Unmasking the Artist Ft. Asher Gamedze: A Semblance

In the wake of two albums with his quartet – Dialectic Soul (2020) and Turbulence and Pulse (2023) – and touring that project in South Africa and extensively across major festivals and venues in Europe on the back of some critical acclaim (such as rave reviews in the New York Times – no.4 on their top ten jazz albums of 2020 list – and Pitchfork’s generous rating of 8/10), and 2024’s album Constitution with the Black Lungs, Asher Gamedze is happy to be back on the ground floor with a new project! A Semblance is a new band. An experiment, a group in search of new and old dreams and new and old pathways into and through sound. New tunes, concepts and new and old spaces for improvisation. A semblance of groove. A semblance of freedom. The assembled are idiosyncratic musician-friends that Asher has gotten to know and has played with in various projects – those of his own and others’ – over the years as a working musician in Cape Town both above and underground. Ru Slayen on percussion, Zwide Ndwandwe on bass, Nobuhle Ashanti on keyboard and synth, and Keegan Steenkamp on trumpet. A Semblance plays Gamedze’s compositions and but the project is a band in many ways – each player has the autonomy and freedom to activate, agitate, expand, extend and initiate based on the concepts and tunes.