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In 2024, Audrey Powne emerged as a compelling new voice in contemporary jazz with the release of her acclaimed debut album From the Fire; a self-produced and self-composed work celebrated for its lush string arrangements, soaring trumpet performances, and emotionally rich songwriting. Now, two years later, Powne returns with Bodies of Water, a bold and deeply introspective follow-up that continues her elemental exploration: from fire to water.

An exploration of what it means to exist alongside others in an increasingly unstable world, Bodies of Water reflects on vulnerability, responsibility, and human interconnectedness. The album’s title and conceptual foundation were inspired by a passage from Caleb Azumah Nelson’s novel Small Worlds:

“…to make himself a body, like water, a still surface, but beneath this, a ripple, and beneath this, an ebbing tide, and beneath that, a violent, constant tow…”

Throughout the record, lyrics ruminate on the idea that like all bodies of water, we are vulnerable to disruption and catastrophe. Unlike inanimate bodies of water, however, we are conscious participants in both the damage and the repair. That tension between what we are made of and what we are responsible for became a grounding and harmonious thought. This album is a meditation on that idea, both in my personal life and in a broader, collective sense.

Swollen, Broken Record, and Karma, reflect on moments of cruelty and error including her own that felt unbearable. Viewing them instead as forces moving through the landscape of a life, violent but temporary to survive their immediate impact. More socially conscious tracks Stay Awake, Creeds, RYV, and Two Sides confront frustration with political polarisation and the emptiness of language unaccompanied by action.

The title and final track Bodies of Water brings these ideas together, reimagining both personal and societal upheaval as events shaped by bodies of water moving through the world destructive at times, transformative at others, and always in motion.

Blending traditional jazz with Afrobeat rhythms, Dilla-inspired grooves, ambient textures, and expansive arrangements, Bodies of Water reveals the breadth of Powne’s artistic vision. The record moves fluidly between spiritual jazz, warped soul and rhythm-driven experimentation, while layered interludes and meticulous production thread its disparate influences into a unified and immersive sonic world. Moments of stillness are frequently interrupted by swelling arrangements and rhythmic turbulence, mirroring the emotional instability at the heart of the album.

The album’s emotional weight lies in Powne’s rare multiplicity as an artist not only as a trumpeter, but also as a vocalist, keyboardist, composer, arranger, and producer. Her trumpet remains at the helm, guiding the listener through the record’s shifting emotional terrain with both dexterity and vulnerability.

Written between London, New York, and countless hotel rooms while touring extensively as a session trumpeter and backing vocalist, the album took shape in fragments. The foundation of the project was recorded in Brooklyn at Electric Garden Studios over 2 days recording drums and bass with acclaimed New York-based rhythm section bassist David “DJ” Ginyard, who also appeared on her 2020 debut EP Bed I Made, and drummer Jonathan Barber.

“While I entered the process with a clear vision for the album’s eclectic direction, much of 2025 was devoted to shaping and refining that vision into a cohesive whole,” says Powne. “During this period, I layered and arranged my voice and trumpet to form the emotional and sonic core of the record.”

Another key collaborator on the project is guitarist Randy Runyon, whose sensitive use of texture expands the album’s harmonic language and elevates several of its central motifs. Equally vital to the record’s evolution was Melbourne-born, London-based mix engineer Lewis Moody, whose intuitive ear helped bring cohesion to the album’s wide-ranging palette of sounds, genres, and timbres.

“This album is my most fully realized attempt to weave together my deepest musical influences while continuing my search for an artistic voice that extends beyond the trumpet or my singing to one that reflects my full identity as an artist and a woman.”

Musically, Bodies of Water traces a path through Powne’s eclectic influences from J Dilla and Miles Davis to Maurice Ravel while lyrically navigating the intersections of the personal and political. At a time when music consumption increasingly favors immediacy, Bodies of Water invites listeners into a slower, deeper experience, one that rewards immersion and emotional attention. Both intimate and expansive, the album stands as Powne’s most ambitious statement to date, a work shaped equally by personal reckoning and the turbulence of the world around it.

Side A :
Swollen / Stay Awake / Karma / Creeds

Side B :
RYV / Two Sides / Broken Record / Bodies of Water