搬運(yùn)自：網(wǎng)易云音樂專欄【Music Online Zine Courier】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：Beans_Beans?

這位年輕的英國音樂家/作曲家輝煌而不顯眼的處女作為氛圍爵士領(lǐng)域立下又一個(gè)標(biāo)桿，同時(shí)以出色的演奏和微妙的編織安排為特色。

Nala Sinephro learned to play the pedalharp in secret. She was 16 and studying jazz; in the evenings, when she wassupposed to be practicing, she snuck turns on a stringed behemoth shediscovered in one of her high school’s music rooms. Technically, it wasoff-limits, but Sinephro had a fascination with strings; she had grown upplaying fiddle, learning folk songs by ear. The harp beckoned.

在Nala Sinephro 16歲那年，她還在學(xué)習(xí)爵士樂時(shí)，悄悄學(xué)會了彈奏踏板豎琴；夜深直視，當(dāng)她本應(yīng)在練習(xí)的時(shí)候，便會偷偷地練習(xí)在高中的一個(gè)音樂室發(fā)現(xiàn)的“弦樂巨獸”。嚴(yán)格地講，這對她來說是禁區(qū)，但Sinephro有著對弦樂的深深癡迷；她從小就會拉小提琴，憑著過人的聽覺學(xué)習(xí)民歌。而如今，豎琴在向她招手。

On Space 1.8, assisted by a rotating castof musicians from the UK’s dynamic jazz scene, the Caribbean-Belgian musicianstill sometimes sounds like she is trying to evade prying ears. Whether jammingwith her peers or multi-tracking solo compositions on pedal harp and modularsynthesizer, she is a subtle presence, her tone liquid, mutable, mysterious—thecosmic background radiation to a galaxy of her own creation.

在《Space 1.8》中，有著那些來自英國爵士樂界的音樂家們的輪流協(xié)助，這位加勒比裔比利時(shí)藝術(shù)家的作品時(shí)聽起來仍然像是在試圖躲避窺探之耳。無論是與她的同齡人一起演奏，還是在踏板豎琴和模塊化合成器上進(jìn)行多軌獨(dú)奏，她都在扮演著一個(gè)微妙的角色，無數(shù)音色在她的手中變作液體、多變而神秘——好似在她自己創(chuàng)造的星系中的宇宙輻射。

Recorded when she was just 22, Space 1.8 isthe London-based musician’s debut album, though it sounds like the work of afar more experienced composer. On a suite of pieces that range from just over aminute in length to nearly 18 minutes, she weaves a loose fusion of jazzballadry, beat music, and the sort of beatless, synthesizer-centric whorls forwhich there’s no better word than “ambient.” Alice Coltrane’s spiritual jazz isan obvious touchstone; so is the otherworldly sound-shaping of Jon Hassell’s processedhorn. Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders’ recent Promises is a tempting pointof comparison, given the way Space 1.8 lays out soft, spongy electronics as thebackdrop for emotive saxophone solos. Reed players Nubya Garcia, JamesMollison, of the Ezra Collective, and Ahnansé—a saxophonist who hascollaborated with a host of musicians including Garcia, Emma-Jean Thackray, andbroken-beat icon IG Culture—all deliver standout performances. But Sinephro andher collaborators sound less concerned with precedent than possibility. Not somuch interlocking as complementary, the album’s eight tracks—titled “Space 1”through “Space 8”—collectively map out a novel, singular terrain.

實(shí)際上《Space 1.8》是這位倫敦音樂家在22歲時(shí)錄制的首張專輯，盡管它聽起來更像是一位經(jīng)驗(yàn)老道的作曲家的作品。這張專輯涵蓋了時(shí)長從剛過一分鐘到將近18分鐘的作品，Sinephro將爵士民謠、純節(jié)拍音樂以及相對無節(jié)拍、以合成器為中心的音效漩渦編織在一起，看來沒有比“Ambient”更好的詞去描述她的音樂。其中Alice Coltrane的精神爵士樂顯而易見是個(gè)試金石；Jon Hassell處理過的號角聲像是來自另一個(gè)世界的聲音。與FloatingPoints和Pharoah Sanders最近發(fā)行的《Promises》相比，《Space 1.8》為情感豐富的薩克斯風(fēng)獨(dú)奏鋪設(shè)了柔軟、海綿一樣的電子器樂音作為背景。牧笛演奏家Nubya Garcia、Ezra Collective的James Mollison和Ahnansé——一位曾與Garcia、Emma-Jean Thackray和突破性節(jié)奏音樂人?IG Culture等眾多音樂家合作的薩克斯手——都有出色的表現(xiàn)。但Sinephro和她合作者的作品聽起來并不cue前輩們，而是著眼于“可能性”。與其說是環(huán)環(huán)相扣，不如說是相輔相成，這張專輯的八首曲目——從“Space 1”到“Space 8”——共同描繪了一個(gè)新穎、獨(dú)特的領(lǐng)域。

