Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart are a trio of improvisers individually rooted in deep sound exploration, multi-disciplinary composition, and all manner of cross-genre collaboration. The musical ground covered by their solo practices is correspondingly expansive, and their individual recording and performance credits read as a veritable who's who, ranging from DIY darlings to household names of experimental avant-garde, electronic, indie rock, and more.

Their collective sound is based in improvised performance automatic, intuitive composition via their three voices and three string instruments: viola, cello, and violin, respectively. Influences here are vast, dispatched with more playful ease than a trio of string instruments is typically approached with, and just as likely to be found in the cloud-obscured mountains of Donegal, the low-rent cacophony of a midwestern basement, or the revelatory expanse of the Nurse With Wound list as in the storied hals of the academy.

As a recording unit, the trio hones and transforms their performance concept with careful post-production, using multiple tape machines and outboard effects to reimagine their improvised material into meticulously crafted compositions. It's al a response to the spaces they are collectively engaged with, and the use of a highly physical medium like analog tape deepens that spatial engagement with striking, organically psychedelic results.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dawn | Pulse
2. Laundry | Blood
3. Chewing Gun
4. Door | Watch
5. Stone | Piece
6. Burning | Counting (sleeping)
7. Shadow | Mess
8. Paper Folding | Disappearing
9. Cough | Laugh
10. Snow | Touch
11. Fog | Mirror

'Extra Stars' is Gregory Uhlmann's solo debut on International Anthem. It's a deep and gorgeous expansion of the LA-based multi-instrumentalist producer / composer's rhythmic ambient side, as nascently explored in his much-lauded duo with Meg Duffy, his trio work with Josh Johnson and Sam Wilkes, and in the gentler moments of SML (the improvising trance-jazz unit of which he is a member).

A radiant sidereal serenade, the album's fourteen miniature infinities swirl serendipitous synthesis and measured, melody-rich song into a panoramic menagerie of sound. For a record that seldom incorporates percussion instrumentals, the music is distinctly rhythm-forward, while Uhlmann also leans heavily into swaths of pastoral beauty. Extra care was clearly poured into the kind of harmonic depth that's often missing from vibe-only "ambient" music, making for a delightfully refreshing take on the electronic, processing-heavy quiet sound.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's a deep and gorgeous expansion of the LA-based multi-instrumentalist producer / composer's rhythmic ambient side, as nascently explored in his much-lauded duo with Meg Duffy, his trio work with Josh Johnson and Sam Wilkes, and in the gentler moments of SML (the improvising trance-jazz unit of which he is a member).

TRACK LISTING

1. Pocket Snail
2. View Above
3. Lucia
4. Like Tea
5. Days
6. Worms Eye
7. Burnt Toast
8. Dottie
9. Bristlecone
10. Voice Exchange
11. View Below
12. Back Scratch
13. Imprint
14. Sugar Water

SML is the quintet of bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann. Their second album, 'How You Been', finds the supergroup of prolific composer/producers pushing ever further into the hyperrealist, collectivist approach to music creation nascently explored on their debut 'Small Medium Large', which was lauded as "awe-inspiring" by Glide, "exuberant" by the Los Angeles Times, and "an exciting milestone" by Pitchfork.

'How You Been' represents a breakthrough in the musical language of the group. This new work was crafted via extensive post-production of recorded improvisations from a handful of shows in a similar fashion to their debut, but whereas 'Small Medium Large' was constructed from analog tapes of the band's very first (and very modest) shows at bygone Highland Park LA venue ETA, 'How You Been' was built with a far higher level of self-awareness and a far deeper pool of source material.

As SML has evolved and spread out in space-time, their fluencies, both as an improvising unit in performance and as a production team in the studio, have sharpened. At inception the band inspired disparate but distinctive artist comparisons like Essential Logic, Oval, Herbie Hancock's Sextant, and electric Miles Davis, as well as assorted genre touchpoints like Afrobeat, kosmiche, proto-techno and new-jazz. With 'How You Been' their work manages to both collapse and explode such derivatives, displaying a new, high resolution version of SML, fully-flowered into a new strain of sound, bound to incite its own copycats in due time.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I realise the first thing people will think of when they see International Anthem is jazz music, and it kind of is jazz music but only in the same way that tomato is a fruit. For me, this sort of wildly percussive, fluid movement is more reminiscent of weirdo alt-electronic / post-rock like Battles or Errors. Your mileage may vary, either way it's properly fascinating and incredibly dextrous.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gutteral Utterance
2. Chicago Four
3. Taking Out The Trash
4. Plankton
5. Chicago Three
6. Daves
7. Old Mytth
8. Stepping In / The Loop
9. Brood Board SHROOM
10. Odd Evens
11. How You Been
12. Moving Walkway
13. Mouth Words

With 'Touch', the Tortoise bandmembers — Jeff Parker, Dan Bitney, Douglas McCombs, John Herndon, and John McEntire — harness their collectivist songwriting approach, a slightly anarchistic but resolutely egalitarian process where ideas triumph over ego towards an abstracted muscularity. While there are still excursions into the dusky, elegantly gnarled jazz ambience that flourished on landmark works like 'Millions Now Living Will Never Die' and 'TNT', 'Touch' is perhaps most remarkable for Tortoise's unapologetic embrace of grand gesture. Aerodynamically re-engineered Krautrock, hand-cranked techno rave-ups, and pointillist spaghetti western fanfares are all imbued with Tortoise's now-signature internal logic — equally alluring and confounding, a puzzle to be savored rather than solved.

