New Blue Sun is quite possibly the surprise release of 2023 as no one was expecting new music from André 3000, who reportedly hadn’t put out anything in the last fifteen years or so outside of a couple of instrumental tracks in 2018 before going quiet again.
I don’t spend much time listening to rap music and was barely aware of André 3000 and OutKast before André with little warning dropped an album comprising of an hour and a half of him improvising on the flute. But I’m very interested in instrumental improvised music and devoted a great deal of words on this space discussing those kind of recordings that made a connection with me. So, New Blue Sun is as an appropriate of a topic to tackle here as, say, Ivo Perelman’s steady stream of sudden music.
This isn’t literally a solo flute album, which honestly, could be a challenge to hold one’s interest for an entire hour and a half. There are ambient electronic washes, the gentle tinkling of electric piano and various exotic percussion instruments, provided by André 3000 and a small cadre of other musicians such as Nate Mercereau, Diego Gaeta, Surya Botofasina, Mia Doi Todd and co-producer Carlos Niño. Some of these contours are rather luxuriant (looking at “Ants To You, Gods To Who?”), making for prime headphone experiences.
André 3000’s explanation for the abrupt genre about-face is found in the title of his first tune “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make A “Rap” Album But This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time.” Most of the other song titles are similarly lengthy stream of consciousness remarks that seemingly have no relation to the music and you’re only going to see them truncated in this space. Only the music matters, anyway.
The formula for these eight tracks aren’t very complicated: Andre 3000 muses lazily over a rhythm-free synth-delivered chord progression with various flutes, some acoustic, some not. In fact, it isn’t until the third track “That Night In Hawaii…” when you here what’s easily identifiable as flutes (wooden ones, apparently).
Just because the music largely springs from vamps and riffs doesn’t mean it’s devoid of interesting complexity; far from it. Layers of flutes and electronic flourishes coming in and out of focus permeate throughout “BuyPoloDisorders’s Daughter…”, giving listeners a lot to contemplate at the same time they’re chilling out to it. The soundscapes are constructed with acoustic as well as electronic instruments; “Ghandi, Dalai Lama…” makes use of a wayward piano, gongs and even a wordless vocal, another signifier that this record wasn’t made with any set ground rules.
So does all this make for compelling music? Absolutely it does. André 3000’s flute playing isn’t going to put a scare into, say, Nicole Mitchell, but jazz isn’t what he’s going for here. He’s mastered the instrument plenty good enough to carry out his vision with integrity. Again, I don’t know much about the guy but I do know he made one damned fine record with New Blue Sun.
People try to draw comparisons of this album to other artists. The Alice Coltrane one seems pretty apt, and I might add Jon Hassell, too. But as far as I can tell, André 3000 didn’t enter the studio intending to make an ‘Alice Coltrane’ or ‘Jon Hassell’ album, he simply followed his muse. If only more high profile artists did this.
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