Akoma is a Ghanan word commonly translated as heart and connoting love, acceptance, tolerance, goodwill, understanding and a host of other positive attributes. The semantic similarity to akousma is likely unintentional, but the association is apt.
Jlin‘s skyrocketing career reached a new high in 2023, as her composition Perspective (as recorded by Third Coast Percussion) was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in music along with only two other nominees. In the same year, her own take became an EP with slightly different sequencing and one less movement.
And yet, amazingly, we don’t think she’s anywhere near her peak.
Jlin’s music is primarily electronic, but shares attributes with modern composition. On Akoma, her stellar collaborators include Björk, Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass, demonstrating the range of her influences. The collaborations are complimentary, no artist ever subsumed by another. Björk may be audible in “Borealis,” but not overwhelming; she comes across as a kindred spirit. The loops of “Sodalite (ft. Kronos Quartet)” skip like stones, swift strings transmuted into percussion. And “The Precision of Infinity (ft. Philip Glass),” which closes the album, mingles rapid-fire piano and rapid-fire drums, a seeming collision that instead becomes a lattice. The mid-piece whistles wink at the disco era, while the shout-out of the closing seconds is reminiscent of a DJ radio show, echoing an earlier appearance on “Speed of Darkness” and echoes in “Open Canvas” and “Auset.”
But if the collaborations are the album’s early story, the main story is Jlin. Her beats seldom land where one might expect, yet her music is not beyond the realm of accessibility. After a few spins, the listener acclimates to the music, which no longer seems strange, but instead a palpable push to the outer boundaries of rhythm, a perfect compliment to the world of Planet Mu and its founder Mike Paradinas, commonly known as µ-Ziq.
“Summon” is possessed by electronic saws, cymbals, trills and chimes, punctuated by dark brass blasts, the sort of selection that makes listeners beg, “What is this?”, followed by “Let it play out!” “Open Canvas” is the album’s most straightforward, club-ready track, with electronics that veer between chainsaw and pocket lighter, a memorable four-note motif and a tempo of around 164 bpm. The drumline really gets going on “Challenge (To Be Continued II”), which sent us back to Part I, the closing track of Black Origami ~ where we encountered that shout-out again, and the whistles! We now realize that Jlin is making connections not only among artists, but within her own body of work, carrying out an intricate plan whose details are slowly coming into focus. There’s an incredible intellect at work here ~ but there’s also a lot of heart. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 