New releases this week: Jazz

Review: Seth Ford-Young's Phi-Psonics return with Expanding To One, a loose-limbed, quietly luminous third LP shaped from live sessions at Healing Force Of The Universe in Pasadena. Since founding the project in 2016, the East LA bassist has used Phi-Psonics as a vessel for collective improvisation and spiritual grounding, but this time there's a sharper edge; fourteen tracks, mostly conceived on the spot with a changeling group of collaborators, hear Ford-Young steer said ensemble through hushed dark jazz abstraction. With an ear for emancipatory politics - "the music we make doesn't exist in a vacuum and the backdrop of injustice and tragedy in our world has to be part of our music" - Phi-Psonics plays on a latent psionic ability in us all: to turn creative juices into truth.

Review: Guided by bassist Seth Ford-Young, Expanding To One is the third album from Phi-Psonics, and it offers a gentle yet profound exploration of healing, unity and introspection. The record in fact emerges from six intimate, largely improvised sessions at Pasadena's Healing Force Of The Universe record store. The result is a flowing suite of spiritual jazz rich in tone and intention. Tracks like 'There's Still Hope' and 'Healing Time' highlight a fluid lineup of gifted LA musicians whose interplay feels both grounded and transcendent. Carefully shaped in post-production, the album invites listeners into a calm, reflective space where connection and presence take quiet precedence.