YAI - Sky Time (AKP)

So it appears that ambient jazz is now officially the Billboard 100’s fastest growing genre. OK maybe not, but two great releases in two days is not bad though, and hot on the heels of Nala Sinephro’s fine sophomore is the new LP from YAI, aka John Thayer and David Lackner, who both play a dizzying array of instruments: Lackner - EWI, Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Moog Matriarch, Lowrey Organ, Flute, Tenor Sax, Clarinet, Soprano Sax, Yamaha MOX6, Korg monologue, Juno 106; Thayer - Ewe, Congas, Crystal Rattle, Percussion, Programming, Elektron Digitakt, Tape Echo, Field Recordings, Moog Matriarch, Modular Synthesizer.

Thayer has got previous solo form on TSMM & Lackner runs the TSMM approved GALTTA label. Together they style themselves as NYC dream jazz abstractionists and who am I to disagree? Fortunately their new Sky Time dreamscape reserves the anxiety unpleasantness for another night, preferring dilatory phantasmagoria and an escape from the New York stress.

Hitching a ride on warm ambient winds they glide West past their new LA based AKP label home to less populous palm fringed beaches, the searching sax & wind instruments leave the jazz egotism in the Brooklyn basements, preferring to forage leisurely for potent native plants and explore altered states, as the unhurried percussive comings and goings favour slow motion Gaian ritualism over Mammon’s relentless drum beat.

As summer starts to fade and you stare despairingly at your dwindling holiday days tuck this LP away for those moments when the light bulb at the end of the tunnel needs replacing.