When Jenny Gillespie Mason decided to go back to making music, she installed herself in her Berkeley home studio and started creating for herself alone. Gnani, the resulting, intensely-personal six-song EP released under her moniker Sis, is an unwavering exercise in self-growth and daring resonance. Sporting a vigorous fusion of analog frequencies with a modern production approach, sculpted by intimate wisdom, the project was inspired by a quote from the Indian Guru Nisargadatta Maharaj: ”The gnani (the one who knows) does not die, because he was never born.”
Native Cat Recordings, the label Mason founded, has put out local group Brijeans’ first record Walkie Talkie and projects from Luke Temple. Distinctive sound has always been the imprint’s calling card. But after what Mason identified as “the wreckage of the collective years 2020-21,” her desire to express her own individuality took hold. Gnani became a vessel for personal flow, a way of synthesizing her various identities as an artist, wife, and mother. She resolved that this project would be unapologetic, an apparition that only Mason could conjure into a far-reaching sound bath.
The EP is sometimes a bit airy, but more often than not, it is warm, confidential, and damn inviting. It may take a couple of spins to digest, to take hold of its moving parts, but you can’t deny its forthright ambition of providing shelter to a complex being. That part reads on one’s first take.
In the past, Sis was a group endeavor. But this new solo-driven iteration, front-loaded with ambient modal tones that expand into abstract jazz fusion rooted in groove, utilizes vintage keyboards like the clavinet, Phillicordia, Fender Rhodes, B3 Hammond organ, Farfisa, and ARP Odyssey. They give off the good-feeling-type of goosebumps, very much in the spiritual vein of Alice Coltrane. That’s where Gnani‘s soul resides, providing an interchangeable healing process for artist and listeners alike.
Those moments are rhythmically enhanced by the expert, loose-but-cohesive accompaniment from Brijean Murphy on congas, bongos, and percussion, with Doug Stewart on bass. These labelmates give wind to Mason’s compositions, making them flicker. They move about the electro-pop left-field gush of “Wooie,” with a loping bassline and quirky audio patterns. A familial bent becomes apparent at song’s end, with the chatter of younglings calling out in the background.
Later on, we sun ourselves in the experimental psychedelic jazzy exploration of “Embodiment,” where analog touches hold down bass foundations, while skittering drum patterns keep the tempo. Mason’s voice sings quietly, enmeshed within the scenery. A Fender Rhodes solo, moving with grace, emits solace, peace. Murphy’s congo playing takes us out, establishing a type of normalcy with the ceiling removed.
But it’s Mason’s ambient keyboard technique that provides spacey ambiance on “Gazelle Rites,” a track that so sets up the modal feel that both listener and musician may embark on one journey, traveling inward without moving.
Listen, the lack of complacency on Gnani is a major flex that refuses simple comprehension, going far beyond the normcore pop song structure. Mason’s recent history, processed through the EP’s circuitry, recieves a most apt presentation. Count it as a peaceful, intuitive way to begin a new year.
Buy Sis’ Gnani EP here.
