Facts about Bonobo – Fragments
Artist: Bonobo
Title: Fragments
Land of Origin: UK, Leeds / USA, Los Angeles
Label: Ninja Tune
Release Date: 14. Januar 2022
Genre: Electronica
12 Tracks • 51m 16
Available on qobuz in
24-Bit / 44.1 kHz – Stereo
Available on Apple Music und TIDAL
im Dolby Atmos
For the German translation of
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First Impressions
No, you’re not asleep anymore. This is not a dream. This music really sounds so soothing, so harmonious, so elegant and so, yes, elysian. With “Fragments” Bonobo has succeeded in creating a true masterpiece. With his seventh studio album since the beginning of the millennium, the Leeds-born electronica keyboard guru has created a fascinating album that combines driving beats and elegiac sound carpets to form its own hypnotic downtempo cosmos that makes you feel like you’re dancing in absorbent cotton.
Garnished with perfectly placed guest appearance ingredients from select vocalists, Bonobo invites us on a float through his enviably beautiful parallel universe for a good hour. Bonobo’s Fragements is highly recommended as a new soundtrack for ambitious dreamers.
Bonobo and his sound…
Typical for Bonobo’s music is the combination of live instrumentation with electronic sounds. At concerts, he is usually accompanied by a live band and plays the bass himself. He often collaborates with female singers (Speech Debelle, Erykah Badu, Andreya Triana, Bajka, Szjerdene, among others), occasionally with male singers.
However, he also performs solo as a DJ; Ninja Tune has released two DJ mixes of his so far. His music is often classified as downtempo, but also contains elements of acid jazz, ambient and other subgenres of electronic music, as well as hip-hop and soul.
Fragments is a sequence of 12 acoustic statements with some of the hottest and most hip-swinging grooves Simon Green aka Bonobo has ever created. The ballads are perfectly orchestrated; they capture a world in flux and are steeped in the deepest desire for hope. Initially, it was hard work to pour the ideas into a musical concept. Green, who has been used to constantly touring for years, works best when he’s on the move – but the global shutdown forced him to remain at a standstill.
“Fragments” – The Album
The album was made during his pandemic-imposed solo adventures in the California outdoors, in the lonely sweltering California desert – to gain distance from the lockdowns and wildfires.
The song “Tides”, featuring Chicago singer and poet Jamila Woods, was the key song around which the album slowly crystallized. “I knew I had a core to the album, I knew what the whole thing was going to sound like,” Bonobo says. Working with Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, basic musical themes of the album began to crystallize. Recording with orchestral musicians in real studios helped to breathe even more life into the songs.
A rhythmic framework also began to emerge: The structures of British bass sounds and rave infiltrated the beats, which then formed tracks like “Otomo” and “Sapien.” The old school, Detroity, Moodymann and Theo Parrish inspired “Shadows” was recorded with his friend Jordan Rakei. “Rosewood,” “Closer” and “Counterpoint” each begin with an ecstatic outburst, but then surprisingly spread out into vast electronic worlds of wonder. Somogyi’s harp and Atwood-Ferguson’s strings blend in the cloudy beatless “Elysian.” Two ballads round out the album’s second half: “Day by Day” with Kadhja Bonet and “From You” with Joji.
The center on Bonobo’s new Alum Fragments, however, is mostly determined by the dance floor, “I remembered again how much I love crowds in motion and how much then people are connected,” Green says. But it’s not just the uptempo rhythms that have a flair defined by positivity; joy always resonates in the introspective and melancholic tracks, too.
Under The Bottom Line
Fragments is a fascinatingly great album, available in hi-res 24 bits / 44.1 kHz and sounding excellent across the frequency spectrum. On Tidal and Apple Music, the album is also available in Dolby Atmos – the sound floods you from all directions and makes you become one with the exquisite soundscapes of Bonobo.
Rating for Bonobo Fragments (Album, 2022)
Summary
Max: 5 Points
Listen to it
Mein Test-Equiment:
Studio 1 (High End):
- 2 x System Audio SA Mantra 50 (front)
- 1x System Audio SA Mantra 10 AV (center)
- 2x System Audio SA Legend 5 (Rear)
- 1 x System Audio Saxo 10 (Subwoofer)
- 4 x Onkyo SKH-410 (B) (Dolby Atmos)
- Auralic Altair (Audio Streaming Client mit max. 32 Bit / 384 kHz)
- NVIDIA Shield Pro mit Plex, Kodi (max 192 kHz für Audio, Tidal (MQA Streaming Client)
- AppleTV 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Amazon Cube 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos (restricted), HDR, Dolby Vision
- Panasonic DP-UB9004 (4K UHD Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Oppo UDP-203 (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Yamaha CX-A5100 (Preamp) 4K, Dolby Atmos, Hi-res
- Yamaha MX -A5000 (Power Amp)
- Sony KD-55A1 (TV) 4K OLED, HDR, Dolby Vision