The stylistic diversity is also a reflection of the band's current operating circumstances: With two members now in Los Angeles, another in Portland, and just two remaining in the band's Chicago hometown, their creative process has shifted dramatically from when they lived together in a loft space in the late 1990s, honing their sound over endless hours of collective experimentation.

Recorded between the three cities — Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago — Touch is the result of an intentional effort by these five musicians to reconnect, recenter, and reinvigorate their sound for what is perhaps the group’s most diverse release to date.

'Touch' is the culmination of a long-gestating reunion, the results of which Tortoise first shared this past March, when they released 'Oganesson' — "an off-kilter, 7/4 funk tune with a spy-movie ambience" ( New York Times) that is included on the new album — ahead of a career-spanning opening night performance at the boundary-crossing music festival Big Ears. They followed that with the 'Oganesson Remixes' EP, which featured reworks of the track from poet and activist Saul Williams, prolific mastering engineer Heba Kadry, Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney, indie music icons Broken Social Scene, and International Anthem labelmate Makaya McCraven.

TRACK LISTING

1. Vexations
2. Layered Presence
3. Works And Days
4. Elka
5. Promenade à Deux
6. Axial Seamount
7. A Title Comes
8. Rated OG
9. Oganesson
10. Night Gang

The title of Tom Skinner’s first release under his own name is a reference to cellist Abdul Wadud’s ultra-rare 1978 solo album By Myself, which Skinner listened to repeatedly during lockdown. Wadud’s album was privately pressed on his own label, Bisharra, and whilst Skinner’s title uses the more conventional spelling of this common Arabic name, they both have the same intention or meaning: it translates as ‘good news’, or ‘the bringer of good news’.

Voices of Bishara began life when Tom Skinner asked some musician friends to join him for a Played Twice session at London’s Brilliant Corners. The regular event had a simple format: play a classic album in full through their audiophile system and then have an elite ensemble improvise their response. The night in question focused on drummer Tony Williams’ 1964 Blue Note album Life Time and the music he and his friends conjured up was so special that it inspired Skinner to write an album’s-worth of phenomenal new music based on the work of Wadud, with a process inspired by this group-reimagining of Life Time.

The result is a tight, hypnotic and unique 31-minutes of music. Voices of Bishara is sculpted around timeless and deeply emotional music that contains masses of movement and exceptional harmonic depth and texture. It sweeps and soars through soundworlds, rich in musicality and always anchored by the deep doubling of cello and bass. It also, of course, contains Skinner’s percussive magic.

“We’re individual voices, coming together collectively,” says Skinner. “The idea was that we could collectively bring something more positive to the table. It’s the start of something.”

Tom Skinner and Voices of Bishara: bringers of good news.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Bishara – 5:37
2. Red 2 – 2:57
3. The Journey – 5:01

Side B
4. The Day After Tomorrow – 4:59
5. Voices (of The Past) – 4:50
6. Quiet As It’s Kept – 4:03

Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople is the first collaborative album from poet/vocalist Saul Williams and percussionist/producer Carlos Niño. The album was recorded live underneath black oak and walnut trees in Coldwater Canyon Park, Los Angeles, on December 18, 2024.

The performance, which was organized by Noah Klein of Living Earth on the grounds of longstanding conservationist organization TreePeople, was the first of its kind for Williams and Niño, who have been friends since the late 1990s.

For the occasion, Niño assembled and directed an ensemble of frequent collaborators including Nate Mercereau (Guitar Synthesizer, Live Sampling with Midi Guitar, Sample Sources), Aaron Shaw (Flute, Soprano Saxophone with Pedals, Tenor Saxophone), Andres Renteria (Bells, Congas, Egyptian Rattle Drum, Hand Drums, Percussion), Maia (Flute, Vibraphone, Voice), Francesca Heart (Computer, Conch Shell, Sound Design), and Kamasi Washington (Tenor Saxophone). 

TRACK LISTING

1. Sound Then Words
2. We Would Lift Our Voice...
3. We Are Calling Out In This Moment...
4. The Water Is Rising / As We Surpass The Firing Squad…
5. We Have Work To Do... (Speaking After The Concert)

Angel Bat Dawid's International Anthem debut 'The Oracle' introduced her multifaceted voice to the world. The response to its modest, initial cassette/digital release in January of 2019 was immediate, and immense. Within a month of its announcement, Dawid was being featured on magazine covers and receiving offers from international festivals; and her subsequent activity marked the beginning of an epic run of creative output (including 2020's 'LIVE' double LP, the same year's EP 'Transition East', 2021's 'Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1 Doxology', and the sprawling opus 'Requiem for Jazz', released in 2023) that continues through the present.

The collection of compositions on The Oracle present a deep blend of powerful and emotive songs alongside heavy and free improvisation. In true DIY fashion, Dawid recorded and mixed the album using only her cell phone.

"Angel's fieldnote approach affirms that the everyday remains a legitimate site of creative production," says South Africa based percussionist, collaborator, and IARC labelmate Asher Gamedze in his liner notes for the album's IA11 Edition. Gamedze - the only other musician to appear on 'The Oracle' besides Dawid, who constructed most of the album's tracks by layering, overdubbing, and arranging lo-fi symphonies of her own voice, wind instruments, percussions, and keyboards - waxes extensively about Dawid's significance in his notes, calling her "a living exemplar and extension of the spacious sonic horizons opened by the likes of the AACM and their refusal of any limitations on their creative vision and the destruction of the demarcation between composer and improviser."

TRACK LISTING

1. Destination (Dr. Yusef Lateef)
2. Black Family
3. What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black (Dr. Margaret Burroughs)
4. Impepho
5. We Are Starzz
6. London
7. Capetown (feat. Asher Simiso Gamedze)
8. The Oracle

'Hyperglyph' is the first new album in 11 years from composer / trumpeter / synthesist Rob Mazurek and composer / percussionist Chad Taylor's long-running Chicago Underground Duo project. Mazurek and Taylor have played music together in a multitude of formations over nearly three decades, including their ongoing partnership in Mazurek's large-format-skyward-expressionism vehicle Exploding Star Orchestra, in the expanded Chicago Underground Trio, Quartet and Orchestra (all with guitarist Jeff Parker), as well as a plethora of other assemblages. The early albums by the Duo have proven to be embryonic blueprints for the avant-jazz / electronic / indie rock hybridizing of the time, making them majorly important moments in the articulation of the "jazz" dimensionality of the then-burgeoning "post rock" sound. That sound, of course, was being transmitted far and wide due to the success of these groups as well as the Mazurek/Parker project Isotope 217, and the Chicago Underground's frequently- intersecting collaborators in Tortoise. Just as most of the still-working projects born of that era have evolved, reconfigured, and grown, the Chicago Underground Duo has undergone a number of musical moltings, with the project always in the background of disparate individual aural investigations. The concurrent personal evolutions of Mazurek and Taylor as the Duo project drops off and picks back up makes it a true reflection of their own lives and friendship.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Propulsive avant-jazz and thundering psychedelic rock come together into a beautiful juxtaposition of the disciplines of these two seasoned collaborators. Amazing musicianship all round.

TRACK LISTING

1. Click Song
2. Hyperglyph
3. Rhythm Cloth
4. Contents Of Your Heavenly Body
5. The Gathering
6. Plymouth
7. Hemiunu
8. Egyptian Suite / Part 1: The Architect
9. Egyptian Suite / Part 2: Triangulation Of Light
10. Egyptian Suite / Part 3: Architectronics Of Time
11. Succulent Amber

'Gilles Peterson presents International Anthem' is a compilation chronicling the legendary London-based radio host, DJ, label head, curator and cultural impresario's long-standing affinity for and interaction with artists and music from the Chicago-born record label International Anthem.

The tracks on this compilation were chosen by Peterson via an extensive review of track lists from his broadcasts on BBC Radio 6 Music, Worldwide FM, and various syndicated radio programs. The compilation also includes a previously unreleased track recorded live on the Peterson-founded online radio station Worldwide FM.

This album is released via International Anthem as part of their "IA11" series of releases and events - where the label celebrates their eleventh year of existence by looking back on their first ten years while establishing new standards for the next ten years.

TRACK LISTING

1. Chicago, January 13th, 2020
2. Makaya McCraven - The Jaunt
3. Junius Paul - Asé
4. Dezron Douglas & Brandee Younger - The Creator Has A Master Plan
5. Resavoir - Taking Flight
6. Irreversible Entanglements - Open The Gates
7. Angel Bat Dawid - We Are Starzz
8. Rob Mazurek - Exploding Star Orchestra - Abstract Dark Energy (Parable 9)
9. The Most Amazing Time
10. Damon Locks - Black Monument Ensemble - Rebuild A Nation
11. Dos Santos - A Shot In The Dark
12. Daniel Villarreal - In/On
13. Anna Butterss - Pokemans
14. SML - Industry
15. Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer - Snåcko
16. Jeff Parker - Cliche
17. Jamire Williams - And Then The Anointing Fell
18. Carlos Niño & Friends - Please, Wake Up.
19. Thandi Ntuli With Carlos Niño - Voice And Tongo Experiment
20. Tom Skinner - Quiet As It’s Kept
21. Ruth Goller - Next Time I Keep My Hands Down
22. Alabaster DePlume - A Gente Acaba (Vento Em Rosa)
23. Old Fashioned Chicago Music
24. Jaimie Branch - Theme 001 (live)
25. Tomin - Angela’s Angel
26. Asher Gamedze - Melancholia
27. Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly - MESTIZX (Brownswood Basement Live)
28. Ben LaMar Gay - Oh Great Be The Lake
29. Charles Stepney - Step On Step 

Jeff Parker’s 2016 album 'The New Breed' was a turning point for both Parker and for International Anthem, changing the trajectory of his solo career as well as drawing an abundance of attention to our fresh imprint despite our then very limited catalog. Most importantly though, the album is the first to give voice to Parker’s wholly unique take on sample-based beat construction augmented by a crack squad of improv-savvy LA breezers—the high-level crew of Paul Bryan (bass), Josh Johnson (alto sax), and Jamire Williams (drums), augmented by Jay Bellerose (drums) and Ruby Parker (vocals).

What began as Jeff’s interest in understanding his own idea of hip-hop processes (and how they related to his work in jazz) expanded into a blueprint for much of his work since then. (see also: 'The New Breed’s rock-solid followup 'Suite For Max Brown', the gentle deconstructionist solo guitar of 'Forfolks', and the long-form slow bloom dub improvisation of 'The Way Out of Easy' — all released via International Anthem)

The IA11 Edition LP features our IARC 2025 obi strip, plus a new 16-page 11x11" insert booklet with unpublished session photos, new liner notes by New Breed bassist / co-producer Paul Bryan, and an in-depth conversation between JP and IARC co-founder Scott McNiece.

