, playing drums for Alabaster DePlume on GOLD.

Skinner's probably been in your feed this year via The Smile, his new trio with Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. Aside from Kemet and The Smile, he's done innumerable projects, collaborations, and sideman gigs over his career (including work with Grace Jones, Mulatu Astatke, and other legend level artists), and has released several post-genre electro-acoustic leader efforts under the name Hello Skinny. But for his first eponymous release Voices of Bishara, he's cultivated an ancient, organic avant-garde post-dub impression of a chamber jazz-like sound that we've never heard from him (or anybody else, really), working with a quintet of musicians so heavy that we're not even allowed to tell you who they are. The resulting record is a divine dose of fire and beauty, a full-fledged journey that stretches 27
minutes and 27 seconds of music into a whole life time of immersive, story-filled sound.

Preview & pre-order Tom Skinner's Voices of Bishara TODAY

The title of Tom Skinner’s first release under his own name is a reference to cellist Abdul Wadud’s ultra-rare 1978 solo album By Myself, which Skinner listened to repeatedly during lockdown. Wadud’s album was privately pressed on his own label, Bisharra, and whilst Skinner’s title uses the more conventional spelling of this common Arabic name, they both have the same intention or meaning: it translates as "good news," or "the bringer of good news."

This is a classic-sounding record that connects backwards to Skinner’s 2017 Hello Skinny collaboration with American composer and Arthur Russell-collaborator Peter Zummo on Watermelon Sun. It links sideways to Makaya McCraven’s beat maker-inspired treatments of jazz sessions, and it offers a musical bridge to Sons of Kemet’s most meditative moments.

Voices of Bishara began life when Skinner asked some musician friends to join him for a Played Twice session at London’s Brilliant Corners. The regular event had a simple format: play a classic album in full through their audiophile system and then have an elite ensemble improvise their response. The night in question focused on drummer Tony Williams’ 1964 Blue Note album Life Time and the music he and his friends conjured up was so special that it inspired him to write an albums-worth of phenomenal new music.

Skinner, a cellist, a bass player and two saxophonists recorded the results classic album-style, with everyone in the same room. He took the music home and it was put to the side, occasionally coming out for some attention in between his many other creative projects. This was a slow burn creation, and gradually, a new album began appearing as he embraced the studio recordings and accentuated their sublime idiosyncrasies.

“I took a very liberal approach with the scissors and started going really hard into the edits between instruments. It breathed new life into the music. I was taking my cue from the great disco re-edits, people like Theo Parrish chopping up tunes and looping sections. I’m not a purist. I don’t want to get hung up on the past. It was really empowering to fuck it up a bit, to mess around with the music and see what happened. It felt right.”

The result is a tight, hypnotic and unique ~30 minutes of music. Voices of Bishara is sculpted around timeless and deeply emotional music that contains masses of movement and exceptional harmonic depth and texture. It sweeps and soars through soundworlds, rich in musicality and always anchored by the deep doubling of cello and bass. It also, of course, contains Skinner’s percussive magic – drumming skills that have brought artists from Grace Jones to Jonny Greenwood to request him on their records and tours.

“We’re individual voices, coming together collectively. The idea was that we could collectively bring something more positive to the table. It’s the start of something.”

Tom Skinner and Voices of Bishara: bringers of good news.

Preview & Preorder today

*Deluxe Vinyl Package*

RUBELLITE COLOR VINYL

The beautiful album artwork for Voices of Bishara was designed by Paul Camo for Studio Camo, and laid out for the American pressing by our man Craig Hansen.

Our American vinyl edition is a 160 gram LP cut at 45 rpm (lacquers cut by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, and records pressed at Smashed Plastic in Chicago) inside a heavyweight reverse-board jacket, with 8x10" glossy insert card, IARC obi strip, and dome patterned inner sleeve.

And, as always, we have a limited edition color vinyl option for the first pressing only, available via our Bandcamp page only, which is 777 copies of Rubellite color vinyl.

Order a copy via our Bandcamp page today!

International Anthem x Nonesuch Records

North & South American distribution

Voices of Bishara is marketed & distributed in North & South America via our partnership with Nonesuch Records.

As Nonesuch is part of the Warner Music Group, Voices of Bishara will be physically distributed in North & South America by WEA. Stores, retailers, folks interested in wholesale purchases: please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions about where/how to stock these releases.

Brownswood Recordings for Europe, UK, Japan, Australia, and ROW

Voices of Bishara is released by our friends at Brownswood Recordings in Europe, UK, Japan, Australia, Asia, and everywhere else in the world outside of North & South America. Retailers looking to purchase wholesale for all the above territories, let us know if we can help get you in touch.

We are very grateful to our friends at Brownswood for inviting us into this project, and additionally grateful that we were able to invite our friends from Nonesuch in to support this music as well. Collaborative efforts yield more meaningful art and stronger community; and both those things contribute to the enrichment of musicians, fans and culture alike.