Nothing [CD]

Many still see Louis Cole primarily as a drummer. "Nothing", Cole's fifth album and his third on Brainfeeder, will certainly change this impression.

Working with the Metropole Orkest and Jules Buckley, he rejected the well-trodden path of orchestral renditions of his greatest hits, opting instead to compose a set of brand new music for this album - bigger, bolder and more expansive than ever before. Yes, there are nods to his GRAMMY-nominated album, "Quality Over Opinion", from 2022, but 15 of the 17 tracks on this album are brand new. This is jazz. It's classical music. It's got that funk.

You'll hear synthesizers and loops. You'll hear a band and live drums. There's a world-class orchestra playing. Some tracks are ultra-precise, while the sprawling "Doesn't Matter" exceeds the ten-minute mark. For Cole, jazz has always been the only place where you can really let go of all expectations - on "nothing" he lets the music run free.

The Metropole Orkest proved to be the ideal partner for this endeavor. Over the course of its 80-year history, it has worked with legends such as Ella Fitzgerald, Pat Metheny and Herbie Hancock - exactly the kind of boundary-pushing mentality Cole was looking for. Add conductor, arranger, curator and composer Jules Buckley to the mix and it's a triple threat of epic proportions. Buckley is a unique and rare artist - a GRAMMY-winning composer who has redefined the rules of orchestral music and the role of the conductor.