TRACK LISTING

1. Executive Life
2. Para Ha Tay
3. Here Comes Ezra
4. Visions
5. Jrifted
6. How Fun It Is To Year Whip
7. Get Dressed
8. Cliché

Irreversible Entanglements’ self-titled debut album was originally released in September 2017, and features the first music ever played together by the freshly assembled super-group of Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother), Luke Stewart, Keir Neuringer, Aquiles Navarro, and Tcheser Holmes. The explosive collection of improvised free-jazz with spoken word accompaniment was born after the group's initial meeting at a “Musicians Against Police Brutality” event following the state-sponsored killing of Akai Gurley.

As the OG press release puts it, “the spirit and subject the band channels and explores represent a return to a central tenet of the free jazz sound as it was founded—to be a vehicle for Black liberation. As creative and adventurous as any recording of contemporary avant-garde jazz but offering listeners no abstractions to hide behind, this is music that both honors and defies tradition, speaking to the present while insisting on the future.”

The IA11 Edition LP features our IARC 2025 obi strip, plus a new 8-page 11x11" insert booklet with unpublished session photos and new liner notes by Irreversible Entanglements bassist Luke Stewart.

TRACK LISTING

1. Chicago To Texas
2. Fireworks
3. Enough
4. Projects

The 2018 live performance captured on Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s 'Chicago Waves' marked another beautiful turning point for International Anthem. The set was recorded at their then HQ, Co-Prosperity, the day after Niño and Ferguson performed as part of Makaya McCraven’s Universal Beings ensemble to celebrate the release of his album by the same name and recreate their contributions to the music on the record’s 'LA Side'.

The release of the recording as the 'Chicago Waves' album at the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic drove home the unmistakable sound of togetherness audible in its grooves in a way that only a society trapped in their houses for a year can truly understand. But as that year fades further into the rearview mirror, 'Chicago Waves' still maintains its power. It’s not a mystery—this is what togetherness sounds like.

The IA11 Edition LP features our IARC 2025 obi strip, plus a new 16-page 11x11" insert booklet with additional photos and extensive new liner notes by IARC co-founder Scott McNiece.

TRACK LISTING

1. Part I
2. Part II
3. Part III
4. Part IV
5. Part V
6. Part VI
7. Part VII
8. Part VIII
9. Parts I-IV (Continuous)
10. Parts V-VIII (Continuous) 

'Different Rooms' is the sophomore album by Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer. The follow up to their critically acclaimed 'Recordings from the Aland Islands', this collection extends the path of pastiche forged by their debut: quietly multi-rhythmic, modular-trance-meets-processed-and-unprocessed-chamber strings, bewitching and bewildering field recordings all knitted tightly, an LA patchwork.

"Our studios are side-by-side. When we were writing this album, you might have found us tracking viola stacks in one studio while, in the other, we were writing through-composed themes and rearranging the material. Granular synthesis and tape manipulation are key tools we use to create variation and movement in a composition. This process often yields surprising results, capturing the emotion but expressing it in unexpected ways. It feels essential that we embrace a bit of chance.

In contrast to our first album, 'Recordings from the Aland Islands', we wanted this music to feel very present. Where 'Recordings...' was intended to transport you to another place, 'Different Rooms' is meant to meet you where you are. It's a decidedly urban album. The field recordings were captured on rain platforms, in city streets, in rooms at home, and intentionally paint a quotidian sonic image, blurring the line between what you hear in your own environment and what is on the record."

TRACK LISTING

1. Mean Solar Time
2. Long And Short Delays
3. Side By Side
4. One Of Eight
5. Before And After Signs
6. Different Rooms
7. Speaking In Parallel
8. Side By Side (Reflected)
9. Mind By A Way
10. Mean Solar Time (Reflected)

Gay's de facto debut album—the 2018 compilation 'Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun'—properly introduced him to the world by placing fifteen stylistically diverse tracks from seven then-unreleased albums next to one another. The release of his critically-acclaimed 2021 song cycle 'Open Arms To Open Us' followed, and then the explosive free-electronics of 2022’s 'Certain Reveries'. In addition to being featured on a staggering number of International Anthem releases (including albums by Makaya McCraven, jaimie branch, Damon Locks, Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly), Gay is one of the most prolific collaborators in creative music today, making active contributions to Mike Reed’s Separatist Party, Joshua Abrams’s Natural Information Society, Bitchin Bajas, Theaster Gates’s Black Monks of Mississippi, and many more.

A uniting factor in Gay's deep, multi-faceted discography is a never-ending commitment to taking the stories of the past and pushing them outward, filtered through a sense of self, to keep that information moving. Information moves through 'Yowzers' via the intuitive physicality of Gay’s creative polyrhythmic constructions, as he covertly delivers familiar folk melodies. “It’s the most natural thing,” says Gay. “That’s how the world is. There are overlapping rhythms all around us, and so it reminds you of the reality of the world when you hear them. It’s a loop and the loop is always changing.”

