Jlins third studio album follows several years worth of high-profile collaborations with contemporary dance groups, modern classical composers, visual artists, and fellow electronic visionaries including Ben Frost, Suzi Analogue, and the late SOPHIE. Akoma builds on all of her past achievements, incorporating every genre shes touched so far, stretching from experimental club sounds to a hybrid of traditional percussive rhythms and avant-garde composition. "Borealis" is Jlins second collaboration with Bjork, following a rework of "Arisen My Senses" that was released in 2018. The grainy flutes and fragmented vocals are vaguely traceable as something Bjork might have created, but theyre thrown into Jlins vortex along with sharp spoken extracts similar to the horror movie samples on her first album. "Speed of Darkness" has a sort of time-shifting spaciousness that seems new to her work, and the futuristic synths and ever-evolving rhythms of tracks like "Iris" and "Auset" recall the still futuristic-sounding developments of atmospheric drumnbass and Detroit techno during the 1990s. "Auset" and "Open Canvas" also have a harder, more ravey edge to them than other Jlin tracks. "Challenge (To Be Continued II)" chops up several different forms of percussion, from tabla-like drums and marching snares to trap beats, and the sparser "Eye Am" gets into a much deeper rhythmic zone, with interlocking patterns and exuberant shouts. "Grannies Cherry Pie" is a sweet, nostalgic moment with a cheerful keyboard melody that couldve been used in a rap radio hit from the 2000s. Other pieces on the album seem much more in line with Jlins work in the contemporary dance and classical worlds, particularly the scraping strings and obtuse chimes of "Summon," and the Kronos Quartet collaboration "Sodalite," which rigorously matches their energy with the producers complex beat sculpture. The album ends with "The Precision of Infinity," which makes sublime use of spiraling piano phrases played by Philip Glass. Akoma represents another impressive step in Jlins remarkable evolution as an artist. ~ Paul Simpson

Rovi