Yet aside from how exciting the music is, and how great it sounds, what's truly amazing is how seamless they have made the synthesis of the two traditions. In the past when I've heard these types of collaborations either one or the other tradition takes a back seat to the other. In this instance though they seem to meet at a half-way point where the music blends into one. In the liner notes for the CD Adams talks about how African musicians have been perfecting the science of music for hundreds of years.
Certain combinations of rhythms and melodies can elicit certain reactions in the listener. So when he and Juldeh would get together to create songs it was only a matter of Adams playing a tune once and they would both be on the same page musically almost immediately. Juldeh would recognize in Justin's playing patterns that were familiar to him from his own studies. Juldeh's father may have been gifted his musical abilities by a spirit of the forest, but he also passed along to his son the science that went into the making of a song. Hence the title of the disc - Soul Science.
Now don't be fooled into thinking that there's anything cold and clinical about this collaboration, or that it sounds like it was created in a laboratory. These guys won't have gone into the studio and thought about the music in the terms that I've described above. Just like the professional athlete who no longer has to think about the best way to throw a baseball because he can now do it instinctively, these guys don't think about their music in terms of formula anymore. This is music sung from the heart and played with a lot more soul than anything else you're liable to hear in the next little while.
Soul Science is one of the best meeting of musical minds that I've ever heard, and the result is a fusion unlike any you've heard before.
Article comments