Space Afrika, the Manchester/Berlin-based duo of Joshua Tarelle Reid and Joshua Inyang, make raw, intensely detailed, visceral music with shades of ambient, trip-hop, techno, and modern classical, drawing spacious urban dubscapes from the contours of their city. Quiet Storm expands on their sound and scale as a sprawling, collaborative vision shaped with profound patience and intention, embedding their own coming-of-age story within a moving suite of cathartic abstraction. Songs allude to spirituality and the human condition, the tension between boldness and softness, ambition and persistent inner demons. Speaking to the multidisciplinary nature of the project is the involvement of celebrated artist Glenn Ligon, whose work deals with Black identity and queerness. A central inspiration at the onset of recording, Ligon offered his work Figure #30 (2009) for the cover artwork, and following the completion of recording, he agreed to provide the project’s name-an unprecedented gesture from the pioneering artist. Listening to the final sequence, Ligon thought of Quiet Storm, the 1970s radio format known for smooth, late-night programming with themes of life and love. Quiet Storm brings the listener through various scenes, interludes, and arcs, marked by a sense that its movement is fluid and its characters are fleeting. Into-the-mirror monologues grapple with the existential and the immediate: survival, autonomy, purpose. The album opens with the explosive, string-backed “Vanity,” featuring Grammy Award winner Axelle Fanyo. At first fixated on the crevices of a quiet room, “Vanity” unfurls under Fanyo’s expressive soprano, traversing a wide emotional spectrum from sublime contemplation to poignant, heart-piercing pain. Throughout the record, words spoken and sung are placed sparingly to powerful effect. “2MLN”‘s beauty and catharsis is a collective slow march, featuring British-Nigerian artist Tony Njoku, with guitar and lead bass by Gabriel Evans, London’s PIKE on drums, and Copenhagen’s GB on keys and strings. Heavy yet hopeful, Joshua Tarelle Reid and Joshua Inyang remind you of their journey so far. An appropriately cryptic and transportive outro for their open-ended opus, Quiet Storm is a landmark level-up: self-produced, self-funded, and manifested out of sheer drive and conviction. Through bent time and low-lit haze, undoubtedly, Space Afrika has arrived.
