Zoh Amba has been making waves recently as a free jazz saxophonist in the same vein as Peter Brötzmann or Albert Ayler. With a reputation built on incendiary live performance, a list of high-profile collaborators, and a handful of critically acclaimed albums (the first of which, O, Sun, was produced by fellow avant-garde traveller John Zorn), you would be forgiven for expecting a certain kind of career trajectory, one that features heavily in the pages of The Wire and on the stages of the most outré jazz festivals. But Amba has other ideas. They are, in baseball parlance, a genuine two-way player, someone who excels equally in two disciplines that are so different that at first there appears to be no link between them.
The other string to Amba’s bow is, as it turns out, indie-rock singer-songwriting. Their new album, Eyes Full, is less of a sharp left-turn and more of a complete restart. Here we have thirteen guitar-based rock songs on which Amba’s lyrics and their raw and passionate singing take centre stage.
Perhaps the closest comparison is Adrianne Lenker, specifically the knottier, snarlier side of Big Thief. But Amba has a vision all of their own. And that word vision is important here: Amba uses the ideas of sight and seeing (and the act of being seen) to link many of these songs together. There is a strong sensory element to songs like opener OCD, in which Amba builds on a minimal guitar motif to tell a story of a young protagonist whose condition (and the medication used to control it) causes them to see the world in unorthodox ways. The chorus feels like it was drawn directly from the deep well of old weird America: it has the familiar feel of a country-folk standard, something passed down through families or carried across state lines on freight trains. Amba is exploring the oral tradition through visual metaphors. The politics of being noticed and the attendant ideas of care and belonging are important themes here too.
Divinity provides another thread that runs through Eyes Full. Lead single Another Time (which showcases Amba’s apparently effortless knack for a killer hook) and the extraordinary character study Weed Eating both deal with a search for a kind of faith, a search that Amba must have lived through on their own journey to becoming a practitioner of monastic Hinduism. The nagging strums and screeching electric guitar of PG Tips provide a different kind of sonic transcendence.
At the centre of the album is a place: Amba’s hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee. Their return to Kingsport runs parallel with their return to writing songs on the guitar: it represents an acceptance of their past and a recognition of certain difficult childhood memories. These ideas are explored in songs like Southern Soil, a quietly cathartic moment based on a shuffling acoustic guitar, in which Amba’s voice jumps and skips with long-withheld emotion. Dead End Street is a driving Southern rocker complete with layers of guitar noise that casts an honest eye over small-town American life.
Within their new identity as a guitarist and singer, Amba moves through various modes with impressive fluidity. They are aided in this by bandmates Jim White (drums) and Kevin Hyland (lead guitar). Thousand Years progresses from bluesy guitar licks to emo crunch, while Blueberry Thorn has a Buck Meek-like wiriness that breaks down into a kind of avant-country finale. Child You’ll See allows the curtain between melody and dissonance to slip for a minute or two, and we are whisked off temporarily to a world of improvisation and uncertainty. It acts like a moment of vulnerability or exposure, casting light on the emotional strength of the rest of the album. Emahoy, by contrast, is sweetly acoustic, an ostensibly casual drift that nonetheless exhibits full control. As well as the music, Amba’s singing is impressive throughout. On the title track, their voice seems both cracked and strong, old and ageless.
Amba’s Kingsport home is located in the heart of the Southern Appalachians, and some of that region’s mountain music makes its way into Eyes Full, particularly on the folk-rock closer, Smile With Your Eyes. Perhaps it signifies a return, a circular motif. There is certainly a sense of reckoning with the past, but also of positivity about the future. A realisation, perhaps, that the perceived duality of Amba’s two chosen paths creates opportunity rather than self-exclusion. Whichever way they choose to go next, they have left an album so complete and so accomplished that it’s hard to believe that it’s their first foray into songwriting.
Eye’s Full (June 5th, 2026) Matador
Pre-Order: https://zohamba.mat-r.co/eyesfull
Upcmoing Zoh Amba Live Dates
June 27 – Spring Creek, NC @ Lighting Bug Festival
July 30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Silk City
July 31 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
Aug. 1 – Washington, DC @ Pearl Street Warehouse
Aug. 3 – Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
Aug. 4 – Atlanta, GA @ The EARL
Aug. 7 – Toronto, ON @ Sound Garage
Aug. 9 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern
Aug. 11 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater #
Aug. 12 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Roxian Theatre #
Aug. 14 – Cincinnati, OH @ Megacorp Pavilion #
Aug. 15 – Kansas City, MO @ The Truman #
Aug. 21 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom #
Aug. 22 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Rockwell at the Complex #
Aug. 24 – Sacramento, CA @ Channel 24 #
Aug. 26 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore #
Aug. 29 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium #
Sept. 1 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
Sept. 2 – San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord
Sept. 4 – Portland, OR @ Show Bar
Sept. 5 – Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret
Sept. 9 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
Oct. 29 – Vendôme, FR @ Rockomotives Festival
Oct. 30 – Paris, FR @ La Boule Noire (Les Femmes S’en Mêlent)
Oct. 31 – Amsterdam, NL @ London Calling Festival
Nov. 2 – Hamburg, DE @ Aalhaus
Nov. 3 – Berlin, DE @ Kantine am Berghain
Nov. 5 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique
Nov. 6 – Den Haag, NL @ Crossing Border Festival
Nov. 7 – Groningen, NL @ TakeRoot Festival
Nov. 8 – Kortrijk, BE @ Sonic City Festival
Nov. 10 – Amiens, FR @ La Lune des Pirates
Nov. 12 – Bristol, UK @ The Louisiana
Nov. 13 – London, UK @ The Lexington
Nov. 14 – Manchester, UK @ Gullivers
Nov. 15 – Glasgow, UK @ The Hug and Pint
% w/ Folk Bitch Trio
w/ Courtney Barnett