Saxophonist Emma Rawicz is increasingly in demand across Europe in an array of collaborations and projects. It’s included a release already this year on ACT in duo with Gwilym Simcock and opening the Polish Jazz Festival in London with ECM artist Marcin Wasilewski’s trio, as well as continuing her duties as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. Somehow, amongst all that, she has been able to incubate the material and the band heard here on Inkyra, her second ACT release under her own name.
The ten tracks are all Rawicz compositions but, she says, developed and workshopped with the band. The striking impression the music leaves is located firmly in rocky, frequently jazz-fusion territory and with David Preston on guitar and Kevin Glasgow on electric bass, locked in with Jamie Murray on the drums, there’s a volcanic energy at the heart of the many layered pieces. Gareth Lockrane on flutes and Scottie Thompson at the keyboards complete the sextet.
A slowly evolving wash of synths with fragments of melody folded in, top and tail the set as ‘Earthrise’ and ‘A Long Goodbye’. Earthrise segues into Particles of Change, a clatter of drums and a snappy, zig-zagging bass riff providing the building blocks of a gradual accumulation of layers, the riff changing shape, refreshed over a shifting chord sequence and woven into echoes and counterpoint bouncing around the band, building to a bustling climax. A Portrait of Today starts with an insistent repeating figure from Scottie Thomson’s keyboard, a different foundation for a gradual layering of mazy riffs and punchy responses. Time and Other Thieves has a heavy pulsing groove over which melodic phrases are declaimed, Moondrawn Dreaming evolves slowly with hooting phrases and gradually merging patterns before a crunching backbeat and distorted guitar herald a full-throated roar from the band. After the dense passages, portentous climaxes and high energy burn-ups, Marshmallow Tree strikes a different tone with a skipping Brazilian flavoured pulse and exuberant, high spirited vibe.
Thisis an absorbing set of pieces, intricately arranged and played with zest by this formidable band. What really lifts it, is the fluency and imagination of improvising, whether it’s a voice – guitar, sax, flute – weaving through the clamour of the band, or taking the lead when space clears. Rawicz in particular is compelling. On Particles of Change long slowly bending notes launch a thrilling, gradually intensifying solo, the band ascending with her to a careening intensity. It’s repeated on other pieces, sometimes with Preston picking up the baton or leading the way, on Marshmallow Tree Lockrane stretches out.
Inkyra is a distinctive musical statement by Rawicz and on this account, the band is a thrilling prospect as a collective.
Mike Collins is a pianist and writer based in Bristol, who runs the jazzyblogman site
Release date 31 October 2025
