Liminal Space

“Liminal Space is about being between two different stages—a bridging point that isn’t a rebirth, just a new place,” saxophonist Idris Rahman tells Apple Music. Rahman is one third of the improvisational London jazz group Ill Considered. Liminal Space is the trio’s 13th album since their 2017 debut, and emphasizes the blistering, open-eared musical energy that gained the group a diehard following. Liminal Space is also their first album to be recorded with post-production, rather than wholly created live, as well as their first on the label New Soil. Over 10 tracks that traverse the explosive energy of “Dervish,” the undulating rhythms of “The Lurch,” and the melodic yearning of “Pearls,” the group welcomes new bass player Liran Donin and collaborators such as tuba player Theon Cross and percussionist Sarathy Korwar into the fray. “The title also refers to the fact that we exist on the edges of the jazz scene, indefinably between sounds,” Rahman says. Here, he and drummer Emre Ramazanoglu offer thoughts on each of the album’s tracks.

“First Light” (feat. Theon Cross, Kaidi Akinnibi, Robin Hopcraft & Ralph Wyld)
Idris Rahman: “This was the first session that we recorded with our new bass player, Liran, at Emre's studio. It was very relaxed; we just wanted to try some stuff out, and Liran played the bassline to this while he was warming up. I managed to record it on my phone, which was what we improvised to in the take.”

“Sandstorm” (feat. Ollie Savill)
IR: “‘Sandstorm’ came about during the first session for this record. Leon Brichard, our original bass player, came up with a gnawa-inspired North African feel and then afterwards Emre completely replaced the drums, as well as the sax, and later we added Liran playing gimbri.”

“Loosed”
IR: “This is from the same session as ‘Sandstorm’ with Leon, and it has one of his classic, wonky, odd-time basslines. I spent the most time on this trying to come up with a melody, since it's in a 15/8 time signature and that is difficult to write to. It’s a really involved rhythm section playing across this, with Emre’s drums doing a strange shuffle beat and Tamar Osborn on flute, but it was really fun to make.”

“Dust” (feat. Theon Cross, Kaidi Akinnibi, Ralph Wyld & Sarathy Korwar)
IR: “This came from a really beautiful session that we recorded in Soup Studios on the Thames. We didn't do any post-production to this track at all—it was cut from this mammoth 10-hour session where no one wanted to stop playing. I added a little bit of bass clarinet afterwards, but basically it emerged intact."

“Dervish”
Emre Ramazanoglu: “This track comes from me bullying Idris. He had a little folder of ideas at the beginning of 2020 that I saw and it had this melody on clarinet in it. I wanted to explore it immediately and convinced him to try it in the studio. It's mainly the trio playing unedited, fully live. Liran turned around at one point and said, ‘Stop holding back!’ And that's when it goes nuts, kicking up several gears while the sax is soloing."

“Pearls” (feat. Theon Cross, Kaidi Akinnibi, Ralph Wyld, Sarathy Korwar & Tamar Osborn)
IR: “We also recorded this during the Soup session. Kaidi Akinnibi plays on it and he is an old student of mine I taught when he was about 14. It’s been amazing to see him come up—his playing is incredible and he's got a beautiful sensitivity to the way he listens and reacts. Theon Cross also joined in and he helped inject some intense energy, which is why the track builds and then breaks down in several sections. We weren't really expecting it to get so heavy, but it really hangs together.”

“Light Trailed”
IR: “This was the hardest track to make on the album by far. It started with another wonky, minimalist bassline which is in a 13-beat time signature. The struggle was to write something that could breathe and have climaxes and dynamics over that one bass riff.”

“Knuckles”
IR: “This was a jammed, fairly unedited track that we originally recorded for the soundtrack for Vincent de Boer’s animated short film The Stroke. He’s the artist who has painted all of our album covers since the very beginning, and he asked us to score his film unseen in the studio. This is a take he didn't use, so we decided to put it on our album because we really liked it.”

“The Lurch” (feat. Theon Cross, Ralph Wyld, Sarathy Korwar, Tamar Osborn, Ahnansé & Kaidi Akinnibi)
ER: “This is a 4/4 over 5/4 time signature, so it feels like it’s slowing down into a different meter, until at the end there are three time signatures all being played over each other when saxophonist Ahnansé and Theon come in. It was just a proper jam in the studio where we all went for it. I wasn't telling anyone what was going on—I was just calling new time signatures and everyone was lurching around after me, which is where the name came from.”

“Prayer”
IR: “This is the only tune that we wrote before we went into the studio, since we’d already played it a couple of times live in certain variations. It's a very simple bassline and melody that had been buzzing around my head for a few months. It almost worked, but we ended up redoing the drums and then I put down the sax again in response. Everything was recorded in only one or two takes, to still feel fresh.”