Atlas Maior has gone through a lot since their last album, Hadal. The quartet toured Morocco, a jaunt that included a residency at the club La Mama, a show for the ambassador in Rabat, and a performance/lesson with famed Gnawa musician Maalem Azouz Soudani. They discovered new ways of working, including using randomized cards that suggested new improvisational methods. And they watched from afar as a pro-Palestine rally in their hometown suffered police assault, informing their work with the Viva Palestina Orchestra. All of this wonder and turmoil comes out in the band’s vivid, exploratory Palindromlar. The single “Vespertine Wanderings” sets expectations: Josh Peters’ oud provides a swirling counterpoint to Joshua Thomson’s turbulent saxophone, while bassist Josh Flowers and drummer Gray Parsons wander in and out of the arrangement, depending on when their contributions need to be felt. The tense “Laqsir Bondage Belt,” the serene “The Sky Moved,” and the inquisitive “Belleza Monocromática” dance together with tentative receptivity, each altering its atmosphere until their common through line glows in the dark. While not getting as overtly political as their work with Viva Palestina, the band’s experiences can’t help but color the music in shifting shades of warmth, confusion, tranquility, and rage.
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