We Speak Music
Saxophonist Bernell Jones II Releases Jazz-Fusion Single ‘1979’
Memphis-born, New York-based saxophonist and composer Bernell Jones II has officially returned with his latest single, “1979.” A groove-heavy jazz fusion release featuring acclaimed keyboard virtuoso Julius Rodriguez, the track blends smoky late-night textures, lo-fi warmth, 1970s disco influences, and sharp modern jazz improvisation into a bold statement of Jones’s rapidly evolving artistic identity.
The origins of “1979” highlight an artist willing to let his music breathe and grow over time. Originally written during the isolation of the 2020 lockdown period, the track began inside Jones’s tiny New York bedroom as part of a raw, self-recorded Bandcamp project, with the multi-instrumentalist performing nearly every instrument himself.
Five years later, after developing a tight-knit live band and refining the arrangement on stage, Jones revisited the composition with a much grander sonic vision—one rooted in live collective chemistry, analog atmosphere, and expansive synth-driven grooves.
To bring this vision fully to life, he enlisted rising jazz innovator Julius Rodriguez, whose genre-defying musicianship and mastery of synthesis became a defining element of the final recording. Renowned for blending avant-garde jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and experimental electronics, Rodriguez delivers a signature synth solo midway through the track, elevating it into a rich, cinematic listening experience.
The song’s title is a direct nod to a monumental milestone in music history: the year Michael Jackson’s landmark album Off the Wall was unleashed, a record that profoundly shaped Jones’s musical upbringing.
“The title ‘1979’ pays homage to my favorite artist of all time, Michael Jackson,” Jones shares. “Off the Wall had a huge impact on me as a child and as a musician. I didn’t want to recreate that album sonically, but I wanted to capture the mood and the feel-good energy it gave me.”
That particular emotional spirit dictates the entire flow of the song. Funk-driven basslines, shimmering synth textures, fluid saxophone melodies, and an understated rhythmic swagger combine to create a soundscape that feels both nostalgic and distinctly modern—a jazz fusion record equally suited for analytical headphone listening, packed downtown clubs, or solitary late-night city drives.
Bernell Jones II has steadily emerged as one of the most compelling and relatable young voices in contemporary jazz, recognized not just for his elite musicianship but for his unique approach to audience connection. Alongside performing with heavyweights like Ms. Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Olivia Dean, Eric Bellinger, and Philip Harper, Jones has built a substantial online following. His viral music-comedy content and documentary-style series, What It’s Like Being a Musician in NYC, offer an honest and humorous window into the unvarnished realities of a working modern musician.
His ambitious 2024 debut album, TYPEWRITER, showcased his overarching mission to bridge the gap between rigid jazz traditions and broader, genre-fluid audiences by seamlessly incorporating elements of gospel, blues, soul, and deep groove.
With “1979,” Bernell Jones II continues that trajectory, honoring the emotional legacy of the past while pushing jazz fusion into fresh, accessible, and deeply human territory. The final product is a track that feels entirely timeless, immersive, and unmistakably alive.
Renowned Icelandic composer and cellist Eythor Arnalds has officially released his expansive new ten-track album, Music for Walking, via Alda Music. Continuously blurring the boundaries between contemporary classical composition, cinematic ambience, and mindful listening, the record unfolds as both a physical journey and a deep meditation on movement, serving as a soundtrack for walking not simply through geography, but through thought, memory, and emotional progression.
Arnalds has long been recognized for crafting immersive instrumental works rooted in absolute stillness and reflection. While his voice remains distinctly his own, his artistic lineage draws from the visionary ranks of Max Richter, Ólafur Arnalds, Brian Eno, Nils Frahm, and Hildur Guðnadóttir.
To bring this massive sonic vision to life, the album was recorded with the Reykjavík Symphony Orchestra inside the iconic acoustic space of the Harpa Concert Hall. Produced alongside Grammy-nominated engineer Bergur Þórisson, Music for Walking beautifully transforms ambient string arrangements into something deeply tactile and physical, music engineered to move with the listener, step by step.
Inside the Focus Single: “Progression”
At the absolute heart of the album sits the stunning focus single “Progression,” which arrives alongside a striking new short film directed by filmmaker and explorer Karim Iliya. The piece evolves with deliberate slowness around four delicate broken chords. Shimmering violin lines drift weightlessly above softly pulsing harp and piano ostinatos, while Arnalds’ signature cello gradually rises through the arrangement like a quiet internal awakening.
The result is meditative, cinematic, and emotionally unburdened, a composition far less concerned with a final destination than it is with the slow act of becoming.
“Life is a progression. It is a mental journey,” Arnalds explains. “In many ways, walking is symbolic of our life. The walking may have a destination, but it has meaning in itself. The experience of walking makes our thoughts progress, like seeds into a plant. In the current age of sensational news and polarization, it should be a break from that noise and bring waves of tranquility and calm.”
Rhythms of Footsteps and Shifting Ice
Throughout the tracklist, Arnalds intentionally treats repetition, physical breath, and structural motion as core compositional tools. Tracks like “Body of Water,” “Opening,” and “Promenade No. 7” unfold with great patience, mirroring the organic rhythms of human footsteps and shifting horizons. Rather than demanding a listener’s attention through cheap, dramatic crescendos, the album rewards total sensory immersion, inviting the audience into a slower, deeply reflective state of consciousness.
The visual world surrounding the project expands this sense of atmospheric movement even further. Shot entirely across Iceland’s stark, unforgiving southern landscapes, the cinematic video for “Progression” pairs Arnalds’ music with sweeping, high-definition footage of monumental glaciers, drifting black-sand icebergs, volcanic terrain, and shifting Arctic skies. Iliya’s filmmaking captures the natural world not as a passive backdrop, but as an active participant—a living reflection of the album’s overarching themes of flow, fragility, and environmental transformation.
“Arctic landscapes can be harsh but beautiful,” says director Karim Iliya. “Even in a world locked in ice, there is movement as clouds drape the mountain sides, glaciers carve their way through mountains, and icebergs drift through the blue. As the ice melts, and the sun returns, Eythor moves through the arctic landscape with his cello, playing to the ice, the birds, the mountains, and the rivers.”
Deeply rooted in Icelandic nature and the finest tenets of modern minimalist composition, Music for Walking firmly positions Eythor Arnalds as a composer creating art meant to be experienced physically and emotionally. In an increasingly hyperactive and overstimulated world, the album offers something increasingly rare: a deliberate, beautiful space to breathe, think, and move slowly again.
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