Nicolas Jaar — Cenizas
You don’t need yet another person to tell you the world is in a messed up place. That globally, humanity seems to be at a strange crossroads. And that the future seems at best uncertain and at worst bleak.
Ambient music often struggles to capture the zeitgeist. It often does well to underscore what one might currently be experiencing, but rarely is an ambient album of the here and now, topical. Nicolas Jaar’s work is an exception, and this is part of the reason why I consider him the best among the current purveyors of electronic music. Since his previous album Sirens, he has been particularly concerned with how electronic music can reflect his anxieties about the geopolitical future of the world. In an interview with Rolling Stone, speaking about Sirens, he asked:
“[C]an electronic music talk about the world around us? Can we get out of this abstract bubble? How can we resist? What does electronic-music resistance look like today? Can we do that? Does anyone even want that? Does anyone even care?”
Cenizas appears to very much be a continuation of that exploration. It isn't bleak, but it is certainly concerned. Who isn’t?
You can check it out on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.
There’s a longer piece on Resident Advisor on Nicolas Jaar and Cenizas that I’m in the middle of reading myself. If you’re interested to know more, check it out.
