The title of Tom Skinner's first release under his own name is an allusion to the extremely rare 1978 solo album "By Myself" by cellist Abdul Wadud, which Skinner listened to repeatedly during his imprisonment. Wadud's album was privately pressed on his own label, Bisharra, and while Skinner's title uses the more conventional spelling of this common Arabic name, both share the same intention or meaning: it translates as "good news" or "the bearer of good news." This is a classically sounding record that looks back to Skinner's 2017 Hello Skinny collaboration with American composer and Arthur Russell collaborator Peter Zummo on "Watermelon Sun." It establishes a lateral connection to Makaya McCraven's beatmaker-inspired reworkings of jazz sessions and provides a musical bridge to the meditative moments of Sons of Kemet. "Voices of Bishara" came about when Tom Skinner invited some musician friends to a Played Twice session at London's Brilliant Corners. The regularly held event had a simple format: a classical album would be played in its entirety through an audiophile system, followed by an elite ensemble improvising a response. The focus of the evening was drummer Tony Williams' 1964 Blue Note album, "Life Time." The music he and his friends conjured was so special that it inspired Skinner to write an entire album of phenomenal new music. Skinner, a cellist, a bassist, and two saxophonists recorded the results in classic album fashion, all in the same room. He took the music home and set it aside until it was occasionally heard amidst Tom's many other creative projects. It was a slow process, and gradually a new album emerged as he made the studio recordings his own, bringing out their sublime qualities. “I was very liberal with the editing and started working really hard on the interplay between the instruments. That breathed new life into the music. I looked to the great disco edits for inspiration, to people like Theo Parrish, who chop up melodies and loop parts. I’m not a purist. I don’t want to be stuck in the past. It was really encouraging to experiment a bit, to play around with the music and see what happened. It felt right.” The result is a dense, hypnotic, and unique 31-minute piece of music. "Voices of Bishara" is timeless and deeply emotional music, rich in movement and possessing exceptional harmonic depth and texture. It sweeps and floats through soundscapes, imbued with musicality and always anchored by the deep doubling of cello and bass. It also naturally incorporates Skinner's percussive magic—drumming skills that have led artists from Grace Jones to Jonny Greenwood to engage him for their recordings and tours. "We are individual voices coming together. The idea was that together we could bring something positive to the table. It's the beginning of something." Tom Skinner - Drums Kareem Dayes - Cello Nubya Garcia - tenor saxophone and flute Tom Herbert - Acoustic Bass Shabaka Hutchings - Tenor saxophone and bass clarinet New product