Onyx – Sasha Berliner

In Onyx, Sasha Berliner sidesteps the trap of nostalgia to turn the vibraphone into a generator of contemporary tensions. Recorded entirely on analog tape, the album moves away from acoustic complacency and dives into a dark density, where sound manipulation coexists with vigorous improvisation.

The ensemble maintains a constant pursuit. Marcus Gilmore dictates an asymmetric and restless pulse from the drums, backed by the flexibility of Burniss Travis II on bass and the timbral contrasts of James Francies shifting between acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes. From the opening with "Jade," the textured lines of Jaleel Shaw’s alto sax intertwine with Berliner’s mallets on a blurred frontier where jazz dialogues face-to-face with the pulse of hip-hop and the avant-garde.

The maturity of the record lies in its fragmentary structure: a collection of autonomous statements that speak to each other through contrast. While "Crescent Park (In Elliptical Time)" suspends the atmosphere in an almost dreamlike plane thanks to Julius Rodriguez’s analog synthesizers and Thana Alexa’s vocals, the two-part reinterpretation of "My Funny Valentine" dismantles the standard—first through Berliner’s introspective solo work and then through a high-speed collective stampede.

Onyx does not seek a comfortable resolution; it is the testament of a creator stretching the limits of her tradition to build a sanctuary of resistance and sonic rigor.