Echoes of Africa

The Invisible Session’s debut album came out in 2006 and now, just 15 years later, the follow-up is hot on its heels. The group is based around the core collaboration between producer and vibraphonist Luciano Cantone and multi-instrumentalist Gianluca Petrella, expanded to feature band members and guests from Italy, Finland, Ethiopia, the US and Gambia. And their mission statement is clear right from the beginning: this is Afrobeat meets Ethio-jazz. The group occupy that midpoint between Fela Kuti and Mulatu Astatke. The footprints of the two giants are everywhere on this album, which is none the worse for it. Yoruba rhythms drive on swirling dub-style Habesha atmospheres; chunky horn sections blast between Nigeria and Ethiopia in their melodies. Other styles sneak in there occasionally: there are moments when it bursts through into full-frontal jazz, there’s fleeting flavours of hip-hop production and Benjamin ‘Bentality’ Paavilainen’s half-spoken poetry is a treat in the two tracks he’s featured on, sparking inescapable comparisons to Gil Scott-Heron.

Ethio-Afrobeat is not exactly untrod ground, but The Invisible Session do it as well as any I’ve heard. All that’s needed now is for them to step from under the Kuti-Astatke shadows and make a sound unmistakably their own.