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THE PYRAMIDS

Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids

Afro Futuristic Dreams

    Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids are back with their first major new studio album in over 3 years, an epic, sprawling new work exploring the future, the past and the urgent reality of the present, ‘Afro Futuristic Dreams’.

    Recorded between San Francisco and London and brought together by the genius of Malcolm Catto at his analogue Quatermass Studio, the new recording represents another bold step in Ackamoor’s ever-evolving journey in jazz, adding full, intricate scores including string sections and choral elements to the Pyramids’ trademark spiritual Afro-jazz sound; Driven by the core Pyramids members Ackamoor (sax, keytar, organ), Margaux Simmons (flute), Sandra Poindexter (violin) and Bobby Cobb (guitar), tracks range from hard-hitting commentaries about police brutality (‘Police Dem’) to celebrations of the ancestors and departed loved ones (‘Requiem For The Ancestors’, ‘Re-Memory’) and hazy cosmic journeys, including the album’s title track and the sparkling, experimental closer, ‘Nice It Up’.

    “This album has been many years in the making,” explains Ackamoor. “Back in late 2020, I set out to compose the first in a series of scores to take The Pyramids sound into brave new territory. All of the tracks involve issues that the core band is passionate about and the recording was a complex process involving many musicians and vocalists across two different time zones.”

    The recording is the Pyramids’ first new release since the acclaimed ‘Shaman!’ in 2020 and rides a wave of interest in the band around their 50th Anniversary this year. 

    ‘Afro-Futuristic Dreams’ is mixed by Malcolm Catto and mastered by Peter Beckmann at Technology Works. The superb cover artwork illustration is by David Alabo.

    All recordings mixed by Malcolm Catto at Quatermass Sound Lab


    TRACK LISTING

    1. Afro Futuristic Dreams
    2. Thank You God
    3. Police Dem
    4. First Peoples
    5. Truth To Power
    6. Re - Memory
    7. Garland Rose
    8. Requiem For The Ancestors
    9. Nice It Up

    The Pyramids

    Birth / Speed / Merging

      Strut present 3 separate reissues of the 1970s album trilogy from Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids. As students at Antioch ollege, Ohio, alto saxophonist Idris Ackamoor, flautist Margaux Simmons and bass player Kimathi Asante created three lasting monuments in sound — Lalibela, King of Kings, and Birth / Speed / Merging, a trio of albums produced without any label backing or distribution between 1972 and 1976. Their music is unique among the varied canon of avant-garde and experimental music of 1970s America: high intensity African-styled percussion topped with songs, chants, and horns, laced with African instruments and arranged into long, flowing suites that surge and roll.

      Birth/Speed/Merging was recorded in 1976 after the band's move to San Francisco. The album closes the Pyramids' 70s trilogy and makes more use of studio technology: adding overdubs and other effects, a marked departure from the previous two releases, though at no cost to the urgent message and energy of their earlier works.


      TRACK LISTING

      1. Aomawa
      2. Birth / Speed / Merging - Part 1
      3. Birth / Speed / Merging - Part 2
      4. Birth / Speed / Merging - Part 3
      5. Birth / Speed / Merging - Part 4
      6. Reaffirmation - Part 1
      7. Reaffirmation - Part 2
      8. Reaffirmation - Part 3
      9. Reaffirmation - Part 4
      10. Jamaican Carnival - Part 1
      11. Jamaican Carnival — Part 2
      12. Black Man And Woman Of The Nile


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