Yazz Ahmed – Dawn Patrol
British-Bahraini trumpeter Yazz Ahmed has shared “Dawn Patrol”, the lead single from her forthcoming EP Shinrin-yoku, due May 29 via Night Time Stories. The EP is a collection of nature-inspired pieces recorded remotely in 2020, at home and with collaborators in Denmark and the UK.
Ahmed was direct about what prompted her to release it now. Writing in her announcement, she pointed to the state of the world — ongoing wars, feelings of hopelessness, a sense of abandonment — as the reason. “I weep for humanity”, she wrote. “In these troubled times I’m hoping to bring a little inner peace and to encourage reconnection with the sacred landscapes we all share on this planet”. That framing is worth taking seriously: Shinrin-yoku is the Japanese practice of forest bathing, absorbing the atmosphere of natural spaces as a form of healing, and the EP title is a deliberate signal about what Ahmed is going for.
“Dawn Patrol” features Ahmed on trumpets, flugelhorns, and programming alongside Noel Langley on trumpets and flugelhorns, Samuel Hällkvist on guitars, and Josh Blackmore on drums. Mixed by Tom Jenkins and mastered by Robin Morrison, with artwork by Sophie Bass. The layering of two brass voices against Hällkvist’s guitar is where I find the track most interesting — it gives the piece a gentle forward motion that fits the title’s suggestion of early morning movement without announcing itself.
We’ve covered Ahmed twice recently: her collaboration with Richard Russell appeared on Everything Is Recorded’s Temporary (W47, 2024), and last October we featured Russell’s remix of “Waiting For The Dawn” (W43, 2025) from her album A Paradise In The Hold.
