Meeting with a Judas Tree

Duval Timothy’s work sits in a mellow space between jazz, sound collage, ambient, and electronic music—the kind of thing you’d be more likely to hear in a museum installation than a club. Recorded between London, Duval’s hometown of Freetown, Sierra Leone, and a residency in Spoleto, Italy, Meeting With a Judas Tree is interesting, in part, for its ability to mix subtlety with a sense of almost continuous surprise, whether it’s the sudden plucking sounds in “Wood” or the way “Thunder” seems to bend and splinter in midair. It’s too engaging to be background music, but you’ll want it on for the same reasons you might pick up fresh flowers: it quietly brightens the room.