One sign of the strength of Sinephro’svision is how well all the pieces fit together, despite their outwarddifferences. The album opens in a blur, harp sparkling against bokeh-likesplotches of synthesizer; distant crickets and what sounds like a rain sticklend additional scene-setting. Recognizable shapes come into focus on “Space2,” a gentle sextet recording led first by Mollison’s tenor and then LyleBarton’s piano. (Guitarist Shirley Tetteh, drummer Jake Long, and doublebassist Rudi Creswick round out the diaphanous, dreamlike track; the wholeensemble breathes like a single organism.) Edges sharpen on “Space 3,” a75-second excerpt from a three-hour session with drummer Eddie Hick (Sons ofKemet) and synth player Dwayne Kilvington, aka Wonky Logic. Each track sketchesout a different space: different dimensions, different light, different air.But these are rarely static spheres. “Space 4,” a showcase for Garcia’s lyricalplaying, begins with a kind of dewy, dawn-lit optimism, but as Barton, Long, anddouble bassist Twm Dylan lean into the changes, the mood intensifies; soonGarcia sounds like she’s scooping up fistfuls of dirt with every low note. It’sone of many powerfully cathartic moments on the album.

Sinephro遠(yuǎn)見卓識的一個(gè)標(biāo)志是她能游刃有余地將所有的作品都很好地結(jié)合在一起，盡管它們的外在風(fēng)格迥異。專輯在一片迷霧中展開，豎琴在虛化的合成器斑塊中閃閃發(fā)光；遠(yuǎn)處蟋蟀地啼鳴和聽起來像傾盆大雨的什么提供了額外的布景。可識別的具象在“Space 2”中成為焦點(diǎn)，這是一個(gè)溫和的六重奏錄音，而先以Mollison的男高音和Lyle Barton的鋼琴開篇。(吉他手Shirley Tetteh、鼓手Jake Long和低音提琴手Rudi Creswick的演繹組成了這首如夢似幻的歌曲；整個(gè)樂隊(duì)像個(gè)有機(jī)體一般活靈活現(xiàn)。)?在“Space 3”中，第75秒的采樣來自與鼓手Eddie Hick（Kemet之子）和合成器樂手Dwayne Kilvington（又名Wonky Logic）長達(dá)3小時(shí)的會議。每一首歌都勾勒出一個(gè)不同的空間：不同的維度、不同的光速、不同的大氣。同時(shí)它們也很少作為靜態(tài)的球體而存在?！癝pace 4”是Garcia抒情演奏的展覽館，以一種晨露般的黎明樂觀主義開始，隨著Barton、Long和低音提琴手TwmDylan的加入迎來變化，情緒變得愈加強(qiáng)烈；很快Garcia的音樂聽起來就像她在用每個(gè)低音符舀起拳頭大的泥土，而這也同作為專輯中眾多有力的宣泄時(shí)刻之一。

Sometimes Sinephro plays in broad strokes,tossing out lustrous glissandi like fairy dust. Sometimes she processes herharp so that it sounds like steel drums—an echo, perhaps, of her Caribbeanheritage. Sometimes, she overdubs synths upon synths upon synths, and sometimesshe’s barely there at all: In “Space 2,” she only becomes audible aroundthree-quarters of the way through the song, when the other instruments fallaway to reveal her softly glowing chords that pulse and change color, dimmingand Dopplering, across a 90-second slide into silence. In moments like these,she feels less like a player seated at her instrument than a source of light.

