Recorded October 1, 2022 at Rittenhouse Sound Works
in Philadelphia by Mike Richelle
Mixed by Mike Richelle and Julius Masri
Produced by Julius Masri
Mastering and vinyl cut by Ruy Mariné at D&M, Berlin
Cover art „Ghetto / Griot Cyborg Jawn“ by Alex Smith
THE BURNING BRIGHT LIGHT is a mind-meld between improvisation trio DROMEDARIES (saxophonist Keir Neuringer of Irreversible Entanglements, Shayna Dulberger on double bass and percussionist Julius Masri) and sci-fi writer/vocalist ALEXOTERIC (Alex Smith), evoking epic sci-fi cinemascapes, vocabulary- and reference-rich underground writing, the liberatory jazz tradition, and playful avant-garde experimentation.
Recorded in a single high voltage burst of cosmic collaboration on an October afternoon at Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Soundworks, THE BURNING BRIGHT LIGHT is a sonic document like no other. A mind-meld between improvisation trio DROMEDARIES and sci-fi writer/vocalist ALEXOTERIC (Alex Smith), the album emerges organically on a foundation of speculative fiction, free jazz interaction, avant-garde textures, and freestyle refrains. With no rules set in advance, each participant brought their entire creativity to bear on a session that birthed a constellation of shimmering stories narrated through equally deep music and words. While it retains all the power and excitement of a spontaneous meeting, the album also reveals deep and atypical shared affinities that are simultaneously sonic, musical, social, political, and cosmic. A key figure in multiple Philadelphia arts subcultures, Smith's literary voice is unlike any other, and on this recording he stretches his vocal acrobatics to their greatest extent yet. We hear references to grounded, earthly concerns and figures shot through the farthest reaches of spacetime, always with Smith's incisive queer afrofuturist lens.
Smith describes the album as "a future color spray, a hidden missive laser etched into the seams of your galactic multi-death cult corporation flight jacket, the snow fallen ash and embers of a world you can only view through a prism-powered holo-sim. Wild jazz, bad, fresh with no jive—the perfect script for the download digital age, transcending experimental m....... more