Back for the first time since in 5 years, the best Afrobeat group in the West, Antibalas, are sharing their new single “La Ceiba“, off their upcoming record that sees them return to their roots, letting their instruments do the talking whilst shifting between 12-8 grooves, 70s Ghanaian dance a la Guedu Blay-Ambolley, funk and Lagos afrobeat – all with their own Brooklyn twang.
The story of the Hourglass begins in early 2020. Antibalas was just a month into a year-long world tour supporting their Grammy-nominated album Fu-Chronicles when the pandemic struck. After months of solitude, deaths and births and lots of uncertainty, the band reunited in Brooklyn in the fall of 2021 to regroup and workshop new compositions. Two weeks later, the band debuted the new compositions across the world at jazz, rock and music festivals in North America, Europe and North Africa.
The following year, Antibalas gathered for two exhilarating days of recording with 8x Grammy-award winning engineer Joel Hamilton (Bomba Estereo) at Studio G in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, a few blocks north of the band’s birthplace. Captured live with a small army of musicians, the recordings featuring the eleven-piece touring ensemble consisting of Martín Perna (baritone saxophone, co-producer and founding member), Marcos García (guitar), Reinaldo DeJesus (congas), Timothy James (guitar), Justin Kimmel (bass), Marcus Farrar (shekere), Drew Vandewinckel (tenor, flute), Andrew McGovern (trumpet) Michael Pallas (trombone) along with performances and solos from emeritus members Stuart Bogie (tenor saxophone) and Jordan McLean (trumpet) and longtime collaborators Domenica Fossati (flute), Jackie Coleman (trumpet) and Lynn Ligammari (tenor saxophone).
On Hourglass, Antibalas returns to its instrumental roots. Co-producer/founder Martín Perna explains, “Once a song has lyrics, everyone who doesn’t speak that language finds themselves on the outside. As humans sharing planet Earth, we are all confronting different versions of the same problems: climate change, bad governance, the violence of late-stage capitalism to name a few. We have already written songs about those issues. We haven’t abandoned vocals but on Hourglass we use rhythm and melody exclusively to convey our emotions.”
