Life’s Rising

After the quiet dissolution of A.R. Kane, Rudy Tambala joined forces with sister Maggie for a new duo, Sufi. Life’s Rising was released as part of Virgin’s Ambient Series, which was a curious choice, arguing for post-rock, dreampop and trip-hop as part of a broader continuum of ambience. Those three reference points sum up part of what Life’s Rising seemed to aim for: the songs here have a lovely, gentle brittleness, Maggie Tambala singing like a feather on the breath. It follows neatly from the pacific spirit of the final A.R. Kane album, New Clear Child, dialling down the intensity, though there’s still plenty of grit and spirit in these songs, drawing, as they do, from the spatial disorientation of dub, and the elegance of R&B. It’s sparse, but emotionally generous: a music of quiet kindness.