On June 13th, the British synth wizard James Holden, with the Polish clarinet guru and Shackleton collaborator Waclaw Zimpel, present their entrancing debut album of improvisatory works. ‘The Universe Will Take Care Of You’ is an alliance wherein these two like-minded masters of their craft converge and explore their deepest improvisational urges to strikingly lush, hypnotic and emotive effect. An in-the-moment lyrical conversation between the pair’s playing, cementing the joyful convergence of their disparate musical journeys, it’s an explosion of raw musical creativity in its most primal form.
Blissfully escapist, these six transcendent odysseys of psychedelic electronic music and freeform musicianly virtuosity roam freely; from the skittering pulsations of opener ‘You Are Gods’, the radiant, revelatory echoes of ‘Sunbeam Path’, the hyperkinetic, arpeggiated rush of ‘Time Ring Rattles’ and ‘Incredible Bliss’, the mesmeric ambient euphoria of ‘Sparkles, Crystals, Miracles’, to the spiralling slow-burn ascension of the closing title-track. With this finale, Holden & Zimpel offer up a monumental coda of stirring percussive rustle and gently cascading clarinet tones, before soaring into a sublime, resonant denouement of towering synth and organ themes; a conclusion of vast, otherworldly high drama that encapsulates the scale of this extraordinary album.
Embracing a similar playful, experimental approach to that of their Krautrock forefathers, the new album sees both virtuosos encouraged and empowered to reach out beyond the instruments with which they made their name. Thus Holden supplements his bespoke computer and modular synth systems with his long-neglected childhood violin and his more recently cobbled together collection of hand percussion, whilst on certain tracks Zimpel forgoes his alto clarinet altogether in favour of electric piano, organ, lap steel guitar, airless harmonium and the Indian twin pipe algoza flute.
The collaborative process has proved endlessly instructive, mutually inspirational and richly rewarding for both artists. “We just clicked immediately, understood each other’s impulses, and made space for each other,” enthuses Holden. “Held safe in his supportive arms I felt liberated to try things I’d never tried before.”
The Holden & Zimpel origin stories may on the surface look very different, with Holden first making his name in electronic music as an internationally renowned dance DJ, producer and remixer throughout the course of the noughties, whilst Zimpel was receiving a formal classical education at music schools in Poland and Germany before following his improvisational impulses into the world of contemporary free jazz, collaborating with the likes of Hamid Drake and Joe McPhee. But there are also many striking serendipitous similarities in their musical journeys: both young musicians’ first exposure to music came via their piano-playing fathers, and both children initially took up violin before settling upon their chosen instruments. Both have had the privilege of immersing themselves in the rich Gnawa musical tradition handed down via Morocco’s Guinia family, with Holden recording first with the late Maalem Mahmoud Guinia and later his son Houssam, whilst in 2012 and again in 2015 Zimpel improvised his way around Poland in a live collaboration with Mahmoud’s younger brother Mokhtar.
The traditional music of India has also provided a common source of fascination for the two composers, with Zimpel teaming up with a band of Carnatic musicians from Bangalore for three raga-jazz fusion albums under the Saagara moniker, whilst Holden’s introduction came via modern day Indian music disciple Terry Riley, and the Mumbai-trained London-based tabla player Camilo Tirado with whom he collaborated on the Riley-inspired Barbican commission Outdoor Museum of Fractals.
Ultimately it is around a shared love of all things hypnotic and trancey where Holden and Zimpel’s paths converge. Trance is the common thread which runs through their musical predilections, as heard in traditional folk forms the world over, twentieth century minimalism, the Krautrock experiments of the seventies, electronic dance music and improvised jazz alike, and their music exists at the point where all of this good stuff collides. You are invited to join them in trance space.
Stream/ Download ‘You Are Gods’
Holden & Zimpel ‘The Universe Will Take Care Of You’
Border Community
Vinyl / CD/download/stream
June 13th
‘The Universe Will Take Care Of You’
track-list:
1. You Are Gods
2. Sunbeam Path
3. Time Ring Rattles
4. Sparkles, Crystals, Miracles
5. Incredible Bliss
6. The Universe Will Take Care Of You
Holden & Zimpel Live dates:
23rd April 2025 – Dabadaba, Donostia, Spain
24th April 2025 – Sala Copernico, Madrid, Spain
25th April 2025 – CaixaForum, Barcelona, Spain
26th April 2025 – CaixaForum, Valencia, Spain
31st July 2025 – Dekmantel @ Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands
20th August 2025 – MUTEK Montreal, Montreal, Canada
21st September – Hidden Notes Festival, Stroud, UK
29th November – elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany
30th November – Gretchen, Berlin, Germany
Stay tuned at Electronic ConnectFM Tracks of the Month selection and Listen to Holden & Zimpel’s new music first
Photo by Justyna Traczyk
https://www.jamesholden.org/
