The solo debut of Shabaka Hutchings, bandleader with Sons of Kemet and member of The Comet Is Coming, finds him stepping away from his saxophone to make use of a range of wind and stringed instruments from Africa and Asia. The result is an album that flows with rhythms and melodies, each taking time to speak its piece before giving way to the next. The result is a dialectical album of textured soundscapes that take on a consciously meditative quality. At its finest, ‘Afrikan Culture’ is lullaby-like with Shabaka’s flutes blowing life into comforting canvases of percussion and strings. Yet, even with the relaxed atmospheres that abound, Shabaka’s curiosity, energy and musical insight is clear with every warble of flute, additional line of chiming percussion, or spatial layer of organic reverb. Most impressively, ‘African Culture’ subtly brims with life in the most understated of ways.