Bizhiki - Unbound [LP]

Unbound opens with a single, trembling chord that rises anddescends before meeting a warm, beguiling voice, a voicesinging in a tradition that's been heard in this northern rivercountry for millennia. The music that follows is a soulfuldialogue between the ancient tradition of powwow singing anda contemporary musical palette. On Unbound, the powwowstyle of singing is entwined with synthesized voice modulation,and hand drumming is accented with electronic samples andbeats - the harmonies and resonances are equal parts culturaland musical.Geographically, Bizhiki is almost wholly a made-in-Wisconsinproject, a collaboration between Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings, JoeRainey and the multi-instrumentalist Sean Carey (S. Carey), whofor years has been a secret weapon within the Bon Iver family.Bezhikiins Jennings grew up singing within the powwowtradition, around the Lac Du Flambeau and Lac Courte Oreillesreservations in Central Wisconsin. He now makes his home inNorthern Wisconsin, on the Bad River reservation on the shoresof Lake Superior. He's joined on the album by his adoptedbrother, Rainey, a Red Lake Ojibwe powwow singer fromMinneapolis who now makes his home within his wife's OneidaNation on the shores of Lake Michigan.The collaboration between these three musicians first began atthe Eaux Claires festival in 2015. The festival was being organizedon Ojibwe's ancestral homelands, and the organizers didn't feelright without the inclusion of the native communities who livednearby. Bizhikiins Jennings remembers getting an invitation toplay the festival and thinking "I wish more people would say this- that instead of reading from some land acknowledgement,that they would say 'we're gonna give your people space andjust invite you to do what you wanna do.'" The open-endednessof the initial invitation and the "let's just do something together"spirit continues to inform Bizhiki's process.Recording steadily over the course of years - and betweenseveral projects from Bizhiki's members, including two soloalbums (Joe Rainey's Niineta and S. Carey's Break Me Open) -the trio chipped away at an expansive, ambitious and uniquerecord that sounds like no other music being made today.Unbound is a collaboration between a group of singers andmusicians at a particular time and place, exchanging ideas in anopen-ended dialogue deeply considering the resourc