'Yowzers' features Gay's working quartet with Tommaso Moretti (drums, percussion, voice), Matthew Davis (tuba, piano, bells, voice), and Will Faber (guitar, ngoni, bells, voice), as well as guest instrumentalist Rob Frye and a mini-choir comprising vocalists Ayanna Woods, Tramaine Parker, and Ugochi Nwaogwugwu. The album recalls the high-minded freedom of Liberation Music Orchestra, the glitched-out electronic webs of Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, the unbridled rhythms and sandpaper bellows of Bukka White, and the harmolodic cartoon glory of Arthur Blythe’s Illusions. It’s all there, filtered through an improvisational approach and a lifetime of secrets embodied. For a man who has inhabited and traveled these continents so extensively, it’s safe to call this work true “Americana,” despite what that word might mean to the average person in the United States. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Yowzers
2. The Glorification Of Small Victories
3. There, Inside The Morning Glory
4. Roller Skates
5. For Breezy
6. I Am (bells)
7. Promontory
8. John, John Henry
9. Damn You Cute
10. Cumulus
11. Touch
12. Leave Some For You

'Horizon' is a new collaborative album by Resavoir & Matt Gold. Across the 10 tracks the two Chicago-based producers combine their distinct sensibilities to create a hypnotic and inviting love letter to their shared admiration for '60s and '70s Brazilian music. Resavoir leading man Will Miller the acclaimed trumpeter, composer, and producer who's worked with SZA, Whitney, and more makes room at the table for Gold — a seasoned multi-instrumentalistand accomplished guitarist who has collaborated with the likes of Makaya McCraven and Greg Ward - and the results are distinctly new for both of them. The sunny and expansive tunes on Horizon are as immersive as they are endlessly replayable, a dynamic and joyous body of work.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another International Anthem stunner, this time channelling Brazilian music and ending with an album that's just driven enough to not end up horizontal.

TRACK LISTING

1. Canopy
2. Memento
3. Dewy
4 Zero Gravity
5. Diversey Beach
6. Ahhh
7. Horizon
8. Hazel Canyon
9. Metropoli
10. Tomorrow

Rob Mazurek’s 'Alternate Moon Cycles' was Internantional Anthem's first ever release. The incredibly spare single-note-centered cornet, bass, and organ chant was recorded to tape at pint-sized Chicago bar Curio as part of a performance series that predates any notion of the label’s existence. Documenting this performance - highly unique even within the depths of Mazurek’s vast catalog - stirred those notions, and soon talks began of releasing the recording on a fresh imprint.

The music unfolds glacially amongst the gentle creaks, clinks, whispers, and scuffles of the active room. It’s difficult to imagine a more honest rendering of the two sidelong pieces of organic minimal music, and nearly impossible to separate the sounds from their performance context. It’s also difficult to imagine a more subtly striking way to introduce a new label to the world.

Now this long-gone gem of supernatural frequency excavation is back in print with fresh liner notes by Mikel Patrick Avery and obi design by Aaron Lowell Denton. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Waxing Crescent #1
2. Waxing Crescent #2

'Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes' is the debut album from Gregory Uhlmann (SML, Anna Butterss, Duffy x Uhlmann, Perfume Genius), Josh Johnson (SML, Jeff Parker ETA IVtet & New Breed, Meshell Ndegeocello, Anna Butterss, Leon Bridges), and Sam Wilkes (Sam Gendel, Louis Cole, Chaka Khan). The three improviser/arranger/producers' impressive individual credits encompass such a wide stylistic pendulum swing that a collection of group music from the trio could mine any number of musical territories with masterful results. In these 11 instrumental songs, the trio explores a spacious lyrical curiosity that could be described as a jazz-informed take on progressive electro-acoustic chamber music.

Conceived during two live shows at ETA and a session at Uhlmann's house in Los Angeles, the album maintains a focus on beauty, melody, and rhythm as the pieces unfold, with the trio pushing their instruments and highly-dialed effects to sculpt otherworldly sounds with the collective sensibility of a rhythm section. The ethos of these instant compositions is arrangement-minded improvisation that showcases the mournful beauty of Uhlmann's fingerpicked electric guitar, the hybrid rhythm-lead of Wilkes' bass chording, and the textural harmonic world building of Johnson's effect-laden alto saxophone.

TRACK LISTING

1. Marvis
2. Fumarole
3. Arpy
4. Frica
5. Hoe Down
6. Jicama
7. Unsure
8. Fields
9. Shwa
10. Rewinded
11. The Fool On The Hil

'A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole' is the latest album from London-based composer-poet-activist-improviser Alabaster DePlume, his first major work following 2022’s 'GOLD' and 2020's 'To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol 1'.

The 11-song album covers all of DePlume’s musical touchstones: lush and gentle instrumentals informed by ghostly ancient folk melodies; groove-focused rhythm explorations as a bed for self-searching spoken declamations; sweeping and beautiful string arrangements (in this case by Macie Stewart) set against his trademark vibrato-infused tenor sax whispermoan.

Most of all, 'A Blade...' finds Alabaster DePlume at his most purposeful and direct yet, building on foundations laid through years of writing and touring to craft this ambitious work. Here lyrical explorations of healing, dignity, and struggle set the tone of the music itself—the mysterious and tense sensuality of the Melody Nelson-like strings on 'Form a V'; the playful and idiosyncratic echos of the 1960s British Folk scene on 'Invincibility'; the golden-era Elvrum level of vocal intimacy on 'Too True' - it’s all handed over with such familiarity and intention that the album’s full sonic grandness reveals itself at an IV-drip-pace.

