daoud - ok

With ‘ok’, his new album and ACT debut, French trumpeter daoud offers a quiet manifesto - a record shaped by contrast and contradiction, by collapse and the stubborn act of beginning again. Built around the idea of accepting what cannot be changed. He explains: “The whole record is built around the concept of reluctant acceptance of things that you can’t control. All right, fuck it, fine, I guess.”

The album explores failure, loss, repetition and the soft absurdity of pretending everything’s fine. Across 14 tracks, daoud weaves tragedy and humour, chaos and tenderness, melody and noise into a rich and emotionally charged soundscape.

At its core, ‘ok’ is a jazz record treated like anything but a jazz record. The foundation of the music was created live in the studio, together with keyboardist Leo Colman, double bassist Louis Navarro, drummer Silvan Strauss, electric bassist / guitarist / keyboardist Jules Minck and keyboardist Kuz. The editing of these recordings was more akin to a pop production, yet the sounds, pads and textures added afterwards are subtle and refined.

The elaborate production is topped by a striking line-up of international musical guests who lend the music even more facets and emotions: corto.alto (trombone / GB), Rosie Frater-Taylor (guitar and vocals / UK), Mehdi Nassouli (guembri / MOR), Ludivine Issambourg (flute / FR), Teis Semey (guitar / NL), Kuba Więcek (alto saxophone / PL) and Julien Fillion (tenor saxophone / CA). The result sounds organic and immediate, as if you feel the production more than hear it. The album blends jazz, hip-hop, rock, disco, Afrobeat and drum & bass - not as genres to explore, but as emotional textures in a broader narrative.