Carlos Niño & Friends – Placenta 2LP International Anthem Recording Co.

Placenta is the fourth collection of imaginative and highly collaborative Carlos Niño & Friends music released on International Anthem since 2021. Perhaps more notably for the zeitgeist of today, it’s the first new music to be released by Carlos Niño & Friends following the November 2023 release of André 3000’s New Blue Sun – which Carlos produced alongside André, co-writing, co-creating/playing, and co-mixing every song. The announcement of Placenta comes while Carlos is on tour with André, where Carlos offers an immense presence as music director, bandleader and percussionist, performing alongside several of his closest collaborators who are featured on his & Friends albums, including Placenta.

Placenta is announced on the 1st solar return of Moss Niño, of whom Carlos and his partner Annelise are Earth parents. Their experience of pregnancy, labor and delivery were all profoundly impactful for Carlos. Becoming a father again (a whole 24 years after the birth of Azul Niño, who has become a regular artistic collaborator with Carlos) he felt total Inspiration for this set of recordings, and hence it is the most conceptually-grounded Carlos Niño & Friends album we’ve yet to present – fully connected to the spirit of family, birth, and “how we get here.”

In Niño’s words, Placenta is “dedicated to Mothers, Children, Babies, Aunties, Doulas, Midwives, Birthworkers…,” and a short list of track titles includes: “Love to all Doulas!,” “Some Rest for the Midwives,” “Real Vital Organs,” and “Generous Pelvis.” The centerpiece of the album, the sprawling “Placenta, Nourishment, New Home, The Galaxy,” is an unbelievably vivid immersion in the sonic architecture of Niño’s memory-scape… like being present in his energy field… or being present in a birthing room, or maybe even being born yourself. And it just might be the most powerful, unique piece of music Niño has ever created.