"A blade, because a blade is whole, it has forgiven itself, and because it will take a small piece of our opposite, for us to be complete. A blade has marked out these former selves on my hand, a blade made the lines that divine us and the blade is whole. A blade. While I forgive myself, and heal, and lead us in healing. We can only forgive each other once we forgive ourselves. We can only heal eachother while we heal ourselves." - Alabaster DePlume

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Immediately reminiscent of some of the more off-piste Constellation Records excursions (Matana Roberts, Eric Chenaux etc), Alabaster DePlume's music is rich in jazz tradition but also swims with avant garde folk influence, with Plume's voice providing a welcome counter to the deep, oft dissonant instrumental element.

TRACK LISTING

1. Oh My Actual Days
2. Thank You My Pain
3. Invincibility
4. Form A V
5. A Paper Man
6. Who Are You Telling, Gus
7. Prayer For My Sovereign Dignity
8. Kuzushi
9. Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem
10. Too True
11. That Was My Garden

'Skylla' is the debut solo recording of Italian-born and London-based composer, bassist, and vocalist Ruth Goller. This album of otherworldly detuned bass harmonics and dense vocal arrangements was initially released in 2021 by longtime collaborator Bex Burch's Vula Viel Records, and quickly went out of print. Since then Goller's notoriety has only grown, and her follow-up record, 'SKYLLUMINA', was released by International Anthem in early 2024 and met with high praise.

'Skylla' is the genesis of her sound, and it is a sound that is hard to place. Listeners could be convinced that these recordings came out of contexts as disparate as 80s Downtown NYC or some mysterious Bjork-adjacent project of the Icelandic 2010s. It's hard to imagine a person making this music despite the fact that its elements are instantly recognizable.

TRACK LISTING

1. Often They Came To Visit, Even Just To See How She Was (M1)
2. In More Turbulent Times, She Managed To Take The Perfect Shot (M4)
3. What’s Really Important She Wanted To Know - Part 1 (M6)
4. What’s Really Important She Wanted To Know - Part 2 (M7)
5. What’s Up Is Not What’s Real Most Of The Time (M5)
6. When They Came Closer She Realised They Were Alien Creatures (M3)
7. The Shine Of Gold Was Too Strong (M8)
8. When She Curled Up They Started Dancing (M2)
9. He Was Painting Her Face With Colours She Had Never Seen (M9)
10. I Is One (M10) 

'Mighty Vertebrate' is the International Anthem debut from Anna Butterss. The Adelaide-born bassist / composer has been a first call for LA tour and studio work since relocating there in 2014 - racking up credits with notables across the experimental, jazz, and pop worlds alike - but their most notable contributions to the burgeoning LA scene have been as a member of both Jeff Parker's ETA IVtet and SML who Pitchfork says “represents the thrilling next phase of a vibrant LA community.”

Here they reconvene a onset trusted longtime collaborators to bring their compositions to fruition: Ben Lumsdaine (drums, guitar, production), Josh Johnson (sax), and Gregory Uhlmann (guitar), plus a smoking guest appearance from Jeff Parker. The breadth and scope of the results might have been difficult to achieve otherwise. From the Robbie bestia-in-groove-mode intro to the album opener 'Bishop' to the spacious cinematic doom of 'Seeing You', there is a lot to wrangle into one cohesive concept. But, on 'Mighty Vertebrate', Butterss and crew do just that.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bishop
2. Shorn
3. Dance Steve
4. Ella
5. Lubbock
6. Pokemans
7. Breadrich
8. Seeing You
9. Counterpoint
10. Saturno

This is the repeated call and the rallying chorus of the nearly 40-minute centerpiece to composer and percussionist Asher Gamedze’s new album Constitution. The expansive double album, a minoritarian fellowship in breath, is Gamedze’s follow-up to 2023’s Turbulence and Pulse (IARC0057), and his first with The Black Lungs. The album – recorded in one day at Cape Town’s Sound and Motion Studios – is an elaboration of the possibilities of autonomous constitution in and through polyrhythmic, modal, large ensemble music.

On Constitution, the power of the question, the possibility of an improvised answer and the celebration of being together exists not in the solo but in the group, the ensemble. Here The Black Lungs collectively explore and deconstruct the conceptual, tonal, and atonal possibilities of themes which are at once of old and new dreams - curious and instantiative, melancholic and emergent.


“The Black Lungs is inspired by the revolutionary thought and practice of the Black Consciousness Movement. In particular, the relationship between antagonism – constituting a united front of all the oppressed against white supremacy and racial capitalism – and the possibilities for resistance and elaboration - the creative militant capacities of those assembled – enabled and unleashed by that process of constitution.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Find Each Other
2. Determining Facts
3. Antagonism
4. Elaboration
5. Constitution
6. Destitution
7. High Land, New Home
8. Melancholia
9. Deposition: A Song For The Dialectician 

Tomin is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, bioinformatician, and poet from Brooklyn, New York. His primary instruments are the flute, trumpet and alto clarinet, and he participates in the creative music scene as a performer, improvisor, composer and fan. Outside of music, he works in computational genetics, with a focus on oncology.

Flores para Caramina y Verene compiles recordings that he self-released across 2020 and 2021.

