Review: Eric Harland’s ‘Vipassana II’

Twelve years have elapsed since drummer and composer Eric Harland released the first installment of Vipassana (Ropeadope, 2014). The music took many by surprise, described most succinctly as groove jams built in a meditative vibe. After all, the Buddhist term that titles the album is often translated as “Insight Meditation.”  While the follow-up Vipassana II (Ropeadope, 2026) is a spiritual successor, it is also markedly different.

Harland – a Grammy nominated drummer with five hundred albums to his credit including those with Charles Lloyd, Joshua Redman, Dave Holland, Jason Moran, and Chris Potter – describes the Vipassana series, in general, as “a musical exploratory expression of living this life enveloped by a strong musical culture and community.” Continuing, he notes that the album has “The good, the bad, the relaxed. It’s all processed within these notes and rhythms, which is carried out by me and a handful of close friends, also on their own road to self-discovery.” 

For the first outing, this group of close friends meant Harland’s steady Voyager band of Taylor Eigsti, Walter Smith III, Julian Lage, Nir Felder, and Harish Raghavan. For the sequel, the ensemble is much smaller and also much less static. Electronic master Big Yuki, percussionist Keita Ogawa, saxophonist Ben Wendel, guitarist Gilad Hekselman, and the member returning from the first outing, bassist Harish Raghavan appear throughout the album but in a variety of contexts. No track joins all of them. Several include just three and one is a duet entirely without Harland.  

The program begins with “Ghosted,” with Harland’s insistent beats holding as the only tangible, and perhaps interuptive element in Big Yuki and Ogawa’s otherwise whirling, dissonant, and trance-like blend of electronics and percussion.  The same three musicians render “Tron,” a combination of industrial and space-like sounds infused with hip-hop beats, that is so filled with drama and intrigue it could easily serve as a movie soundtrack. Ultimately, the electronic mayhem mostly dissipates into a much calmer state as guitarist Hekselman and saxophonist Ben Wendel render “Duo,” a more meditative piece. These two artists are no strangers to electronic effects either, with both employing them massively here to provide a soothing, floating, atmospheric vibe.  

The lengthy “Jean & Ranata,” runs for almost eleven minutes. It features, on paper, a conventional jazz quartet of drums, bass, saxophone, and guitar.  Yet, as in the prior piece, Wendel and Hekselman employ effects that effectively merge the electronic and acoustic. Hekselman steps up for an expressive, partly liquid, partly disjointed solo, punctuated by Harland’s cymbal sweeps. Wendel follows similarly, as Hekselman comps behind him with interesting chord choices, and at times, full responses to Wendel’s lines. Throughout, Harland keeps pushing the motion forward, developing a subtle groove that doesn’t take hold until around the eight-minute mark.  

“Twisted Fate” features Big Yuki, Harland, and Ogawa as the two beat masters form a deep groove around Yuki’s wandering expressions. The “quartet” returns for the standout track “Nascente” with Hekselman striking notes deliberately and emphatically with subtle support from the bass-drum tandem. Ragahavan steps in authoritatively, followed by Wendel’s sustained, elongated lines akin to chanting, over which Hekselman paints colorful harmonics. Harland, Big Yuki, and Ogawa unleash shifting, dreamy layers in “Mine vs Mind” underpinned by a solid, head bobbing groove, and do the same in “Matrix Matters” to close the album.  

Harland’s Vipassana II is a journey. What begins somewhat chaotically morphs into trancelike, gorgeous music. By the final two cuts, it is near impossible not to sway and bob to the joyous grooves.   

‘Vipassana II’ is out now on Ropeadope Records. It can be purchased on Bandcamp.