A short handful of months on from the triumphant release of its predecessor (*link to review below), keyboardist, producer and bandleader Joe Armon-Jones drops All the Quiet (Part II). With this second instalment, he completes his most ambitious solo project to date.
This record is both a sonic counterpart to and a mirror image of part I. Here Armon-Jones reassembles his impressive line-up of players including his Ezra Collective band-mates James Mollison and Ife Ogunjobi and Nubya Garcia.
Together, the two parts of this bold project create both a sonic and a narrative arc. Accompanied by a story set in the year 3999, the album posits a future where music has all but died out, protected and nurtured by a brave group of musicians holed up in the last studio, a final citadel of sonic creativity.
On All The Quiet (Part II), things get darker, both sonically and in terms of the album art. The cover features the citadel from the first, but this time night has descended and everything is on fire.
The theme of this concept album may be speculative fiction, but it comes with an important point, and that is that if we don’t nurture music and those that make it, we will lose the rich cultural scene that we have now. From the increasingly hostile conditions facing most musicians trying to make a living from music to the threat of drab AI sludge swamping streaming services, Armon-Jones’s critique feels particularly prescient.
The elements we’ve come to expect from him and were all over the first instalment, from his trademark tight piano runs and gorgeous melodies to spacey dub effects and searing guest appearances – are all present and correct. Yet this time the tone of things has shifted to reflect the later stage of the narrative.
Opener Acknowledgement is Key provides a perfect kick-off for the set. A melancholic keyboard theme sits against crisp percussion with spacey echoes and effects applied by Armon-Jones, leaning into his dub influences. Across its seven-minute runtime, the piece meanders and develops before guest artist Hak Barker lends beautifully emotive sung and spoken vocals to the second half of the track.
Regular Armon-Jones collaborator Asheber returns for Westmoreland having featured on the project’s first instalment. His contribution is a meditation on ancestry, heritage and culture set against a rich instrumental, with brass lines perfectly complementing the keyboard work and vocals.
Another Place offers up yet more incredible collaborative chemistry with vocalists Greentea Peng and Wu-Lu jumping on the track bringing gorgeously melodic singing and smooth rap flows respectively. The stellar line-up of guests is rounded out by Yazmin Lacey whose vocal turn on closer One Way Traffic, is the perfect finale for the album.
Elsewhere, War Transmission features one of the most memorable lead piano lines anywhere on the set and Paladin of Sound & Circumstance provides a further highlight among many, with its steady groove and wandering keys work.
Separately, parts I and II of the project stand up as fine albums, but together they create an opus that furthers the musical trajectory of Joe Armon-Jones as a solo artist. The project builds on the existing hallmarks of his work but adds more nuance.
He should also be commended for his mixing across the piece. It’s the first time he’s handled this entirely himself, from front to back on a full-length album and his dub influenced approach adds real depth and colour to the music.
For any listener, whether an aficionado of Joe Armon-Jones’ oeuvre already or just dipping a toe in the water, there is plenty to discover here.
Release date 13 June 2025
