Bleep

It takes a certain kind of bloody-mindedness to open your meditative jazz record with a song called ‘Whatsapp’ — but for multidisciplinary artist Duval Timothy, communication becomes a central theme to his second LP, Sen Am. What is essentially a functional piece of software becomes a tool for unfathomable connection for Timothy, a powerful reminder that technology collapses time and space, drawing closer friends and family from across the impossible distances between continents.

This serves to give Sen Am its conversational feel; as exquisitely crafted as Timothy’s solo keys work certainly is at nestling in the sweet spot between Erik Satie minimalism and Thelonious Monk unpredictability, the likes of ‘Ball’, ‘Dust’ and ‘Ibs’ follow the ebbs and flows of human speech itself. His style is improvisational in tone, as phrases loop in and over themselves much in the way two friends move from bantering in-jokes to long-forgotten memories of tenderness. The diverse voice notes woven throughout the record, sent by Timothy’s loved ones in his twin locales of South London and Sierra Leone, each contain permutations of the same sentiment: “hey man, how are you doing?”

A breathtaking sophomore release from Duval Timothy. Sen Am offers precisely what jazz — and music as a whole — can do unlike any other medium; a vehicle for traversing beyond loneliness. No matter where you are, you’re among company more often than not.