The Smile drummer Tom Skinner unveils new single "The Journey"

After completing The Smile's first run of UK and European shows in August, Tom Skinner returned with news of his own album Voices of Bishara, and shared the lead single "BIshara" in September. Today (18 October) he's back with a second single titled "The Journey", which features Robert Stillman and Chelsea Carmichael on tenor sax, Kareem Dayes on cello, Tom Herbert on acoustic bass and Paul Camo on samples.

The idea for Voices of Bishara came about after Skinner invited some musician friends to take part in a Played Twice session at London's Brilliant Corners, which required them to improvise to a full classic album. The album on that night was drummer Tony Williams’ 1964 album Life Time, and it inspired Skinner to make a full album.

Skinner says of the process, "I took a very liberal approach with the scissors and started going really hard into the edits between instruments. It breathed new life into the music. I was taking my cue from the great disco re-edits, people like Theo Parrish chopping up tunes and looping sections. I’m not a purist. I don’t want to get hung up on the past. It was really empowering to fuck it up a bit, to mess around with the music and see what happened. It felt right."