Reissued in 2023, everything about Pharoah Sanders’ eponymous 1977 album is a gift. It’s a masterpiece of quiet mystique and joy that almost never was. Available for the first time since its original release, Pharaoh has been rejuvenated with the splendor of a monumental box set from Luaka Bop. It’s a tremendous archival achievement that casts new light on a crucial point of transition for Sanders…

You likely noted the inclusion of Nala Sinephro’s latest LP in our 2024 Year In Review, but here’s an opportunity to once again highlight her 2021 debut effort, Space 1.8. I spent a lot of time with this one in a snowed in cabin in Utah at the end of December of that year, and it’s since become something of a New Year’s tradition getting a lot of play in early January.

Brazilian singer and guitarist Werther’s 1970 self-titled album is a warm and inviting document of gentle, airy bossa-nova, the music lively and eclectic with folk and Tropicália inflections and adorned with sumptuous orchestral arrangements and choral gatherings.

“With the ETA band, there were all these other experiences dealing with music that people were composing. So, when we would improvise, all of that other stuff was informed in what we were doing.” Visionary guitarist Jeff Parker joins us to discuss The Way Out of Easy, recorded live at his residency at ETA.

Released by Eremite Records at the end of 2022, Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy offers up four sidelong pieces recorded live in Los Angeles. Here, we get to eavesdrop on Parker, bassist Anna Buttterss, drummer Jay Bellerose and saxophonist Josh Johnson in full freedom flight. It’s an uncommonly intimate live recording — the players seem to be extremely at ease in this small club setting.

1973-1976. Dub versions of the Roots From The Record Smith compilation from last year…

Recorded at Keele University in 1977, it finds former bassist Holger Czukay settling into his new role as effects wizard, with replacement bassist Rosko Gee, also of Traffic, upping the funk quotient for long, elaborate improvisations and sometimes surprisingly industrial pieces. As with the other entries in the series, it shows a group committed to exploding their sound, exploring the outer limits and creating new worlds, for as long and as far as they could go.

Damon McMahon clears away the complications that befuddled his intricate, sample-heavy Death Jokes album to reveal the lucid, often beautiful melodies underneath. In what the artist has stated will be his last album as Amen Dunes, he circles back to the eerie simplicity of the song, and it works in a big way. With Death Jokes II, McMahon pares down the excess and focuses on pure melody. His voice does most of the work on this remix, in all its wobble-prone, echo-shrouded, vulnerable sincerity.