Tag Archives: Carlos Niño

Second single released from Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople

07 August 2025

Last month, we shared the exciting announcement of Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople, the first full-length collaboration between poet, musician, and visionary Saul Williams and master percussionist and producer Carlos Niño. Recorded live in December 2024 beneath the black oak and walnut trees of Coldwater Canyon Park in Los Angeles, the album is a powerful gathering of kindred spirits in a setting shaped by ecology, memory, resistance, and release. Alongside Niño’s close collaborators, including Kamasi Washington, Nate Mercereau, Maia, Aaron Shaw, Francesca Heart, Andres Renteria, and a special appearance by aja monet, the album bridges disciplines and generations with spiritual depth and daring imagination.

Following the affective, immersive and meditative lead single, ‘Sound then Words’, they are sharing today the second single from the album, ‘The Water Is Rising / as we surpass the firing squad . . .’, featuring poet aja monet, who delivers a soft yet searing reading of her poem The Water Is Rising, a quiet reckoning with climate, collapse, and care. Williams follows with a hopeful parable about a firing squad, where one member hesitates, caught between duty and belief. It becomes a meditation on the possibility of humanity within the machinery of violence. Haunting, stirring, and laden with quiet urgency, ‘The Water Is Rising / as we surpass the firing squad . . .’ is streaming below.

Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople is out on August 28th through International Anthem

 

Saul Williams and Carlos Niño announce first collaborative album, Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople

17 July 2025

Photo: Todd Weaver

Wonderful news from two radiant forces, Saul Williams and Carlos Niño, who have come together for a special release arriving later this summer. Entitled Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople, this marks the first collaborative album between poet, musician, and visionary Saul Williams and prolific percussionist, producer, and cosmic connector Carlos Niño, whose friendship traces back to the late ’90s. The album was recorded live in December 2024, beneath black oak and walnut trees in Coldwater Canyon Park, on the grounds of TreePeople, a longstanding conservationist hub in Los Angeles. Niño assembled a stellar ensemble of close collaborators for the performance, including Kamasi Washington, Nate Mercereau, Maia, Aaron Shaw, Francesca Heart, Andres Renteria, and even a special appearance by poet aja monet. Together, they built a richly textured electro-acoustic world around Saul’s grounding and galvanizing poetics. An album of invocation, memory, resistance, and release, it bridges generations, disciplines, and intentions.

Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople is out on August 28th through International Anthem and they have now unveiled the album’s lead single, ‘Sound then Words’, an affective, immersive and meditative track clocking in at sixteen minutes. Here it is.

Surya Botofasina shares second single from upcoming Carlos Niño-produced debut album, Everyone’s Children

28 September 2022

Keyboardist and composer Surya Botofasina, who is also the music director of the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers, is gearing up to release his debut album this November. Entitled Everyone’s Children, Botofasina pays homage to Alice Coltrane, who was his mentor during his upbringing in her Ashram in Los Angeles.

To bring the album to life, Botofasina assembled a terrific cast of guest contributors including his mother, the harpist Radha Botofasina, jazz singer Dwight Trible, indie folk vocalist Mia Doi Todd, guitarist Nate Mercereau, saxophonist Pablo Calogero, and drummer Efa Etoroma Jr.. Featuring on the album too is revered producer, composer, ensemble orchestrator, percussionist, DJ and mentor Carlos Niño, who has also produced the album.

Stunning and contemplative, Everyone’s Children “soothes, enriches and uplifts the soul” as the press release describes.

We’ll have to wait until November 4th for the album to be out through Spiritmuse Records but Botofasina has already unveiled two marvellous singles from it, ‘Surya Meditation’ and ‘Beloved California Temple’. The latter is an ode to the Swamini Turiyasangitananda Alice Coltrane’s Sai Anantam Ashram, as he explains:

“I can still hear the sounds of Swamini’s organ, along with the water flowing through the property. The Ashram to me is the main reason why I have any redeemable qualities throughout my life. I learned all of my values there. More importantly I learned what introspection feels like. I learned what meditation does for the body, and how to wait for an answer from the Divine. Every time I reach a place of music that may connect with other human beings on the planet . . . It is only because I have watched Her connect with beings both visible and invisible to common eyesight, effortlessly.”

‘Beloved California Temple’ comes with an accompanying video. Watch it below and check an excerpt of the epic ‘Surya Meditation’ straight after.


In other related good news, and to celebrate the album release, Surya Botofasina has announced a string of lives including including a show at Le Guess Who? festival on November 11th.

Carlos Niño announces sixth collaborative album off his Carlos Niño & Friends series

13 November 2019

Carlos Niño has announced a new collaborative album off his Carlos Niño & Friends series, entitled Bliss On Dear Oneness and slated for a November 22nd release through Leaving Records. On the same series, he had previously released Going Home in 2017, featuring a stellar cast of guest contributors. On the upcoming Bliss On Dear Oneness, the revered LA based producer, composer, ensemble orchestrator, percussionist, DJ and mentor assembled again an array of terrific collaborators, including Laraaji, Ish of Shabazz Palaces, Kamasi Washington, Atwood-Ferguson, Sam Gendel, Iasos, Jamire Williams, Deantoni Parks and Dexter Story, amongst others.

Ahead of the album’s release, we can already listen to ‘Forest Pulse’, featuring Laraaji & Photay. Check out the accompanying video below.

Mixtape #80

01 February 2017

One of the most refreshing and thrilling things in music for the past decade has to be Brandt Brauer Frick. The acoustic dance trio from Berlin craft a sound that is as original as it is unclassifiable, combining traditional jazz instrumentation with electronica, and drawing influences from disparate musical worlds. Their last album, Joy, made it swiftly to our 15 Album Picks of 2016, so we're over the moon to present the intoxicating mix they put together for us this month, featuring tracks old and new from all around the globe. Press play and dance!


More…

Carlos Niño & Friends set to release new collaborative album Flutes, Echoes, It’s All Happening! in April

15 March 2016

Carlos Niño & Friends - Flutes, Echoes, It's All HappeningCarlos Niño is getting ready to drop Flutes, Echoes, It’s All Happening!, the fourth collaborative album off his Carlos Niño & Friends series. To bring the record to life, the Los Angeles based producer, composer, ensemble orchestrator, percussionist, DJ and mentor assembled a stellar cast of guest contributors, including Madlib, Kamasi Washington, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Iasos, Luis Pérez Ixoneztli, Dexter Story, amongst others.

Flutes, Echoes, It’s All Happening navigates through varied influences, from jazz and New Age to psychedelic and ambient music, and spans a few years. “I rarely throw anything away”, said Niño, “and in this case, a few pieces I’d started and archived were brought back to the forefront as they vibrationally matched with the project. There is overlap in space, time and sound with these records.”

Ahead of its release on April 22nd via Leaving Records, we can already hear the first taste from it, ‘It’s All Happening!’ featuring Madlib, Jamire Williams, Dexter Story, and strings by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. Take a listen now.