Review: Esinam’s Shapes in Twilights of Infinity

6 Sep 2021 - 14:17

Built on elaborate rhythms and sensitive melodies, singer Esinam’s Shapes in Twilights of Infinity unfolds like a dreamy journey into an unparalleled musical universe.

Esinam.

The songs on Shapes, which follows her 2018 eponymous debut EP, are deeply rooted in grooves and global sounds, spontaneously evolving. They see the Ghanaian multi-instrumentalist create a balance between the acoustic and electronic, the futuristic and the ancestral.

From ‘New Dawn’ with its pulsating beats, vivid flutes and spoken word elements featuring Londoner Nadeem Din-Gabisi, the soulful jazz vibe of ‘Lost Dimensions’, to the etheric melodies and mesmerising singing of South African guest Sibusile Xaba on ‘Flowing River’, the project delivers nothing short of a profound patchwork of sonic connections, including house, trip-hop and hip hop intertwined with tones from traditional, blues and psychedelia.

Shapes is characterised by lush loops, samples, impressions and field recordings. Each song flows into the other like a cycle that opens, evolves, transforms and returns to the starting point. Shapes is also rooted in culture and grasps one with deep emotion and questions alike.

Similar to this expansive musical range, Esinam’s creative process is also eclectic. She produced some of the tracks herself in her home studio, while others were recorded with her full band, formed with three other musicians, namely Axel Gilain on bass, Pablo Casella on guitars and Martin Méreau on drums and vibraphone – a line-up she picked precisely for their musical identities. The combination of their acoustic and electronic instruments brings a soulful and vibrant interpretation to Esinam’s compositions.

Esinam took to music as an infant, picking up percussion instruments such as the tama, as well as the piano and flute. When necessary, she is a one-woman band, surrounded by a host of instruments. Her soulful voice blends with traditional African percussion and smatterings of electronic influences. Her compositions carry traces from numerous geographical, cultural and musical influences, which she collected from her personal story and through various travels, encounters, tours and collaborations.

As a flautist and percussionist, she has played for the likes of Marock’in Brass, Kel Assouf, Témé Tan and Sysmo. She has also been solicited recently by Baloji, Ibaaku and Jaguar Jaguar for musical collaborations.