After their collaboration with Dijf Sanders and last year's aptly titled interim EP 'Intermediate State', Black Flower returns with a new long player. Asked about the meaning of album title 'Future Flora', front man Nathan Daems replied: "'Future Flora' refers to the powers of plants and the important role they play for our future, and is a metaphor for the importance of feeding and maintaining powerful and revolutionary ideas and initiatives that can save our world. You can compare it to the plants that wriggle between the tiles of our pavement, fighting for their future. These "city warriors" need water to survive and grow. Their future and ours depends entirely on how we view the plant world.", seemingly putting this new production perfectly in line with the ongoing climate protests of the past few months. In tracks like 'Ohm Eye' and 'Ankor Wat' you can still hear Asian echoes from their collaboration with Sanders, and for 'Maloya Bud', based on the drum and percussion rhythms of Simon Segers and Jon Birdsong, Black Flower drew inspiration from Réunionese maloya traditions. Closer to its Ethio-jazz roots, the band stays with 'Hora De Aksum', in which Daems' sax goes into dialogue with Birdsong's cornet, and the more than 13 (!) minute long mesmerizing finale and title track 'Future Flora' with psychedelic keyboards by Wouter Haest and bassist Filip Vandebril making his six-string bass sound like a surf guitar. May this black flower continue to bloom for a long time to come!