Following their award-winning collaboration with Ethio jazz Godfather Mulatu Astatke, pioneering UK collective The Heliocentrics resurfaces alongside another fascinating jazz enigma, ethno-musicologist, jazz maestro and multi-instrumentalist, Lloyd Miller. Miller has since been a vocal ambassador for preserving the traditions of many forms of Eastern music. In recent years, his mid-‘60s album Oriental Jazz has become a collector’s favourite and the UK’s Jazzman label have issued a compilation, A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz, covering work from across his career. The renewed interest in his music has spawned this new collaboration with The Heliocentrics, a freeform mix of Eastern arrangements, jazz and angular psychedelics and represents the Heliocentrics’ most accomplished work to date. Tracks include the reflective, yearning “Spirit Jazz,” a new version of Miller classic “Massom” and the cinematic “Electricone.”
Lloyd Miller & The Heliocentrics – Electricone
To create their collaborative album on Strut, Lloyd Miller and the Heliocentrics utilized an extremely wide variety of instruments ranging from staples of Middle Eastern music to novelties accumulated from across the globe. In part one of a series of interviews with Lloyd Miller, the renowned ethno-musicologist gives demonstrations on some of the instruments and techniques which were used to create the variety of sounds on the LP. A second video detailing Miller’s unique musical history will follow. Miller’s collaboration with The Heliocentrics will be released August 3rd on Strut.
