Flash of the Spirit is my fifth solo album, and it builds on the direction begun on my previous albums Arrival City, Sahara and LOS-HEL: Possible Cities.

The album is inspired by my travels and experiences in West Africa. It’s a reflection on a kind of liminal global space, imaginary and real, that exists in between and beyond cultures, nations, borders, ecosystems, beliefs, social constructs, identities and differences. This space is always in the state of becoming: changing, emerging and suggesting new possibilities.

The music blends my diverse influences of Afrobeat, Ambient, Blues, Electro, Gospel, Krautrock, Minimalism and West African traditional musics, and it incorporates my field recordings from those journeys into some of the pieces. It is largely an instrumental album, weaving vocals in abstracted, sliced and textural ways only; the original vocals come from artists such as Diana Bada, Gustave Dylamour, John Follass and Noel Saizonou, whom I’d met and recorded with during my residency in Villa Karo, Benin, in 2013.

The title refers to the book of the same name by Robert Farris Thompson, which I’d read during my residency in Benin. It’s also a nod to the album of the same name by Jon Hassell & Farafina. It’s also a reference to those great “flashes of the spirit” that I kept coming across on my travels.

The album is available digitally on all the major music download and streaming services worldwide.

All tracks written, performed, mixed and produced by Ilpo Jauhiainen

Sampled vocal on Spirit Flash and vocoder vocal on Cotonou Beat: John Follass
Additional vocal on Cotonou Beat: Gustave Dylamour
Percussions on Another Channel: Linda Förstner
Field recordings: Ilpo Jauhiainen

Mastered by Niklas Silen

Cover art and design: Ilpo Jauhiainen

Released October 19, 2018