Stating that something is “experimental” in the sphere of creating art and sound, Jlin is the embodiment of a word that doesn’t need to have a concrete meaning or shape around it. When you hear it, you know that it is just that. Akoma, the Gary, Indiana multi-instrumentalist and producer’s third full-length album, enters our terrestrial vantage point as something beyond convention even though its linear progression can be dotted with the continuous evolution behind her work. You can always hear how its molecular makeup has changed since its last formation, be it in traditional album and extended play mediums, or curated as a live composition for performance or gallery spectatorship, but it’s its own new being. On Akoma, the natural and worlds unknown of her recent interstitials in 2021’s Embryo and last year’s Perspective cross their respective DNAs, mutate, and produce some of Jlin’s clearest experimental electronic explorations. Even in being joined by universe-disrupting architects björk on the hyperkinetic opener “Borealis”, weaving strings through particles with the Kronos Quartet on “Sodalite”, and going beyond the limits with pianist minimalist Phillip Glass on “The Precision of Infinity”, her inventive approach to redesigning the glitch and bleep patterns of synthetic effects, varying textures of percussive movement, and tapping into energy can take on a range of emotions. Life blood pump into “Iris”. A presence ominous and foreboding is seen on the horizon of “Summon”. Something further beyond our human eye is harvested from the cosmos on “Auset”. It’s the all-encompassing fabric of existence etched out by Jlin’s hand. In all, Akoma endures in her unsatiated journey through soundscapes futuristic yet tangible, leaving you in a state of wonder pondering what’s next.

Highlights: “Borealis”, “Summon”, “Auset”

Jlin’s Akoma is available now on Planet Mu.

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