Where does the light settle after a difficult period? Where Light Settles, the third album by Jasmine Myra, begins with this question and explores the ways in which people change through what they experience. For the British saxophonist, composer and bandleader, music becomes a place where fragility can exist alongside strength without one cancelling out the other.
The album marks an important step forward from Horizons (2022) and Rising (2024). Its nine compositions revolve around the idea of duality and approach themes of growth and personal transformation. “Pain is inevitable (...), but you don’t grow or come to know yourself or the world around you without it,” Myra says of the album, which she sees as a passage beyond difficult moments towards light and hope.
Where Light Settles was recorded in just five days with her ensemble at The Nave Studios in Leeds and is the first album produced by Jasmine Myra herself. Her saxophone is placed within a larger ensemble, with piano, strings, flute, guitar, vibraphone and harp considerably expanding the group’s sonic palette.
The result is deeply cinematic music in which influences from jazz, folk and film music meet a particular sensitivity to nature and space. Where Light Settles does not try to escape difficult places, but follows the moment when, after them, the light begins to appear again.