Audrey Powne - Bodies of Water (2026 BBE Records Vinyl LP)

Audrey Powne - Bodies of Water | Vinyl LP - 2026 BBE Music (BBE829ALP, gatefold, made in Germany)

• Melbourne-born trumpeter, vocalist and producer’s second album on BBE, following 2024’s critically acclaimed debut From the Fire, self-composed, self-arranged and self-produced across sessions in London and Brooklyn.
• Rhythm section recorded at Electric Garden Studios in Brooklyn over two days, with New York jazz drummer Jonathan Barber and bassist David “DJ” Ginyard, who also played on Powne’s 2020 EP Bed I Made.
• Mastered and lacquer cut by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, gatefold sleeve, pressed in Germany. Supported by Creative Australia.

Audrey Powne grew up in Warragul in country Victoria, picked up trumpet as a teenager in Melbourne, and spent the next decade playing in everything from the sweet soul band Leisure Centre to jazz quartet Aura before signing to BBE as a solo artist. Her debut From the Fire landed in 2024 and she spent the year selling out Ronnie Scott’s in London and touring with the Teskey Brothers. Bodies of Water picks up where that record left off, moving from fire to water as a governing idea. The writing happened in fragments: hotel rooms, New York, London, in between session work. Powne plays trumpet, keys and sings across all eight tracks, drawing on Afrobeat rhythms, Dilla-influenced grooves and something closer to spiritual jazz without settling into any one of them for long. “Stay Awake” and “RYV” push into political territory. “Swollen” and “Karma” sit with personal damage. The whole thing holds together because Powne produced it herself and knows exactly how much space each idea needs.

The Brooklyn sessions anchor the sound. Jonathan Barber, a New York drummer best known for his own Vision Ahead project, provides a rhythmic foundation that shifts between pocket playing and looser, more exploratory passages. DJ Ginyard returns on bass after working with Powne on her debut EP. Randy Runyon adds guitar textures across the record, and Lewis Moody, a Melbourne-born, London-based engineer, mixed the album. Frank Merritt mastered and cut the lacquer at The Carvery. It’s worth noting the Creative Australia credit on the sleeve: this is an Australian artist making a record that sits comfortably alongside the UK and US jazz scenes, produced entirely on her own terms. Gatefold sleeve, pressed in Germany. Gilles Peterson called her “the very brilliant Audrey Powne” on BBC 6 Music, and nothing about this record argues with him.