Asher Gamedze to Release New LP; Lead Single Now Available

International Anthem will release a new album from Cape Town, South Africa based drummer, composer, and bandleader Asher Gamedze. Set for release on August 30, Constitution features Gamedze’s new 10-piece ensemble The Black Lungs. In the 81-minute album, dynamic avant jazz arrangements and the expansive explorations of the musicians are animated and deepened by word-fragments and samples of poems written and recited by renowned scholar and inhabitant of the undercommons, Fred Moten.

Recorded in one day at Cape Town’s Sound and Motion Studios, Constitution is Gamedze’s follow-up to Turbulence and Pulse, which was co-released in 2023 by International Anthem and the Johannesburg-based Mushroom Hour Half Hour.

Along with the album announcement and pre-order, lead single “Find Each Other” is available on all digital music platforms today. 

“Members of the dispossessed, won’t you lend me your ears!” This is the repeated call and the rallying chorus of the nearly 40-minute title track / centerpiece of Constitution. On the expansive double album, Gamedze holds down duties on the drum kit, joining with Ru Slayen (percussion), Sean Sanby (bass), and Nobuhle Ashanti (piano) breathing together to cohere in what would otherwise be called a rhythm section. The ensemble is expanded by more breath, horns and voices – Tumi Pheko (cornet), Garth Erasmus (alto saxophone), Jed Petersen (tenor saxophone), Tina Mene (vocals), Athi Ngcaba (trombone) and Fred Moten (words) as they collectively explore and deconstruct the conceptual, tonal and atonal possibilities of themes which are at once of old and new dreams.

Further situating the sound and the impulse of the ensemble within the multitudinous terrains of the historical and ongoing struggles of the dispossessed, Gamedze explains that “The Black Lungs is inspired by the revolutionary thought and practice of the Black Consciousness Movement. In particular, the relationship between antagonism – constituting a united front of all the oppressed against white supremacy and racial capitalism – and the possibilities for resistance and elaboration - the creative militant capacities of those assembled – enabled and unleashed by that process of constitution.”

Asher Gamedze is a cultural worker based in Cape Town, South Africa, involved in music, education and history. As an independent musician he works as a drummer, composer and bandleader. A versatile drummer with an open sound and sensibility, Gamedze plays across and between multiple traditions of music including free improvisation, soul music, rock ‘n roll, and many locally situated traditions from Southern Africa. He has performed extensively in South Africa and other parts of the African continent including Egypt, Lesotho and Malawi. Gamedze has been on multiple European tours and has also played in the USA, particularly in Chicago where he has a big community. Gamedze has performed and recorded with: Angel Bat Dawid, Ben LaMar Gay, Nduduzo Makhathini, Alan Bishop, Salim Washington, Sharif Shenaoui, Donna Khalife, and many others.

TRACKLIST

Find Each Other
Determining Facts
Antagonism
Elaboration
Constitution
Destitution
High Land. New Home
Melancholia
Deposition: A Song for the Dialectician

Photo Credit: Lungiswa Gqunta

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