Chiminyo: ‘NRG5’

‘NRG5’ is out now from drummer and producer Chiminyo and it is totally entrancing.

Recorded live at Peckham Levels, e very track takes a different flow - all improvised around the specific energy in the room with those artists and that audience.

Reunite starts us off gently, and the tension builds with Transference and the tantalisingly brief Somnus. The latter begins with just a few openin notes dotted between instruments and the audience delight before the drums join in to really get that groove going.

NRG5 is full of energy and Chiminyo is joined by leading musicians Kaidi Akinnibi (sax), Oscar Jerome (guitar), Charlie Stacey (keys, synths), Rudi Creswick (bass, bass synth, sampler) and Magnus Mehta (percussion). Together they combine ‘real’ instruments with electronics and effects to produce a collection of tracks that sit somewhere in the jazz world - not that it matters.

By the time we reach Breaking Point, this final track of NRG5 feels like a very, very deliberate encapsulation of the energy in the room. Akinnibi’s sax allows the gaps to say as much as the notes. This is a band on fire - friends and fellow musicians feeding off each other and the audience. And they’re all giving as much as they are sharing.

Find ‘NRG5’ from Chiminyo on Bandcamp