‘A bassoonist, versatile improviser, performance artist and composer of experimental, daring new works that embody a deep love of storytelling.

Anyone who listens to the opening track, “Just Because I Have a Dick Doesn’t Mean I’m a Man” from Joy Guidry’s (US) debut album Radical Acceptance, will immediately recognise the demons she’s facing. A Black woman in a man’s body struggling with prejudice, mental health issues, racism and the fight against it. Internally and in relation to the outside world.  

She settles this fight in her music at the intersection of ambient, gospel, experimental jazz and textured electronics, exploring, in her own words, ‘the spiritual and sonic terrains of living with Bipolar II disorder’.  

Enter: her beautifully crafted album Five Prayers (2025), released on her own label JAID. Guidry: ‘Five Prayers is really a direct line into my soul, into my brain, and into my thought processes. … An offering of meditative, ambient, and soul-stirring compositions born from a year of mental health challenges and spiritual rediscovery.’  

She describes her compositions as ‘sonic meditations’. For anyone who can’t get enough: her “sixth prayer”, “Here We Are”, was recently released.  

According to BRDCST, Five Prayers was one of the most captivating albums of 2025. The San Diego Tribune already has us eagerly anticipating her live set: ‘Lyrical and haunting … hair-raising and unsettling.’  
Recommended reading if you want to get into the spirit of Joy Guidry: Joy Guidry: ‘I can love music again, not just in my head but in reality’ | Interview | The Line of Best Fit.