The Pyramids – Otherworldly

 

 

 

 

 

The adventure begins! Discover The Pyramids…again!!

Founded 40 years ago in 1972 “Otherworldly” is the first Pyramids’ album in over 35 years. They released three albums before splitting up in 1977 – albums that made them one of the most mysterious and legendary of all the spiritual cosmic jazz collectives of the early 70s.

Otherworldly

The new album contains 14 never before released tracks. The Pyramids’ signature sound is still percussion driven, no surprise with Nash and Speller being two of the most masterful percussionists on the planet. Another signature style of The Pyramids is the “two bass” concept combining Kash Killion’s acoustic bass with electric bass by Thomas “Kimathi Asante” Williams. Ancient funk. Idris Ackamoor plays his alto sax in an absolutely astonishing way, sometimes simultaneously performing tap dance to create percussive rhythms, “suggesting a post-be-bop Prince” as the NY Times called him.

The Pyramids trip out into unexplored territory of spontaneous improvisation, sometimes trance like off to an outer inner space journey. They play to make music fire! “Otherworldly reminds of a giant insect colony on another planet doing a collective mating dance.”

The Pyramids were world music even before the term was coined back in the early 70’s. They use a battery of ethnic instruments you’ll probably never heard of like mbira, calypso boxes, Russian zither, West African bolong, Egyptian sensemia harp, pygmy whistle,.. But they don’t play them trying to duplicate the authentic African music but use them in a way that the music does sound almost otherworldly: “We want to play music that is original and full of imagination; completely boundless