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Hear the enthralling first tune from Gilad Hekselman's intrepid new album, 'Far Star'

Josh Goleman

"Long Way From Home," the enthralling new single by Israeli-born guitarist Gilad Hekselman, begins with a whistled melody in a minor key. The part is recorded in duplicate, its smudged-overdub effect suggesting a solitary call in an reverberant space.

A drumbeat emerges, through an insinuative fade-in, followed by an electric bass. Then Hekselman adds his electric guitar, fingerpicking the melodic line with a delicate sense of balance. By the time he begins soloing over the theme, the rhythm section is locked in, with a beat — powered by Eric Harland, a featured guest — that combines busy syncopation with a laid-back pocket. It all feels familiar but fundamentally new.

Gilad Hekselman, "Long Way From Home"

"Long Way From Home," which premieres at WBGO, is the opening track from Hekselman's Far Star, due out on Edition Records on May 13. The album, his debut for the label, is on some level a product of pandemic adjustments, as Hekselman explains in press materials. "At the start of 2020, I returned from three months with my family in Southeast Asia with piles of new music ready to be played with real people," he says.

Josh Goleman

"Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly all I was left with for making this music come to life were my instruments, mics and computer. Like everyone else, I didn't know how long this was going to last, so I started a folder on my computer called 'Song Demos' with every hope that I would soon be sending the tracks to my band when it came time to make a new record. Weeks turned into months: I watched hundreds of tutorials, took sound engineering lessons and consulted with my producer friends. After thousands of hours of work, I finished what I called Far Star."

The album represents a departure from Hekselman's typical approach, with a bit more electronic programming, a lot more layering, and a general emphasis on streamlined design. But it's also easily traceable to Hekselman's sound and style, which leans toward the lyrical end of progressive jazz. Even the whistled overture has precedent in his work; see "Prologue," from his acclaimed 2011 album Hearts Wide Open.

Harland appears on half the album's tracks, joining a small circle of virtual collaborators: among them, keyboardist Shai Maestro, drummer Ziv Ravitz, and violinist and violist Nathan Schram. Their presence keeps Far Star from sounding in any way hermetic, even though they recorded their parts in separate studios, thousands of miles apart.

By now, we've seen myriad examples of projects that wouldn't have been birthed without pandemic pressures; Edition has released a few itself, including Chris Potter's There is a Tide. For Hekselman, the result has been salutary, nudging him into an uncomfortable place while allowing him room to be himself.

"Far Star is about my ability to travel with my imagination to far sonic galaxies, all from the insides of a room," he says. "The music, worked on during a pandemic, somehow leaves me with memories of great freedom and liberation through what was clearly a very constricting time in our lives."

Far Star will be released on Edition Records on May 13; preorder here.

A veteran jazz critic and award-winning author, and a regular contributor to NPR Music.