** 2026 Stock ** With Celestial Suite, Atlantis Jazz Ensemble tilt their gaze from the depths to the heavens, shaping a full-length spiritual soul-jazz journey that feels less like a collection of tunes than a single, extended act of divination. If their debut charted oceanic undercurrents, this follow-up channels Strata East- and Tribe-like energies into something resolutely contemporary: luminous electric piano, singing horn lines and an effortlessly elastic rhythm section, all captured over two concentrated days in the studio. The group’s core strengths - modal vamps that never stagnate, melodies that sound instantly familiar yet just out of reach, a sense of collective lift rather than soloist grandstanding - are honed into a suite that lives up to its title, unfolding like a ritual in eight movements.
The sequence traces a meticulously shaped arc. “Breaking Dawn” eases the listener in with the hush of first light, its gentle theme gradually locking into a hypnotic modal groove that sets the spiritual tone. “Transcendence” raises both the tempo and the temperature, Afro-Latin propulsion kicking underneath while the horns ride the crest with a palpable sense of urgency. “Enlightenment” cools that energy into a mystic soul-bossa haze, where the electric piano’s voicings glow against supple bass and percussion. Closing Side A, “Invocation” leans into the pleading, hymn-like side of soul-jazz, a tune that sounds like a whispered prayer carried just loud enough to reach the back row.
Flip the record and the ceremony intensifies. “Oneness” channels an ethereal pharoanic groove, nodding to the astral jazz continuum without being trapped by it, the band circling a central motif until it feels less like a riff than a mantra. “Blessings” pushes further into searching, coltranesque territory, its modal framework giving the horns room to probe and testify, tension rising like a storm front. Rather than resolve with abstraction, the suite breaks into the earthy funk of “Joyful Noise,” a down-home release that turns the spiritual into something dancing, sweaty, unabashedly celebratory. Finally, “Meditation” brings the narrative full circle, returning to calm with a solemn theme that lets the overtones hang in the air, closing this skybound passage as quietly as it began.
The story behind the band gives that arc extra resonance. Formed in 2013 by Pierre Chrétienand Zakari Frantz as an outlet for their more modal, esoteric writing outside The Souljazz Orchestra, the group crystallised with the arrival of trumpeter Ed Lister, bassist Alex Bilodeauand drummer Mike Essoudry. Their first album Oceanic Suite appeared in 2016 and quickly became a low-key cult favourite, climbing to number two on the Canadian radio jazz charts, just behind BadBadNotGood’s IV, and earning Atlantis opening slots for artists like Kamasi Washington and Anderson Paak. Momentum stalled when their original bassist departed for Boston to study with Dave Holland, Cecil McBee and other heavyweights, and the band slipped into hiatus. The tide turned again when young double bass firebrand Chris Pond arrived from Eastern Canada, sparking a rebirth in 2022 that was solidified through a residency in Ottawa’s Somerset Village, where the new material that would become Celestial Suite was workshopped in front of live audiences.
