Music

Irreversible Entanglements Push Free Jazz to Its Incendiary Edge on New Album ‘Future Present Past’ Out Now

Mar 27, 2026

Irreversible Entanglements have never made music that sits still, and ‘Future Present Past’ is no exception. The free-jazz quintet’s sixth studio album is out today via Impulse!, a bristling, contained, and deeply purposeful record that channels skittering percussion, heated vocal delivery from Camae Ayewa, and scattershot horn runs into something that feels less like an album and more like an act of collective resistance.

The record features contributions from MOTHERBOARD across five tracks, whose voice soars as an airy counterpoint to Ayewa’s lower, more grounded timbre. Helado Negro appears on the opening track “Juntos Vencemos” and closing track “We Overcome,” bookending the album with collaborative solidarity. The advance singles “Don’t Lose Your Head” and “Vibrate Higher” set the tone, with Paste calling the former “both rallying cry and earworm, the kind of fight song that sneaks into your bloodstream and stays there, like a mantra, like a prayer.” FLOOD praised the collective for continuing “to push spiritual jazz to its incendiary limits.” Both assessments are accurate.

At its core, ‘Future Present Past’ is about agency, morality, and where music can head in the 21st century. The collective describes the album as “five standing on the shoulders of legions,” a record that asks listeners to be observant, inspired, and brave in equal measure. Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, it follows their 2023 Impulse! debut ‘Protect Your Light,’ which landed on year-end best-of lists from the New York Times, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Paste, and Vulture.

IE plays Solar Myth in Philadelphia tonight and tomorrow night, with last night’s Knockdown Center show in New York alongside Shabaka and Tom Skinner already behind them.

‘Future Present Past’ Track List: