Recommended: Rob Mazurek – “Alternate Moon Cycles”

This is where Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way meets the ambient shoegaze of J. Spaceman.  The mix of a simmering intensity just beneath the surface of a lovely, uninhibited drone and the cool blue, plaintive soulfulness calling up to the skies above has a heavy, evocative presence, even as it captivates to the point of hypnosis.  Rob Mazurek‘s new release Alternate Moon Cycles takes a minimalistic approach to tone and ambiance.  And while recent Mazurek recordings have been wildly effusive, chaotic and, at times, supremely catchy, he shows yet again that he is able to draw so much life from so few notes when he chooses.

The combo of Matt Lux‘s electric bass and Mikel Patrick Avery‘s collapsible pump organ create a mesmerizing, pulsing ambient tone that sounds endless, makes the ear wish it were so.  Mazurek cuts through that drone like a lighthouse beam through a thick seaboard fog, and the resulting contrast effectively creates an essential symbiosis between light and dark, drone and sigh, pulse and cry that adds to an emotional presence much greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Just a seriously captivating album.

Your album personnel:  Rob Mazurek (cornet), Matt Lux (electric bass), and Mikel Patrick Avery (collapsible pump organ).

Released on International Anthem Recording Co.

Music from the Chicago scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp | eMusic | Amazon: Vinyl/MP3

Also available at Chicago’s own Dusty Groove.