James Holden & Waclaw Zimpel

Long established in their own respective fields of electronica and jazz, Holden & Zimpel’s paths would first cross at the 2018 edition of The Hague’s Rewire Festival, where mutual feelings of respect drove the pair to seek each other out for an introduction. Their first recordings happened later that year in Holden’s London studio, during four snatched days of between-shows downtime for Waclaw, where the pair committed to laying down one composition a day to gradually assemble a four track EP of deliciously krauty in-the-moment improvisations. The resulting richly textured Long Weekend EP pitted Holden’s handmade modular synth rig against Zimpel’s multifariously expressive alto clarinet, judiciously supplemented by organ, voice, assorted percussion and (on Tuesday & Wednesday) the Balearic-tinged guitar playing of Zimpel’s long-time collaborator Jakub Ziolek, making for an immersive and transcendent lost weekend of deep listening.

Their newest release, The Universe Will Take Care Of You, is their first full length one, described by boomkat as “a euphoric slow-burner, that’s far greater than the sum of influences.” Because? “With Holden handling synths and percussion and Zimpel playing various instrument (including alto clarinet, airless harmonium, alghoza and bells), the duo formulate a sequence of raga-inspired kosmische/Kraut jams, distilling their contributions into rhythmically fluxing loops and xenharmonic bursts of ecstasy.”

Ultimately it is around a shared love of all things hypnotic and trancey where Holden and Zimpel’s paths converge. Trance is the common thread which runs through their musical predilections, as heard in traditional folk forms the world over, twentieth century minimalism, the Krautrock experiments of the seventies, electronic dance music and improvised jazz alike, and their music exists at the point where all of this good stuff collides. You are invited to join them in trance space.