“There were bright hours spent in the garden planting veg, making mud pies and picking flowers with my family and an underlying darkness as the world outside our garden bubble seemingly fell into madness,” says Ashley Paul, looking back on London's first lockdown earlier this year. Previous to the nationwide restrictive effects of the pandemic, Paul had been organising a trio with bass clarinettist Yoni Silver and double bassist Otto Willberg, and though plans of a physical collaboration were scuppered, the trio set to work remotely recording Ray.

“Composing for this trio has been a longtime dream,” continues Paul, who contributes voice, alto saxophone, clarinet, guitar and percussion to the album. “I first had the idea over a year ago and had been stewing on it, a little nervous about how it would go. I found myself on a sort of creative whirlwind after making the TakuRoku album Window Flower and immediately began work on Ray. This came together so naturally I composed and recorded the whole album in less than two months.”

Ray is released by Slip on 25 November and it’s available to pre-order now. Paul, Silver and Willberg will perform the album live at Cafe Oto on 3 December.

Read The Wire's Invisible Jukebox interview with Ashley Paul in issue 408. Subscribers can access the article online via the digital archive.