Words by Justin Turford
It’s bloody hard work trying to exist as a musician these days. Not ‘slave working in a coltan mine’ hard but tricky enough to navigate a world that has decided that music (and creativity in general) is something no longer worth paying the creator for. One musician who has regularly and bravely shared his own struggles about life in the independent music business is South Londoner Adam Scrimshire who if you don’t yet know then you should. A co-founder of the label Wah Wah 45s and now the one-man label head of Albert’s Favourites, an excellent record label dedicated to his own releases and a swathe of artists united by an emotional sensitivity and love for the deeper end of the groove pool, he is an underappreciated talent and a fine example of quiet determination.
Over the years he has covered a lot of musical bases. From the soulful guest vocalist excursions of 2019’s ‘Listeners’ to the frustrated fury and free jazz-channeling collaborations with Idris Rahman, Nat Birchall and Tamar Osborne on 2021’s ‘Paroxysm’, Adam has proved adept at creating real music with real heart and emotion. The sheer number of top class collaborators who have been attracted to his orbit reveals an artist and producer of great taste and empathy. A successful collaboration takes more than an invitation to succeed.
Here, on his ninth album, Adam has pushed through and overcome his doubts once again to deliver, in my opinion, his masterpiece. Five years in the making, 'Bring Our Light To Every Corner' contains six beautiful compositions of reflective soul, spiritual jazz and pastoral folk, awash with love and a much needed sense of unhurried time. Despite clearly drawing on the musical language of the late 60s and 70s psyche-soul-jazz-folk crossover period, the album never feels like he is trying to recreate an aesthetic. Without sounding like them directly, the record shares the DNA of 70s artists such as Stepney-era Terry Callier, Nick Drake and Pentangle, songwriters who understood the inherent romance of nature and how small stories reveal larger truths. We could also throw into the mix the widescreen sonic cinema of Arthur Verocai, Isaac Hayes or the Siberian musical traveller Misha Sultan: musician-arrangers with a knack for knowing when to keep it simple and when to go fully baroque.
“I wanted to create somewhere people could stay for a while.. A space that carries you gently through the record.”
Space is certainly the place on the David Axelrod-channelling album starter, ‘My Land Is Your Land, Your Sky Is My Sky’. Chris Boot’s measured drums sit tight and loud over a slow-moving groove of tremolo guitar, sustained keys, Mark Zentai’s electric sitar and a brooding bass and piano riff that DJ Shadow could only dream about. Soprano saxophonist Jake Telford brings a searching, ecstatic energy as the song lifts from the Earth.
The legendary Los Angeles jazz singer Dwight Trible brings his wordless Leon Thomas-like voicing to the cosmic hallucination of ‘Asleep, A Dream’. Also joined by harpist Amanda Whiting and Idris Rahman on flute and saxophone, Adam has created a timeless slice of funky, spiritual soul jazz with afrobeat-esque drums, huge strings and cheeky clavinet and Moog twiddling to add to the fun. A piece of music that makes me want to smile deeply.
The title track ‘Bring Our Light To Every Corner’ is a handclapping communal singalong with a choir comprised of Rob Hynd, Daudi Matsiko, Jay Brown and Faye Houston joining Adam in a warming embrace of “La La La’s” over a delicate acoustic guitar, congas, hand percussion and vintage synths (all played by Adam). Churchy but earthy, it sits somewhere between Alice Coltrane’s funky mantras on her 1977 LP ‘Transcendence’ and the more pared back tracks of Leeds’ Ancient Infinity Orchestra. Needless to say, I love this vibe.
The ever-brilliant keys maestro Jessica Lauren locks down her piano chops on the jazz-gospel-Northern soul bumper ‘With Our Eternal Hope And Joy’. Joined again by a (slightly different) choir and Idris Rahman on flute and sax, the song pulsates with the hope and joyfulness of its title. The main melodic hook is a beauty and when Joshu Idehen steps in to add some words of positive power before the late surge of full band energy, I can only wish that I had been in that room.
‘Your Heart Is My Heart, My Hand Is Your Hand’ is an incredibly beautiful piece of meditative music. Adam plays his Rhodes with a subdued grace as Indian classical vocalist Mahesh Kale delicately invokes Shanti whilst shivers of strings and Jake Telford’s soprano saxophone electrifies the air.
The album is only six songs strong but its concluding composition more than makes up for it. ‘Awake, A Dream’ is a spectacular epic made up of three distinct movements and comes in just shy of fifteen minutes long. The first third is a symphonic dream of pastoral bliss with acoustic guitar, piano and sweeping strings, long-time collaborator Faye Houston’s soulful harmonic voicing adding a woozy romance to this section. Silence. Chris Boot’s tight breakbeat and Adam’s picked bass enter the stage as Rhodes, acoustic guitar and stacked layers of Faye’s celestial voice unfurl and fill the atmosphere. The groove inhales and exhales for just the right amount of time before falling into a slumbering piano line, inviting Faye to step to the front. “Everything that we, everything that we dream” she sings with increasing urgency, high sustained strings and her own rich backing vocals shimmering like vibrations on water. Adam thinks this may be his favourite piece of music he’s made to date and I’m not surprised. It’s quite magnificent.
There is a lot of great music being released this year but I suspect when I’ve forgotten some of those records (as you do), ‘Bring Our Light To Every Corner’ will be remembered as one of the best albums of 2026. 10/10.
BUY HERE! https://scrimshire.bandcamp.com/album/bring-our-light-to-every-corner