Ancient Infinity Orchestra return with their third album, It’s AlwaysAbout Liberation, a new record that deepens the vision of their acclaimedrecent work while moving into darker, more searching emotional territory.

Conceived as a partner to It’s Always About Love, this new body of workshares its predecessor’s generosity and spiritual openness, but carries adifferent charge. Where the previous album focused on healing and warmth, It’sAlways About Liberation is largely animated by struggle, perseverance and thedesire for transformation while still offering a path to betterment. It ismusic made in full awareness of a fractured world, yet unwilling to surrenderto it.

Like It’s Always About Love the album title draws inspiration fromwords spoken by Moor Mother during their 2024 We Out Here festival performancethat deeply affected bandleader Ozzy Moysey: “It’s always about love / It’salways about liberation.” Those twin ideas became a framework for the twoalbums Ancient Infinity Orchestra were creating. If one album explored love asrepair, this one explores liberation as movement, continually striving towardfreedom, clarity and deeper connection.

The 16-member ensemble is led by double bassist and composer Ozzy, witha distinctive line-up that explains their sound better than any artificialgenre divisions: two double basses, harp, saxophones, clarinets, violin, viola,cello, oboe, flutes, mandolin, congas, piano, drum kit, with bells, shakers andother percussion instruments scattered on the floor of live sets and recordingsessions, ready for members to use whenever the spirit takes them.

This orchestration, and the overlap between membership and friendship,gives Ancient Infinity Orchestra a sound that is at once expansive andintimate, earthy, and cosmic, constantly shifting yet grounded in sharedintention. The attention to intention and the inviting sonic world connects themusic to artists ranging from Alabaster dePlume to Gondwana label boss MatthewHalsall.

Gradually, the Orchestra became a grounding force in the emerging jazzscene in Leeds, bringing together individuals from different musicalbackgrounds co-founding the Café Oto-inspired Limpet Club or co-hosting themonthly Sonic Plunge (‘a platform for adventurous experimentation’) andco-founding the Leeds Improvisers Orchestra. Additionally, the ensemble acted as a bridge between musicians inBrighton and Leeds, after Ozzy spent a stint back on the south coast between2020 and 2022.

Their debut, River of Light, was a vibrant celebration of togethernessrecorded in three days and released on Gondwana in 2023. A Maida Vale sessionfor Jamie Cullum’s BBC Radio 2 show brought them to a broader audience, as didbookings at North Sea Jazz Festival and Gretchen, Berlin. Since then, AncientInfinity Orchestra has become a by-word for music that could be framed as‘spiritual jazz’. Whilst Ozzy avoids the phrase when describing his music, he’scrystal clear that his heroes are associated with those words – citing Art Ensembleof Chicago, Pharoah Saunders, Coltrane (Alice and John), and Don Cherry asmajor influences.

Across trance-like meditations, rising grooves, moments of grief andcollective uplift, It’s Always About Liberation speaks to the battle within themind as much as the inequalities of the wider world. It acknowledges thedarkness but lets connection and creativity have the last word Ancient InfinityOrchestra is a gathering of voices, traditions, and energies converging intosomething timeless. Their music is a journey inward and outward, alwaysreaching toward the universal.

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TRACKLIST:

A1. Nafas

A2. Akshay

A3. Triton

B1.Illuminations

B2. Celebratingthe Beautiful Lineage of Sound & Hypnotic States B3. Old Friends

B4. Mountain