TRACK LISTING

1. Father And Son
2. Come Sunday, Bass
3. The Inflated Tear, V1
4. Fire Waltz
5. Desert Fairy Princess
6. Fables Of Faubus
7. Aquarius
8. Warm Canto
9. The Inflated Tear, V2
10. Come Sunday, Soprano
11. Assunta
12. Father And Son
13. Spirits Rejoice, Var 1
14. Ogún Bárá
15. Angela’s Angel
16. Naima
17. The Prayer
!8. Rahsaan Is Beautiful
19. A Walk With Thee
20. Humility In The Light Of The Creator
21. Love
22. Life
23. Love (Alternate Take)
24. Life Revisited

SML is bassist Anna Butterss (Jeff Parker, Daniel Villarreal, Makaya McCraven), synthesist Jeremiah Chiu (Ariel Kalma, Marta Sofia-Honer), saxophonist Josh Johnson (Jeff Parker, Makaya McCraven, Nate Mercereau, Marquis Hill), percussionist Booker Stardrum (Amirtha Kidambi, Carl Stone, Lee Ranaldo, Patrick Shiroishi), and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann (Sam Wilkes, Meg Duffy, Perfume Genius). Their debut album 'Small Medium Large' began as a collection of long-form improvisations recorded during two separate two-night stands at beloved Highland Park venue ETA, a major development site for the burgeoning new LA jazz & improvised music sound, which unfortunately closed its doors permanently at the end of 2023.

The venue, perhaps best known outside of LA for Jeff Parker’s 2022 album 'Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy,' was the perfect location for the start of SML, especially given that both bassist Anna Buterss and saxophonist Josh Johnson are in the quartet featured on that record. 'Small Medium Large' was engineered and recorded in stereo direct to Nagra by Bryce Gonzales and compiled, arranged, and edited with additional production, recording, and studio composition by SML.

While editing, chopping, and rearranging stereo mixed improvisations is hardly a new concept (for a modern and relevant example we can look to Makaya McCraven’s output on IARC) these results are a stunning expansion of the Teo Macero / Miles Davis editing concept explored on classics like 'Bitches Brew', 'On The Corner', and 'Get Up With It'. Stylistically though, these recordings have more in common with the proto trance repetitions of Harmonia, and with Holgar Czukay’s re-assemblage technique used in his work with Can. Throw in a supremely intuitive utilization of Susumu Yokota’s floating patterns polyrhythm concept and we have a truly entrancing take on time-clocked electronic rhythms augmenting with live percussion, yet maintaining that elusive human sway.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rubber Tree Dance
2. Industry
3. Herbie For Commercials
4. Search Bar Hi Hat
5. Window Sill Song
6. Switchboard Operations
7. Soft Sand
8. Three Over Steel
9. Chasing Brain
10. History Of Communication
11. Feed The Birds
12. Greg's Melody
13. Dolphin Language

In March of 2023 Mercury Prize nominated composer &alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi premiered acommissioned suite of music ni front of a sold out crowd at London's Southbank Centre. She wrote the piece - gratitude - for her flagship large ensemble seed., ni a special augmented formation that also featured turntablist NikNak and the London Contemporary Orchestra. Months later, Kinoshi passed the live recording to Dave Vettraino, who began the mixing process at International Anthem Studios ni Chicago. Kinoshi and Vettraino then convened ni November of2024 at Livingston Studios ni London to do final mixes and overdub additional sounds from members of seed.

Some know Kinoshi from her work as a former member of Kokoroko. And even beyond her work as leader of seed. (including Driftglass, the band's critically-lauded 2019 debut on jazz re:freshed) her compositional résumé extendsdeeply into orchestral work for concert hal, contemporary dance, film, visual art, and theatre, with high profile collaborators including London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra. That depth of experience si on ful display here, with the textural and dynamic flexibility of her large ensemble covering musical ground from groove-focused modal melancholia ot anthemic brass and string themes. Striking upon first listen and even richer on repeat visits, gratitude scores the soul of contemporary Black London with philharmonic craftwork ni the tradition of legendary jazz arrangers like Mary Lou Williams, Oliver Nelson, and Carla Bley.

TRACK LISTING

1. I
2. Ii
3. Interlude I
4. Iii Sun Through My Window
5. Interlude Ii
6. Iv
7. Smoke In The Sun

In August 2022, Australia-based, French born fourth-world music legend Ariel Kalma was invited to participate in BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction series of special collaborations. The program pairs artists that have not previously collaborated to create new music together. Kalma was quick to suggest working together with two musicians whom he has never met – the International Anthem recording artists Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer, whose critically-acclaimed duo debut Recordings from the Åland Islands had been released just a few months earlier. Kalma sent an invitation to Chiu and Honer, which was received with great enthusiasm.

Chiu had been a fan of Kalma’s work for a long time, even citing him as a major influence on his approach to electronic music composition. After meeting their goal of 20 minutes worth of music for the program (which was four pieces total), the three musicians were satisfied in what they would present, and sent along their work to the producers of Late Junction; but simultaneously they felt like there was much more to be said, more work to be done. There were several pieces that they had nearly completed that weren’t sent for inclusion in the radio program, and there were many ideas for refining those that had. The three musicians collectively agreed that they would continue work together and try to push the music further. The Closest Thing to Silence is the result of their efforts to take the collaboration further. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Ten Hour Wave
2. Breathing In Three Orbits (Intro)
3. Breathing In Three Orbits
4. The Closest Thing To Silence
5. Dizzy Ditty
6. Une Ombre Légère
7. New Air
8. Écoute Au Loin
9. A Treasure Chest
10. Stay Centered
11. Stack Attack 

An evolved, ecosystemic love expression of Carlos Niño’s self-described “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space, Collage” expression – (I’m just) Chillin’, on Fire is the prolific percussionist/producer’s most singular, intentional work ever, featuring a vibrant and abundant gathering of his “friends” (i.e. the highly skilled and accomplished musicians and improvisers that make up Niño’s extensive network of collaborators).

