Previously available solely to stream and now receiving a physical release on both CD and LP – and featuring an additional four bonus tracks for good measure – 12 Little Spells sees the Grammy-winning composer, vocalist and bassist exploring the healing powers of art, with each spell inspired by a different part of the body. What unites all of the songs is an all-encompassing search for the beautiful, the euphoric and the cathartic. Whether channelling an unchanging, feel-good groove on ‘You Have To Dance’, taking the listener on a much more circuitous, harmonically daring journey on ‘The Longing Deep Down’, or creating ravishing palettes of sound on ‘To Tide Us Over’ and ‘Touch In Mine’, both of which act almost as objects of benign contemplation, 12 Little Spells is an album that crackles with life. The textural drop-out that leaves Spalding's two vocal lines weaving around each other at the end of ‘Lest We Forget’ is a dramatic coup which typifies the album as a whole. Ranging from the lyrical to the impassioned, this is perhaps the singularly most affecting record I've heard this year.