Los Angeles-based Carlos Niño‘s biog includes the line: “He doesn’t confine himself within genres, and is adamant that, for him, friendships make the greatest creative collaborations.” Genre becomes increasingly meaningless when your musical orbit is driven by experimentation and collaboration with friends, and last year’s brightest star was surely André 3000’s New Blue Sun – an album which Niño produced alongside André while co-writing, co-creating/playing, and co-mixing every song.
The list of collaborators on ‘Placenta‘ is impressive, and this will be the fourth collection of Carlos Niño & Friends albums to be released by International Anthem in the last four years.
Carlos became a father again (24 years after the birth of Azul Niño, who has become a regular Visual Arts collaborator with Carlos), so it’s no surprise that this experience has shaped these recordings with International Anthem declaring it “the most conceptually-grounded Carlos Niño & Friends album we’ve yet to present – fully connected to the spirit of family, birth, and “how we get here.” It is dedicated to “Mothers, Children, Babies, Aunties, Doulas, Midwives, Birthworkers…”
In order of their appearance on the album, featured artists on Placenta include: Nate Mercereau, Jamire Williams, Sam Gendel, Jamael Dean, Dexter Story, Brandon Eugene Owens, Maia, André 3000, Jesse Peterson, Ariel Kalma, Surya Botofasina, Annelise, Haize Hawke, Aaron Shaw, Devin Daniels, Tiffany de Leon, Michael Bolger, Michael Alvidrez, Moss, Iasos, Photay, Deantoni Parks, Adam Rudolph, Andres Renteria, and Cavana Lee.
Check out the lead single Love to all Doulas! featuring Nate Mercereau on French Horn and Collage.
Niño describes his “Carlos Niño & Friends” sound as “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage.” He qualifies: “Why Spiritual? Because there is always a spiritual intention and center, feeling and vibrational message in these records. Why Improvisational? Because I approach the making of this music without any preconceived structures, I just open up to what I am hearing and feeling and experiment until I get the pieces where I want them. The preparation and information in the improvisations is our whole lives. It’s an open state of communication. Why Space Collage? Because it’s all about relationship and perspective, interval, layering, moving, listening, and massaging the mixes…”
The album will be released on May 24th via International Anthem.
Pre-order/Pre-Save: https://international-anthem.lnk.to/Placenta