Along with his newest launch, Ikechi Onyenaka set hearth to solitude and gave it rhythm in On My Personal, a sax-driven exploration of self-sufficiency that drifts between melancholy and defiance. From the opening bars, the keys and synths pulse with funk, opening out into spacey textures that really feel just like the soundscape of isolation itself. Over that polished, strident, but euphonically clean backdrop, Onyenaka lets his sax glide and cry as if it has absorbed the complete spectrum of human emotion. Every phrase arrives as a proclamation, a reminder that resilience can nonetheless be coaxed from desolate silence.
After making historical past in Philadelphia and even catching a shoutout from Will Smith, the American jazz saxophonist, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist is cementing his place among the many fashionable greats. With influences starting from Kenny Garrett to Robert Glasper, his work has already earned reward from icons throughout genres. On My Personal deepens his status, exhibiting what occurs when classical jazz lineage collides with neo-trap inflections and atmospheric manufacturing. It’s a piece of music that invitations listeners to linger in its rigidity, and in that rigidity, uncover liberation.
On My Personal is now obtainable on all main streaming platforms, together with SoundCloud.
Evaluation by Amelia Vandergast
