Ron Trent releases new album, 'What Do The Stars Say To You': Listen

Ron Trent has released his first new album in 11 years as part of his WARM project.

Out today (24th June), ‘What Do The Stars Say To You’ spans 10 tracks and follows the very first WARM release in 2019, a three-track EP called ‘Night Ride’.

The album, which was first announced in April of this year, features guest musicians Khruangbin, Gigi Masin, Jean-Luc Ponty, Ivan Conti, and Alex Malheriros from Azymuth. Across the record, Trent plays drums, other percussion, piano, guitar, synths and various other electronics. Trent said in a statement that the album was “designed for harmonising with spirit, urban life and nature”.

Speaking about the collaborations, he continued: “I’m a huge fan of everyone on the record, especially Jean-Luc and Azymuth, who’re part of my DNA. Each track was made with that guest in mind – for example, when I started writing ‘Sphere’, I immediately thought, ‘This IS Ponty’. I played the keys in his style, and did a guide violin solo using a synth, which he then re-did, amazingly.

“‘Cool Water’ is based around Azymuth themes, so when I sent it to Ivan, he could immediately see himself in the piece; he got what I was going for straight away. For ‘Melt Into You’, I hit up Alex on Instagram, sent him the track, he liked it, and within 24 hours he’d sent back six different bass passes!

“Conversely, ‘Admira’ began with a sketch sent by Gigi and became something combining Jon Hassell-esque chords and the feel of ‘Aquamarine’ by Carlos Santana, which links back to Masin’s recurrent nautical theme.”

Of his link-up with Trent, Jean-Luc Ponty said: “It was a nice surprise when Ron Trent offered me to collaborate on ‘Sphere’. I was happy to discover that an artist like him from a younger generation and from a different style of music than mine was interested in my playing and my music. When I listened to the track he had prepared for me, I could hear common musical elements between house music and jazz.

“‘Sphere’ has such a great groove but also that special mood which inspired me immediately to play on it. The ultimate goal in music is to express what cannot be expressed with words, sounds and vibrations that lift your soul to another world and ‘Sphere’ does it for me.”

Listen to the full album below, and purchase it via Ron Trent’s Bandcamp page.