Tom Skinner - Kaleidoscopic Visions (2025) [Hi-Res]

Album Notes by Piotr Orlov:

Popular sociology cliches notwithstanding, the middle years are a curious bridge to survey one’s life from. Especially for artists. The bank behind is a backlog of experience, for-better-or-worse perceptions of how the world works, unequal measures of laurels and regrets, plus a rolodex of dear ones (for the lucky) and lost ones (for all). The shore in front contains a shorter winding road (still loaded with possibilities if not quite as open-ended), informed by wisdom gained and failures seared, shadowed by mortality, responsibility and inevitability. Lots of water passes under this bridge of mid-life. For creative types—adept at listening to the tides, recognizing their flow as a circadian rhythm, reconciling the planet’s clock with their own—the view from this bridge has been known to inspire great art.

Upon the release of Kaleidoscopic Visions, the second album that Tom Skinner has made under his own name, the drummer-composer will be 45 years-old. Skinner is already in possession of an incredible career—two decades as a key member of London’s jazz community, including co-founding the mighty Sons of Kemet; in-demand collaborator to a who’s-who of famed electronic producers and noted rhythmalists; purveyor of his own left-of-center musical pursuits... more

Performed by:
Tom Skinner - drums, percussion, vibraphone, electric guitar, 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars, synths, piano, drum machine, FX and processing
Tom Herbert - electric bass, acoustic bass
Robert Stillman – bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
Chelsea Carmichael – tenor saxophone, flute
Kareem Dayes – cello
Adrian Utley – electric guitar

Featuring:
Meshell Ndegeocello – voice, clavinet, wurlitzer and bass synth
Contour – voice
Yaffra – voice, synths, piano