Cartographers and US multinational technology corporations might think they’ve mapped out most of our big, beautiful blue planet, and yet there’s always more to discover if you know where to look. French-born, London-based composer and musician Pascal Bideau takes this as his central premise on a new album of intrepid sonic exploration that delights in the sensation of being somewhere you’ve never been before. ‘Terra Incognita’ invites us to seven faraway sonic imaginariums fusing global and spiritual jazz with life affirming minimalism into a hypnotic, polyrhythmic odyssey.
This time, the albums’ sound palette is more vibrant, earthy and abundant, drawing inspiration from the radiating optimism and high-energy sources heard in Afrobeat, Highlife and Electronic Afro-pop music, sounding looser, free and primarily interested in raw sensations. Antithetical to the precise ostinatos and gamelan patterns of the acclaimed debut ‘Fleeting Future’ (2022) and ‘Lines’ (2023). Terra Incognita, then, is a hybrid blend of traditional music and modern electronics, a trip into the unknown that ambulates freely, taking pleasure in its repetitions and never staying still. Bideau suggests this unmarked territory could be as much a fantasyland as it is a transportive journey into the inner self.
“It’s probably the feeling I love the most in life,” enthuses Pascal. “It pushes you into a state of wonder and naivety that brings you back to how everything felt when you were a child.” He’s talking about dépaysement, a French word that literally translates as “uncountryfication” but has no English equivalent. “It’s the sensation you get when you visit a place you’ve never been before, where nothing makes sense and everything needs to be learnt from scratch. There are no cultural references, no familiarity, just a constant flux of new colours, smells, social and moral codes.” In an era where the concept of nation states and their need to be protected has come to dominate the political discourse, Terra Incognita embraces adventure without borders, seeking out the unexplored territory of the title, breathlessly beholding vistas and pirouetting to take in boundless panoramas.
At the outset the shimmering, phosphorescent ‘A Waking Dream’ is a nod to spiritual jazz masters, particularly Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. ‘Anima’ follows as the tempo shifts upwards into a long, layered, trance-inducing groove. The music exudes an infectiously uplifting quality, as a recurring danceable theme begins to freely permeate through the album alongside a future- searching ethos reminiscent of Sun Ra. Bideau is not the only musician on Terra Incognita. There’s the Indian-born tabla virtuoso Sarathy Korwar who adds an almost drum and bass-like kineticism to ‘Rain Dance’, Dudú Kouate, the celebrated Senegalese musician adds an array of percussions, ngoni, flutes throughout with a spirited multi-octave vocal to give a climatic end to the album on ‘Dawning Dusk’. The highly percussive ‘Drongo’s Flute’ rises step by step towards interlocking, complex rhythmic patterns built from pygmy flutes and birdsongs before ascending into the cosmos. Levitation Orchestra's Marysia Osu alongside Lluís Domènech Plana respectively bring harp and flutes whilst pulsing electronics are provided on ‘Anima’ by longtime collaborator Daniel Brandt.
Ecstatic improvisations were overlaid with an array of instruments at his disposal, many from around the world, from Africa to South East Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, gathered from his own travels or brought back by family and friends. Pascal plays flutes, clarinet, guitars, bass, mbira, balafon, dutars, marimbas, zither, adungu and many other percussions. Most prominent is the alto-saxophone which features throughout: “It’s the link that connects everything together, half-narrator, half-explorer, ambling along and reacting in real time”.
Terra Incognita then is a rarified opportunity to get lost in and to find our presence of mind, to get off-grid, or even off the map altogether. “This album is a travel diary from an unexplored land: experiencing something never encountered before and the excitement that comes with it.”
