Three artists each created their own soundtrack for a new anime show from Cowboy Bebop director Shinichirō Watanabe. Kamasi Washington, Bonobo, and Floating Points brought their own styles to the new series on Adult Swim is called Lazarus. Here, because of his show during the Montreal Jazz Fest, we will focus on Bonobo’s electro soundscape offering. Bonobo’s (the musical alias of producer/DJ/bassist, Simon Green) Lazarus, though it has some shorter songs, is a quintessential Bonobo album.
Bringing some subtle trip hop vibes and downtempo electronica, this new Bonobo album continues the evolving sound found on 2022’s Fragments, and even has an instrumental callback to the Japanese released track “Landforms.” On Lazarus, the track is called “Landfall.”
The plot of Lazarus concerns a science fiction drug that cures death, while the series takes place in a utopian society in 2049-2052. Bonobo’s all-encompassing chillbeat electronica fits perfectly with this vibe. A standout track is definitely “Dark Will Fall,” which is more of a darkened folk track, with a jangly guitar, cascading synths, and the haunting vocals of Jacob Lusk, who was a contestant on American Idol. Another is “Beyond the Sky,” with vocalist Nicole Miglis, as Green lays down some jumpy house music and those classic bright Bonobo synth lines.
Altogether, Lazarus is a pleasing listen, and though it doesn’t, in my opinion, touch Bonobo’s lightning in a bottle album, Black Sands, from 2010, it’s a nice addition to the newer Bonoboverse.
