JAZZ PROG
Sid Smith rounds up the best releases from prog’s jazzier reaches.
Fractal Sextet’s Sky Full Of Hope (RareNoise) is an international project featuring the guitars of Swiss composer Stephan Thelen and American Jon Durant, Italian keyboardist Fabio Anile, Israeli drummer Yogev Gabay, Swiss percussionist Andi Pupato and ex-Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin. Their combined talents produce an expansive, articulate series of compositions. While the disciplined interplay of their 2022 debut remains, this new album feels less stiff and more off-the-leash, with surges of pitch-bending synths and molten guitar all stretching out and racing towards a trippy, hypnotic state of contemplation.