Guitarist Steve Gunn? Bassist and synthesizer Shahzad Ismaily. saxophonist, guitarist and singer Zoh Amba; and drummer Jim White have come together to form the new band Beings. On June 7, the New York quartet will release their debut album, There is a gardenvia No quarter. Below, listen to the first two songs from Beings, “Talking Flowers” and “Be happy.”
The Beings first started meeting in the summer of 2022 when Shahzad Ismaily asked Zoh Amba to perform with him at the German Monheim Triennale. “It really changed my life and my career,” Amba told Arielle Gordon in an interview for Solidified milk. Eventually, Steve Gunn and Jim White joined the fray in Brooklyn, culminating in the band's debut last summer.
In a press release, Ismaily added, “The four of us really fell into something merged that was really intellectually sound and really evocative, really environmental. And this is not always the case, even if the players individually have these qualities. Everyone was able to find their space that was quite different from each other… and it's really part of why the team works so well.”
There is a garden to be followed by a 2022 album by Zoh Amba (album/bhakti/” class=”external-link” data-event-click=”{"element":"ExternalLink","outgoingURL":"https://mahakalamusic.bandcamp.com/album/bhakti/"}” href=”https://mahakalamusic.bandcamp.com/album/bhakti/” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>Bhakti), 2023 full length by Gunn and Ismaily (Let the Moon be a planet and Love in Exilerespectively) and White's 2024 debut solo studio album (album/all-hits-memories/” class=”external-link” data-event-click=”{"element":"ExternalLink","outgoingURL":"https://jimwhitedrums.bandcamp.com/album/all-hits-memories/"}” href=”https://jimwhitedrums.bandcamp.com/album/all-hits-memories/” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>All Achievements: Memories). Coming up, White will release a new album with Marisa Anderson on May 10 (album/swallowtail/” class=”external-link” data-event-click=”{"element":"ExternalLink","outgoingURL":"https://marisaanderson.bandcamp.com/album/swallowtail/"}” href=”https://marisaanderson.bandcamp.com/album/swallowtail/” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>Swallowtail) and a new Dirty Three album on June 28 (Love changes everything).
Check out “A Conversation With Improvisational Geniuses Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily”.
from our partners at https://pitchfork.com/news/beings-new-band-featuring-steve-gunn-and-shahzad-ismaily-announce-debut-album-share-songs-listen
