As autumn rolls in slowly in these parts of the Northern Hemisphere, our thoughts begin to turn to the coming winter. It could be a hard one. The news outlets are warning us of possible surges in the Covid and flu infection rates, and a shortage of natural gas may lead to power cuts in the UK. The government, of course, says that everything is under control and we shouldn’t worry. But few of us trust the government these days. The coming winter nights may be long and cold. What more appropriate topic for a blog post, then, than an album called Longing for the Dawn (Spotify, Bandcamp).

Fortunately, this album is full of sounds with a gentle groove that will while away the hours most pleasantly. It is a work by a world music and fusion duo known collectively as Mysteries of the Revolution. This quote from their website provides an excellent illustration of where they’re coming from:

MYSTERIES OF THE REVOLUTION features BB Davis (drums, flute, beatvox, voice) of the legendary Red Orchidstra and virtuoso keyboardist and composer Daniel Biro. With echoes of passionate progressive 70s jazz-rock/fusion/prog trail blazers such as Miles, Hancock, Zawinul, Corea, Mahavishnu, George Duke, Roland Kirk, King Crimson, Zappa, Soft Machine to neo-classicism and psychedelica all dished up in a sweaty, heady brew of heavily jazzified, passionate, funked up, blissed-out, head-on grooves with a whole dash a’ finesse n’ panache – yeah, really!

Mysteries of the Revolution website

With inspiration coming from those artists, listeners are entitled to have high expectations. And they don’t disappoint for a second. Here, for example, is the single taken from Longing for the Dawn:

How can you be gloomy when you’re hearing tunes as cheerful as that? The rest of the album is similarly upbeat. It reminds me of Caravan in their lighter moments, but without that hint of silliness that would sometimes creep in. The night may be long, the night may be cold, but you won’t be longing for the dawn as long as these guys are by your bedside.