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“Phi-Psonics is a spiritual exploration of being together and connecting,” says acoustic bassist Seth Ford-Young of the immersive project he initiated in East Los Angeles in 2016. “From the beginning, I wanted to explore a contemplative sound, to create music that can be useful to listen to when you’re in a place of being more meditative, and maybe needing a break from the cacophony of the world.”
For his third long-player under the Phi-Psonics banner, Ford-Young marshalled a series of live recordings at the Healing Force Of The Universe record store in Pasadena, sculpting fourteen tracks, largely composed in the moment with a fluctuating cast of players, which wonderfully transmit his ideals of community and inner peace.
Called ‘Expanding To One’, it features exquisitely calming yet searching pieces like ‘There’s Still Hope’, where Seth’s softly undulating bassline underpins beatific explorations from core Phi-Psonics members, Sylvain Carton and Randal Fisher (both on saxophone), and Josh Collazo (drums), alongside guests Zach Tenorio (Wurlitzer piano) and Mathias Künzli (percussion). Equally sublime, ‘Healing Time’ ripples like a mountain stream, with Ford-Young, Carton, Fisher and Tenorio joined by Minta Spencer (harp), Dylan Day (guitar) and, on drums/percussion, Jay Bellerose, a revered LA stickman most recently under the spotlight in Jeff Parker ETA IVtet.
These exquisite recordings were captured at six fortnightly ticketed sessions at Healing Force in February-April 2024, with sixty-odd fans and locals sitting in rapt attention as the players improvised together. For Seth, the venture was partially a reaction to the brutality of COVID lockdown.
“That experience of being isolated really brought into focus how important being together is,” he says. “That’s really what we have. We have all these other ways of connecting, like via the internet, but actually being together in person, there’s no substitute for it. So, I was like, ‘Alright, I want to do something that brings people together, and builds communities.’” As much a performance space as a record store, the room at Healing Force Of The Universe (named after the Albert Ayler album from 1970) allowed for studio-quality recording of rare warmth and definition, and Ford-Young wisely chose to present the material as a studio album, benefitting from the energy of the moment shared by all those in attendance across those six sessions, but editing out the crowd noise to let the music stand timelessly – the best of both worlds
As the world opened up again, and social boundaries became less distanced once more, Seth very consciously took his creativity back towards the spontaneous, and opened up Phi-Psonics to broaden his community, and to improvise music collectively without too much prescribed in advance.
“I thought, ‘Let’s involve some more musicians, different instruments, people that I've played with on other things… Some of them had even sat in with the band at different gigs and stuff, so let's bring them in and really involve them in the recording, and just expand things.’ That's why I called the album ‘Expanding to One’.”
“I feel like the whole record is a document of a time and a place,” he goes on by way of summary. “There's a music community in Los Angeles right now which is doing special things, and that's part of why I chose the various people, because they’re doing beautiful work, and are of a similar mind. So, it’s all about capturing that moment”
The audiences on each night, he says, were “an intentional listening crowd”, seated on beanbags, eyes closed, drifting with the gentle tides of the music. Experiencing ‘Expanding To One’ in the comfort of their own home, listeners can now share in that moment, and immerse themselves in the gentle beauty of Phi-Psonics musical world |
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