Now, Not Yet Musina

• 1 Ritournelle, Chaos to Cosmos 05:07
• 2 Confrontation 06:42
• 3 Be Longing 05:46
• 4 Necropolitics 05:24
• 5 Rivages 04:55
• 6 Someone Else Will Not 04:46
• 7 Lost Futures 05:39
• 8 Flânerie 05:22
• Total Runtime 43:41

Info for Now, Not Yet

With Now, Not Yet, his fourth album as a leader, recorded in spring 2026, saxophonist and composer Musina Ebobissé opens a new chapter in his musical journey. While the album follows in the footsteps of its predecessors through its musical identity and focus on storytelling, it also marks a significant turning point. After three records made with an acoustic quintet featuring two saxophones, piano, double bass, and drums, Musina moves toward a more compact, electric sound. Built around tenor saxophone and real-time sound processing, the new lineup brings together Rob Clearfield on Rhodes and piano, Juan Villarroel on electric bass, and Gautier Garrigue on drums.

This new instrumentation is accompanied by an evolution in Musina’s writing. The compositions favor more stripped-down forms, powerful and hypnotic rhythmic cycles, and an in-depth exploration of sonic textures. Drawing as much from contemporary jazz as from rock, ambient, and electronic music, the music allows more space for atmospheres to unfold and for melodic material to transform gradually. Despite these changes, the lyricism of the saxophone and a deep commitment to collective interaction remain at the heart of the composer’s approach.

Now, Not Yet takes shape at a time marked by the intensification of capitalist, imperialist, and fascist forces. The album explores what connects us—the ability of art, encounters, and collective experiences to transform the way we exist. Sonic metaphors of struggle run throughout the music, asserting that the search for harmony necessarily involves confrontation and reflecting the conviction that music can speak beyond itself.

Now is the present tense of music: the instant of playing, listening, and improvising. The moment when individuals come together around a shared experience. It is also the historical present, shaped by crises and uncertainty, in which imagining a collective future has become increasingly difficult.

Not Yet is what does not yet exist, but whose possibility is beginning to emerge. It is the horizon toward which every act of creation, every collective endeavor, and every desire for transformation strives. In its own way, music contributes to our ability to imagine other narratives and other futures.

Musina Ebobissé, saxophone, effects
Rob Clearfield, Fender Rhodes, guitar (track 2)
Juan Villaroel, electric bass
Gautier Garrigue, drums

Musina Ebobissé aka MUSINA
has established himself as a distinctive voice in contemporary jazz, both in France and across Europe. Through a prolific artistic activity, he has developed a highly personal musical universe that unfolds through his work as a bandleader as well as through numerous collaborations as a sideman. He has notably shared the stage with artists such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, James Morrison, Electro Deluxe, and performs regularly throughout Europe and internationally with a variety of ensembles. He currently leads several projects, including Musina (quintet, quartet, and trio) and the solo ambient project Blendreed, while also performing with ensembles such as Ozma, Mathias Ruppnig’s FOAM, Morse.s, and other collaborative ventures.

Born in 1990 in Strasbourg (FR) to a French mother and a Cameroonian father, he grew up in a rich musical environment shaped by African diasporic music and African American traditions. After studying at the Conservatory and the University of Strasbourg, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, he moved to Berlin to attend the Jazz Institut Berlin. There, he completed both a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz and a Master’s degree in Composition. Immersion in Berlin’s vibrant music scene fostered an artistic practice that is both rigorous and open-minded, grounded in dialogue, experimentation, and continuous research.

Based in Paris since 2020, Ebobissé has become an active presence within today’s jazz landscape. His music, constantly evolving, explores the tensions and intersections between forms, rhythms, and intensities. It draws equally from the energy of 1960s jazz, the impressionistic textures of the early twentieth century, and elements borrowed from rock and contemporary music. From John Coltrane to Radiohead, through Claude Debussy, Jeff Buckley, Miles Davis, and Brian Eno, his influences span a wide artistic spectrum whose underlying coherence he seeks to reveal.

His compositions can be understood as sensitive sonic spaces, where melodic lines and rhythmic dynamics interact through a delicate balance of tension and contrast. Improvisation occupies a central role within this framework, serving both as a means of exploration and as a way of giving life and presence to the music.

Through this approach, Musina Ebobissé seeks a fertile point of tension between introspection and connection, between structure and freedom. Sound thus becomes a space for perception, transformation, and shared experience.

This album contains no booklet.