Qasim Naqvi, Caroline Davis, Grey Mcmurray - Trappings of Sleep (2026) [Hi-Res]

Trappings of Sleep is a recording by a trio of saxophonist Caroline Davis (alto saxophone), guitarist Grey McMurray, and drummer and electronics player Qasim Naqvi. The music moves constantly between chamber-like intimacy and intensity: each instrument listens to the others and responds in real time, reshaping the whole. Its central theme is the space between sound and silence.

The title plays on a paradox: “trappings” hints at captivity, yet sleep here is the oldest technology of escape, a private cosmos the mind enters without engines. The musicians treat dreaming as space travel: the pieces drift and listen, searching for life elsewhere, and find habitable zones within the relational field of the instruments themselves. The trio’s Goldilocks zone is a liminal band where difference becomes breathable rather than divisive.

Chamber-like patience combined with improvisational risk is now part of jazz’s living condition, which is why the album feels current, imagining the future as a navigational trajectory.

Tracklist:
1. Qasim Naqvi - Three
2. Qasim Naqvi - Out of the Way of it
3. Qasim Naqvi - Mono Lake
4. Qasim Naqvi - Trappings of Sleep
5. Qasim Naqvi - The Toy
6. Qasim Naqvi - Say it
7. Qasim Naqvi - Media Training
8. Caroline Davis - Pulse
9. Qasim Naqvi - Joust