Collection: Mammal Hands

Mammal Hands formed in Norwich in 2012 when brothers Jordan Smart on saxophone and Nick Smart on piano, who had already been working as an electronica duo, met drummer Jesse Barrett. They were spotted the following year at the Mostly Jazz Funk and Soul Festival in Birmingham by GoGo Penguin bassist Nick Blacka, who heard something he recognised as belonging to the same world as his own band and passed the name to Matthew Halsall. Halsall produced their debut "Animalia" (Gondwana, 2014) and released it on his own label, and the template was established: a bassless piano trio that somehow didn't sound like one, the three instruments filling the space between them without leaving gaps, Barrett's tabla and bowed vibraphone adding texture that moved the music well outside conventional jazz trio territory. The influences they name are a useful map: Pharoah Sanders, the Ethiopian saxophonist Gétachèw Mekurya, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Sirishkumar Manji. The result is music that draws from spiritual jazz and minimalism in roughly equal measure without defaulting to either. "Shadow Work" (Gondwana, 2017), their third album, is the most collected entry in their Gondwana catalogue; "Captured Spirits" (Gondwana, 2020) pushed further toward electronic textures; "Gift from the Trees" (Gondwana, 2023) introduced new drummer Rob Turner after Jesse Barrett's departure. "Circadia" (ACT Music, 2026), their most recent release, marked a move to the German jazz label.