有時(shí)，Sinephro更似揮毫潑墨，像揮灑仙塵一樣拋出一筆光彩的滑音；有時(shí)，她把豎琴改造成猛擊鋼鐵一樣的厚重鼓聲——也許正印證了她的加勒比血統(tǒng)；有時(shí)，她會疊加多重合成器，而有時(shí)所有的音又幾乎不存在——在“Space 2”中，她的聲音僅在四分之三處清晰可聽，當(dāng)其他樂器漸漸隱去，她柔和的發(fā)光和弦開始跳動，在這短短一分半的時(shí)間里，脈沖和變幻的色彩，暗夜的降臨和多普勒效應(yīng)紛紛滑向沉默。在這樣的時(shí)刻，她已然不是一個(gè)坐在樂器前的演奏者，而更像是一個(gè)光源、散發(fā)著光芒。

Marked by an abiding calm, the album isquiet until it isn’t. “Space 6,” another trio piece with Mollison on sax andLong on drums, opens with flickering hi-hats and tightens like a pit in thestomach, snare and sax trading sharp retorts, until the whole thing seems tospin off its axis: Sinephro’s synths thicken and then change in pitch andtimbre, turned grinding, almost serrated. The electronic suggestion of aheavy-metal pick slide scrapes across the stereo field. For the first time onthe record, the music turns heavy; swirling in the turmoil are intimations ofgrief, confusion, anger. It is a brief outburst, one whose extremity istempered by the closing “Space 8,” an 18-minute meditation in which Ahnansé’stender saxophone is cradled within dozens of layers of processed harp,synthesizer, and guitar. But the force of “Space 6”’s impact lingers.

這張專輯以延綿不斷的平靜為標(biāo)志，但也會迎來它不再平靜的時(shí)刻。“Space 6”是另一三重奏作品，由薩克斯手Mollison和鼓手Long演奏，先以閃爍的hi-hats開場，再像胃痙攣一樣收緊，小鼓和薩克斯交接無常的尖銳回應(yīng)，直至整場鬧劇似乎從它們的軸心剝離開來：Sinephro合成器音效愈加厚重、音調(diào)和音色發(fā)生變化，更像是在磨平那鋸齒狀的葉緣。重金屬鎬片的電子勾引輕輕劃過立體聲場。在這張專輯中，音樂第一次變得沉重；混雜在混亂之中回旋著的是悲傷、困惑和憤怒。這是個(gè)短暫的爆發(fā)，這一極端被尾聲“Space 8”所緩解。在這長達(dá)18分鐘的冥想曲中，Ahnansé溫柔的薩克斯管被安置在數(shù)十層處理過后的豎琴、合成器和吉他之間。但“Space6”的影響力并未消失殆盡。

Sinephro wrote and recorded Space 1.8 in2018 and 2019, in the wake of her recovery from a serious illness, and she hasdescribed the process of making the album as “medicinal.” You can detect a hintof that medicine in the music, particularly when her synths and strings poolinto a warm bath of light, or focus their energy into a cutting beam. Where themusic of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders can tap into spiritualtranscendence, leaving one’s body and reaching a higher plane, Space 1.8 feelsmore grounded, more interior. Even its most abstract pieces, like the long,amorphous closing track, are not really cosmic in scope. “Space 8,” despite itsconsiderable duration, is less about journeying great distances than findingsolace in one’s own bones, one’s own being. That deliberate smallness, thatinner focus, is the source of much of this understated record’s outsized power.For all its overdubbed layers, “Space 8,” like the album itself, feels assimple and as steadying as breathing.

Sinephro在2018年和2019年編寫并錄制了《Space 1.8》，當(dāng)時(shí)她剛從病魔的手中脫身，因而她將制作這張專輯的過程描述為“藥用”。你也可以在她的音樂中嗅到一絲靈丹妙藥的味道，尤其是當(dāng)她的合成器和琴弦沐浴在和煦陽光之中，或?qū)⑺鼈兊哪芰繀R集成一束光線。Alice Coltrane和Pharoah Sanders的音樂可以讓人達(dá)成精神上的超脫，靈魂脫殼拜托肉體的束縛，飛升至更高的位面；而《Space 1.8》則讓人感覺更能觸及地心、更加內(nèi)化，即使是它最抽象的部分，比如漫長的無調(diào)性環(huán)狀音軌，在范圍上也為實(shí)現(xiàn)真正的宇宙尺度。“Space 8”雖然延續(xù)了很長時(shí)間，但與其說是長途跋涉，不如說是從自己的骨髓、自己的存在之中尋以慰藉。這種刻意的渺小、這種對內(nèi)心的專注刻畫，正是這張被低估的專輯巨大的力量源泉。盡管“Space 8”層次多而雜，但就像這張專輯本身一樣，它給人的感覺就像呼吸一樣簡單、穩(wěn)定。