Koinonia

The brainchild of producer duo Koen De Petter & Renaldo Maria, Up High Collective have existed in various forms and guises since their 2010 emergence on the global music scene. Koinonia, the second full-length from the Belgian-based troupe, is the follow-up to 2018’s Solitude, but has in fact ‘been in the works since 2015.’ The record sees them enlisting a new cohort of musical talent – including drummer Lander Gyselinck, and one of Belgium’s few sitar players, Bert Cornelis – for a record that ties together samples of traditional Indian music with experimental, ambient and electronic sounds.

Opener ‘Todi’ sets the scene, merging shuddering sitar melodies with weighty background drones to create a murky, ambient introduction. Lead single ‘Galiyon’ matches analog recordings with glitching electronics and bubbling bassy percussion to grasp that anachronistic chill-out lounge sound that has become Up High Collective’s calling card. Other album highlights include ‘Mainhan’ with its samples and loops melting into arrythmic beats and stilted strings, the sci-fi bleep-bloops of ‘Utano Trio’ and the eerie distortion of ‘Bayanaka’. But it’s the dubstep-coded silliness of ‘Ahir’ that really shines – an addictive mix of coiling Indian traditional motifs, crunchy percussion, and snaking synths coalescing into one huge tune. An endlessly surprising and eclectic record.