{"id":32799,"date":"2026-05-06T17:19:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/?p=32799"},"modified":"2026-05-06T17:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:19:30","slug":"akusmi-teases-second-album-terra-incognita-with-lead-single-anima","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/?p=32799","title":{"rendered":"Akusmi teases second album, Terra Incognita<\/em>, with lead single ‘Anima’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: Dan Medhurst<\/p><\/div>\n

Akusmi<\/a>, the brainchild project of French-born, London-based composer Pascal Bideau, has announced the release of his second album, Terra Incognita<\/em>, following 2022\u2019s Fleeting Future<\/em>. Across seven tracks, Bideau blends global and spiritual jazz with minimal repeating patterns, taking cues from Afrobeat, Highlife and electronic Afro-pop. Terra Incognita<\/em> expands his palette into something more open and tactile, built around layered rhythms and shifting patterns. A feeling of discovery is central, as Pascal explains:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s probably the feeling I love the most in life. It pushes you into a state of wonder and naivety that brings you back to how everything felt when you were a child.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the sensation you get when you visit a place you\u2019ve never been before, where nothing makes sense and everything needs to be learnt from scratch. There are no cultural references, no familiarity, just a constant flux of new colours, smells, social and moral codes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To bring the album to life, Bideau enlisted a stellar cast of contributors, including virtuoso tabla player and drummer Sarathy Korwar, Senegalese musician Dud\u00fa Kouate, longtime collaborator Daniel Brandt, and Marysia Osu of Levitation Orchestra, alongside Llu\u00eds Dom\u00e8nech Plana. Bideau plays a wide range of instruments, with the alto sax remaining pivotal. As Bideau explains,\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s the link that connects everything together, half-narrator, half-explorer, ambling along and reacting in real time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Improvisation also plays a key role in the upcoming album, with parts layered and reworked into dense and rhythmic compositions. The result is a record that treats sound as a shifting landscape, as Bideau puts it:<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis album is a travel diary from an unexplored land: experiencing something never encountered before and the excitement that comes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Terra Incognita<\/em> arrives on July 3rd through Tonal Union<\/a> and today, alongside the album announcement, Bideau has shared the lead single ‘Anima’. Bright, entrancing and uplifting, ‘Anima’ will undoubtedly spruce up your spirits. Here it is.<\/p>\n