Bill Wells & Maher Shalal Hash Baz - GOK

Despite being 5701 miles apart (thanks, Internet), Scotland and Japan have a long-standing musical affinity, with bands like the BMX Bandits arguably finding greater success in the Land of the Rising Sun than on home soil. With GOK, Geographic have brought together two prodigious talents who hail from opposite sides of the globe yet coalesce with a rare musical harmony.

Falkirk-born jazz maverick Bill Wells, and Maher Shalal Hash Baz, a project led by Japanese composer Tori Kudo, self-proclaimed “king of error", have wonderfully complementary styles, and their loose, organic improvisations inspire dozens of emotions simultaneously through constant shifts in tone and timbre. Highlights are bountiful, with the swelling, slightly out-of-tune build-up of Rye and Guy and the hushed beauty of Mako Hasegawa’s vocals in Time Takes Me So Back deserving singling out. But more than any individual moments, GOK shines as a beautifully imperfect whole.