Compare the monochromatic cover art of Joy Guidry’s new album with that of her previous and you’ll notice a significant difference this time round: Guidry herself is absent, leaving hands holding the impressive headdress that adorned her on the cover to her standout album AMEN. The change is notable: on AMEN, Guidry was facing the world, making a bold statement, but on her new album Five Prayers, she’s offering space. A record born from navigating the most tumultuous mental health episodes in her life, Guidry created a meditative place for listeners to sit in. Choral and gospel voices are gone this time round, and Five Prayers sinks fully into the ambient ground.
Guidry’s voice is still present though, namely through her elegant and elegiac bassoon playing. All five tracks here “focus on a different perspective of my current mental health and give gratitude to individuals in my life who have given me a reason to continue on in this world.” “Hold and Be Held” – a harmonic response to Nikki Giovanni’s poem This World Is Not A Pleasant Place To Be – couples Guidry’s wistful long notes with Elizabeth Steiner’s harp and Diego Gaeta’s synths, which create an etheric atmosphere. It’s like wandering in a state of limbo, the hint of heavenly beauty in the air, but held down by great and eternal sadness. Contrastingly “Myles” is for Guidry’s little brother, who has “one of the most beautiful and refreshing spirits on this earth.” The second half of the track introduces a playful bass workout and light drum track; it’s a fleeting moment of joy and wispy bliss.
Mostly Five Prayers subsists on Guidry’s bassoon though: it carries the tracks along the soft terrain, percolating Gaeta’s synth backdrops, full of expression if you follow it along the path it leads you, but equally ready to simply paint around you if you choose to use the music here as a meditative space. “You’ve Done What You Can” assimilates a backdrop of voices against the bassoon and synths, but Guidry’s playing layers up and over itself, trilling with sorrow, anguish, but also a certain excitement. The 16-minute closing track “I Know You’re Always With Me” is a meditative journey across a calm body of water, synths sparkling lightly and bassoon lulling the direction forwards at an almost imperceptible pace.
Music like that on Five Prayers isn’t a shocking turn for Guidry. She strips away the free jazz leanings of her previous work and instead follows a side of her expression and style that was present from her first full length, 2022’s Radical Acceptance. She’s painting with fewer colours here, but also more nuance; the focus is shifted and her skills as a fluid and dynamic bassoon player shine through clearer than ever. Her gospel, soul, and jazz influences are still here though, albeit condensed and pared down. (She lists Alice Coltrane, Jazmine Sullivan, and Cleo Sol among the album’s influences.)
Five Prayers is escapism at its core though, both for Guidry and listeners. Opening track “Convince Me To Stay” chimes like a temple, and suitably offers an entrance into its space. It’s a grand place to breathe in, and quietly reckons with Guidry’s lifelong struggles with suicidal ideation; you can practically hear her taking deep breaths in and out to bring about calm – a calm she welcomes others to experience. Though it may be wordless, Five Prayers says a great deal with just its tone and texture. It’s a place of peace, harmonic poetry, and solitude for herself and others to sit in. The headdress on the cover is there to be worn; Guidry wears it proudly herself but with this album she offers others the opportunity to feel its weight and power.
