Electronic composer Nicolas Jaar isn’t letting 2020 get him down. Already this year he’s released his latest album, Cenizas; dropped an effort under his Against All Logic moniker, 2017-2019; and shared a bunch of unreleased A.A.L. music during a livestream mix. Now, Jaar has announced another new LP, Telas, and debuted not only the first song, “Telahora”, but an additional non-album track called “All One”.
Jaar detailed Telas, which means “Veils,” both on his website and during a takeover of Palestine-based internet radio station Radio Al Hara. Due out July 17th on Other People/Mama Records, the album is, at its core, an hour-long piece of music broken into four parts: “Telahora”, “Telencima”, “Telahumo”, and “Telallás”. Joining Jaar in the music making are cellist Milena Punzi, vocalist Susanna Gonzo, and instrument makers Anna Ippolito and Marzio Zorio, with Heba Kadry handling mastering.
But there’s also a two-part visual element to Telas. For the last two years, Jaar has been working with artist Somnath Bhatt on creating the “visual terrain” for the project. We’ll apparently see the art revealed slowly throughout June. In addition, digital artist Abeera Kamra created a website that presents Jaar’s music and Bhatt’s visuals “in their liquid primordial states.” The site is described as “a panspermic terrain where particles travel through space, weaving together life forms, where no matter — whether existing in thought, physical form or other — has a solid or unmovable origin.”
While parts of Telas were first played during a pair of shows at New York’s The Kitchen in 2017, Jaar formally debuted “Telahora” on Radio Al Hara. Listen to the 16-minute track below at the 5:45 mark, or listen from the beginning to hear Jaar discuss Telas and read a poem.
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What’s more, Jaar also used the Radio Al Hara platform to debut another, non-Telas song called “All One”. Despite admitting that he can’t actually play the instrument, Jaar plays flute on the track. You can hear that at the 22:00 mark.