He's rolling deep on this one. Featured artists across 80+ minutes of music include saxophone titan Kamasi Washington, AACM-affiliated creative music legend Maia, synth-guitarist/producer Nate Mercereau, bubbling violinist/vocalist V.C.R, ambient dance innovator Photay, prodigious rhythmist Deantoni Parks, South African vocalist Sibusile Xaba, keyboardist and Alice Coltrane protégé Surya Botofasina, pianist Jamael Dean, Dntel, Aaron Shaw, Diego Gaeta, Laraaji, Adam Rudolph, Josh Johnson, Jamire Williams, Woo, and more, includingAndré 3000, who makes an appearance on flutes. For such a magnificent convergence of sonic journeyers and such a masterful presentation of sounds- al of which is hugged together by Niño's lucid post-productive guidance, as he makes Q-Tip/DJ Premier- like architectures out of fluid explorations and minimalist musical atmospheres - the undersold title "(I'm just) Chillin', on Fire" is both humorous and totally appropriate for anyone who is open enough to understand what this artist'" is all about. It's also Niño's answer to a question that he's frequently asked: "Are You aShaman? I feel the Medicine in your Music. You are a Shaman aren't You?" To such kind ideas Niño likes to reply: "(l'm just) Chillin',on Fire, Deeply Sharing..."

TRACK LISTING

1.Venice 100720, Hands In Soil
2. Mighty Stillness
3. Love Dedication (for Annelise)
4. Flutestargate
5. Maha Rose North 102021, Breathwork
6. Transcendental Bounce, Run To It
7. Taaaud
8. Spacia
9. Am I Dreaming?
10. Etheric Windsurfing, Flips And Twirls
11. Boom Bap Spiritual
12. Woo, Acknowledgement
13. Sandra's Willows
14. One For Derf
15. Conversations
16. Essence, The Mermaids Call
17. Eightspace 082222

Open The Gates is Philadelphia-based free jazz collective IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS’s third full length album (and first double LP length album). Recorded at Rittenhouse Soundworks in Philadelphia, across 73 minutes of music the band – featuring Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro & drummer Tcheser Holmes (who released their duo debut Heritage of the Invisible II on International Anthem last year), saxophonist Keir Neuringer, and bassist Luke Stewart – supplement their raw, organic punk-jazz sound with firsttime experiments with electronics and synthesizers.

“Irreversible Entanglements’ fearless music takes to task the police, American politics, capitalism, and racism.” – The Nation

"The jazz ensemble evokes our American topography, both physically and psychologically, by capturing what’s in the news and what’s underneath that surface.” – Pitchfork

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brilliantly soulful storm of free-jazz timbres and spoken word phrases bolstered with snappy counterpoint and harmonic dissonance, both unnerving and hypnotic, but thoroughly enthralling throughout. Brilliantly inventive and momentous.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
A1. Open The Gates
A2. Keys To Creation
SIDE B
B1. Lágrimas Del Mar
B2. Storm Came Twice
SIDE C
C1. Water Meditation
SIDE D
D1. Six Sounds
D2. The Port Remembers

Jeff Parker’s Forfolks — a new album of solo guitar works — was recorded by Graeme Gibson at Sholo Studio in Altadena, California (aka Jeff’s house) over two days in June 2021. It includes interpretations of Thelonious Monk’s “Ugly Beauty” and the standard “My Ideal,” plus six original compositions including "Four Folks," "La Jetée" (a tune he recorded with Tortoise in 1998), and four totally new loop-driven, stratiform works that marry melodic improvisation with electronic textures.

“It's a particular thing to hear Jeff play solo,” writes veteran Chicago musician and longtime Parker collaborator Matthew Lux in his liner notes for Forfolks. “He is an unusually selfless improviser, oftentimes laying out and highlighting the contributions of his band mates… On this recording, however, he is by himself, joined only by his own ideas, looped or frozen, to flesh out the music he's creating in his mind. Hearing him craft entire sound worlds on these eight selections gives us an opportunity to really see how Parker orders sound.”

Forfolks follows Parker’s critically acclaimed 2020 record Suite for Max Brown, which Pitchfork called an “effortlessly detailed album, full of tradition and experimentation that spans generations … It lives at the vanguard of new jazz music.” The album went on to debut at No. 1 on Billboard's Current Contemporary Jazz Chart.

TRACK LISTING

1. Off Om
2. Four Folks
3. My Ideal
4. Suffolk
5. Flour Of Fur
6. Ugly Beauty
7. Excess Success
8. La Jetée 

Taken from live improvisation to live sampling & recomposition to borderdefying beat collage – a new jazz mixtape tells a many-splendored tale of Trans-Atlantic collaboration in constant cadence. The vinyl edition of Where We Come From (CHICAGOxLONDON Mixtape) is a split-label release with London’s Total Refreshment Centre.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Halls
A2. McCraven On The Mic
A3. Ox Tales
A4. Suite For Artis Gilmore
A5. Jupiter Jawn
A6. The Oracle
B1. The Bounce!
B2. King Drive, '86 Cutlass, No Plates
B3. Run 'Dem
B4. Too Shy
B5. Drums&Bruk&FeelTheVibe
B6. Birthday Solo
B7. TRC Thank You Outro
B8. Where We Come From