#36: Nala Sinephro
On negative space and jazz harping
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Nala Sinephro - Royal Festival Hall, 07.11.2025
The Japanese concept of “Ma” refers to the prioritisation of negative space. Paintings in this tradition are as much about the areas where nothing is depicted as about the imagery itself. For example, The Pine Trees Screen, a late 16th century artwork by Hasegawa Tōhaku, is comprised of six vertical panels, two of which are almost entirely blank, and two of which contain just a very faint trace of an image. Ma, to my mind, seems to be a kind of question and answer — a call and response — where the answer, the response, is not an answer at all, but is instead silence and thoughtfulness.
In 2021, electronic musician Floating Points collaborated with jazz legend Pharoah Sanders on what I would call a work of musical Ma. The album Promises — released on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label — combines keys, modular synthesisers, saxophone and the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra to make a breathtaking composition in nine movements. A seven-note refrain on keys opens the piece, followed by a unit of silence that lasts almost exactly as long: it’s this structure — a call and a response of silence — that anchors the work, appearing in every movement. The Ma provides the platform for Sanders to add colour and richness on the sax. When the strings reach their symphonic climax on ‘Movement 6’, there remains a steady flow of Ma beneath.
Just a few months after Promises, Nala Sinephro’s debut album Space 1.8 appeared with many commenting on their similarities — although the latter album was composed some years before release. Both feature jazz elements combined with synthesisers and symphonic instrumentation, although they’re really very different albums texturally. There's far more improvisation, far more recognisable jazz in general on Space 1.8, which also uses drums to great effect where Promises has none. Space 1.8 uses negative space in a multitude of ways; the extremely slow piano chords of ‘Space 2’ evoke something akin to Promises structure, while the extended ambient sections in the track listing move quickly into more frenetic rhythm-led tracks and back again, setting up shades of light and dark — a kind of figure-ground relationship that underpins the album.
Another key textural difference between the records comes from Sinephro’s harp playing, which punctuates many of her tracks. When it comes to jazz harp playing, it’s hard not to think about Dorothy Ashby, who continues to enrapture contemporary listeners — New Land Records recently issued a box set of her first six albums (1957-1965) along with a comprehensive accompanying book, which has helped shine a new light on her work and inspired critical reappraisal including an excellent profile in The New Yorker. Ashby positioned the pedal harp as a lead jazz instrument, which could hold its own elegantly over full-band arrangements. Sinephro’s harp playing, however, tends not to carry the tunes. In this way, she’s more akin to Alice Coltrane’s use of the instrument. Where Ashby takes the front-and-centre band-leader approach — Coltrane and Sinephro use the harp in a primarily textural way, consistently incorporating its built-in glissandos to embellish their ethereal sound worlds.1
As a composer and band leader then, I would argue that Sinephro’s main strength is her introduction of space, of Ma. This facet of her compositions is made extremely clear on her latest record — Endlessness (2024) — which will be performed at the Royal Festival Hall in November as part of the Pitchfork Music Festival. On the album, Sinephro’s collaborators, including Sons of Kemet drummer Natcyet Wackili, Black Midi drummer Morgan Simpson, and saxophonists Nubya Garcia and James Mollison of Ezra Collective, play with a good deal more space than we’re accustomed to hearing them.
Where Ezra Collective’s extroverted party music feels intended for dancing, or heavy rotation on BBC Radio 6, here Mollison plays sparingly, you could say introspectively; a gentle descending statement on the opening track comes and goes, in and out of the ether. Where Black Midi’s frenetic rock is backed up by Simpson’s busy, thunderous drumming, on Endlessness he plays with a light touch. Here he often shifts into different rhythmical modes, starting a new phrase halfway through a previous one: in these moments it’s as if he’s playing along to a set of instruments we can’t hear, that have been taken away somehow, a negative rhythmic space.
Endlessness builds upon its predecessor, heavily incorporating the lush string arrangements that made Promises so enticing. But where Promises was a one-off collaboration, Sinephro continues to extend this shared sound palette into a full jazz band setting that suggests much more experimentation and collaborations to come. Where the London jazz scene is so often lauded for its heat and hyperactivity, Sinephro is quietly bringing something more spatial — something more Ma — to the forefront.
This week’s playlist
Featuring all the songs mentioned above plus more jazz harp work and other similar compositions.
Website update
We’ve added events in August, September and October to the Cantilever website, — a quick and easy way to see what’s coming up in live music in London. In August, there’s a very limited amount of MJ Lenderman tickets left + huge Gunnersbury park shows from Smashing Pumpkins, Khruangbin and The Libertines, all with tickets remaining. In October you’ve got the option of Billy Woods, Billy Nomates or Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Billy Cobham. Much more besides! Click the button below to have a browse. DICE, but just the good bits… let me know if I missed something: info@cantilever-music.com
Also see Brandee Younger and Nailah Hunter re: contemporary harp players carrying on the Ashby / Coltrane tradition. Hunter’s album Lovegaze (2024) combines essentially jazz harp with trad-folk melodies and downtempo or trip-hop beats; a particularly intriguing listen.
Brilliant text!
Great piece, and I agree that the one-two-punch of Promises and Space 1.8 kicked off the new wave of ambient jazz.