Sonic Bliss: JAWWAAD - “WITHOUT YOU” (FEAT. CONTOUR, YAAJÉ & JAMES BRANDON LEWIS)
Houston sound artist JAWWAAD finds a frequency where the world slows down and feeling takes the lead. “Without You,” featuring Contour, Yaajé, and James Brandon Lewis, unfolds like a moving picture, its silky production preserving an ethereal atmosphere while weaving together elements of neo-soul, lo-fi, experimental jazz, and hip-hop.
FFO: The Alchemist , MF DOOM, Ab-Soul
For JAWWAAD, music has always existed somewhere beyond the boundaries of genre. A trumpeter, emcee, producer, and co-founder of experimental jazz collective The Young Mothers, Jawwaad Taylor has spent years moving between the worlds of modern jazz, hip-hop, improvisation, and multidisciplinary art.
His collaborations with MF DOOM, Shape of Broad Minds, and visual artist Carrie Mae Weems reflect an expansive creative practice shaped by curiosity and an openness to unexpected intersections. Yet beneath the sprawling artistic network lies a deeply personal relationship with sound.
Living with sickle cell anemia and chronic pain, JAWWAAD has described music and art as an anchor through the physical and emotional turbulence of everyday life. The isolation of the pandemic prompted a period of inward reflection and spiritual growth that helped shape Myth & Logic, an album centered on resilience, acceptance, and protecting the things we hold close.
JAWWAAD's “Without You” pulls you into its orbit with lush, laid-back grooves that hit somewhere between late-night soul and hazy jazz.
Featuring Contour, Yaajé, and James Brandon Lewis, the track brings together a collective of musicians whose chemistry lets the sound breathe. Recorded across Houston and Trondheim, Norway, the wider Myth & Logic sessions draw from an international network of collaborators, folding improvisation, jazz, and hip-hop into JAWWAAD’s expansive sonic vision.
On “Without You,” silky production and infectious rhythms create a rich backdrop for vocals that move with rawness and ease. The song’s warmth comes through without sacrificing its depth. Neo-soul, lo-fi, and jazz settle into one another naturally, while the storytelling flows give the track its emotional center. It’s an invitation to slow down, tune in, and let the layers reveal themselves.
JAWWAAD’s obsession with sound doesn’t stop at the speakers. With Myth & Logic: The Geometry of Sound, he drags frequency and vibration into the physical world, bending sound into sculpture and blurring the line between what we hear and what we feel.
“Without You” is just one transmission from the wider world JAWWAAD is building with Myth & Logic. Its warm collision of neo-soul, lo-fi, and jazz offers a glimpse into an album shaped by deep listening, restless collaboration, and a willingness to follow the beats wherever they lead.
Take the single for a spin, then dive into the full album when it arrives November 13 via Sonic Transmissions and Sound Mind Body Labs.
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