Let the Chaos Calm You: ep. 40 – 21st-Century Spiritual Jazz #4
This mixtape, 2025 Reflections, captures a snapshot of spiritual jazz as it unfolded in 2025: expansive, borderless, and deeply intentional. These records move beyond revivalism, treating spiritual jazz not as a fixed style but as a living practice. Cosmic synths, modal improvisation, Afrocentric rhythms, and ambient textures coexist with a clear sense of grounding and purpose.
From the meditative orchestration of The Circling Sun and Ancient Infinity Orchestra to the inward-looking pulse of Phi-Psonics and Sven Wunder, the music here favors patience over virtuosity and atmosphere over spectacle. There is a shared commitment to collective energy, slow transformation, and emotional clarity.
This episode of 21st Century Spiritual Jazz is a reflection of 2025 as a year where the genre continued to evolve quietly but confidently—less concerned with lineage, more focused on resonance. These are records made for listening deeply, sitting still, and letting the music do its work.
- - The Circling Sun – Constellation (Orbits, 2025 – Soundway Rec.)
- - Temporary Blessings – Fata Morgana (Sumbisori, 2025 – College Of Knowledge)
- - Omasta – Kazimierz (Jazz Report from the Hood, 2025 - Astigmatic)
- - Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu (Mulatu Plays Mulatu, 2025 – Strut)
- - Ancient Infinity Orchestra – The Seeker (It’s Always About Love, 2025 – Gondwana)
- - Okonski – October (Entrance Music, 2025 - Colemine)
- - Sven Wunder – Take A Seat (Daybreak, 2025 - Piano Piano)
- - Blue Earth Sound – Gia’s Point (Cicero Nights, 2025 - Root)
- - Rachel Kitchlew, SFJ, Deanna Wilhelm, SHOLTO, David Bardon – Panther Jam (Flirty Ghost, 2025 - Ally Jazz)
- - Chip Wickham – The Eternal Now (The Eternal Now, 2025 - Gomdwana)
- - Tom Skinner – Kaleidoscopic Visions (Kaleidoscopic Visions, 2025 - Brownswood)
- - Phi-Psonics – Healing Time (Expanding To One, 2025 – Gondwana)
- - The Cosmic Tones Research Trio – Awakenings (The Cosmic Tones Research Trio, 2025 - Time Longer Than Rope)