Dimensional Stardust

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DescriptionExcerpt

For his 2020 album with Exploding Star Orchestra, Dimensional Stardust (International Anthem / Nonesuch Records), multidisciplinary artist Rob Mazurek arranged his pieces for eleven musicians, including Jeff Parker, and commissioned his long-time lyrics collaborator Damon Locks to draft original texts for the songs. The album recalls an array of Mazurek’s symphonic­ influences, from Béla Bartók to Morton Feldman to Gil Evans to Sun Ra to Pedro Santos to Bill Dixon to The Art Ensemble of Chicago. Opting to focus on tight ensemble orchestration over passages of open improvisation, he distills an orchestra of explosive improvisers into a graceful group exercise in melodic minimalism.

Description

Marfa, Texas–based multidisciplinary abstractivist and creative auteur Rob Mazurek released a new album with Exploding Star Orchestra, Dimensional Stardust, via International Anthem / Nonesuch Records on November 20, 2020. Mazurek has made an indelible impact on creative music over the past thirty years since emerging from the musical nexus of the 1990s Chicago scene. He has written more than 400 compositions, is featured on more than seventy recordings from various labels, and has led or co-led many ensembles, including Exploding Star Orchestra (his flagship large ensemble), Chicago Underground, Isotope 217, and more.


Following the 2018 JazzFest Berlin debut of the new Exploding Star Orchestra music, Mazurek returned to Chicago, where International Anthem took the opportunity to capture his new ESO compositions with a cast of collaborators from their collective constellation of artists. Over a handful of studio dates between August 2019 and March 2020, Mazurek arranged his pieces for eleven musicians—Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Jaimie Branch, Joel Ross, Mikel Patrick Avery, Tomeka Reid, Chad Taylor, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Macie Stewart, Angelica Sanchez, and John Herndon. He also commissioned his long-time lyrics collaborator Damon Locks to draft original texts for each of the songs; Locks also recorded vocal tracks. After three months of rigorous post-production, editing, and assembly work, Mazurek completed Dimensional Stardust.

Dimensional Stardust recalls an array of Mazurek’s symphonic­ influences—from Béla Bartók to Morton Feldman to Gil Evans to Sun Ra to Pedro Santos to Bill Dixon to The Art Ensemble of Chicago. Opting to focus on tight ensemble orchestration over passages of open improvisation, Mazurek distills an orchestra of explosive improvisers into a beautifully restrained, graceful group exercise in melodic minimalism. Mazurek himself is sparsely present as an instrumentalist, only occasionally joining the ensemble with his piccolo trumpet. All the way through, the electro-acoustic poly-rhythmic percussion section (Chad Taylor, Mikel Patrick Avery, and John Herndon) churns, peaking in rare soloist moments by flutist Nicole Mitchell (on the opener “Sun Core Tet”) and guitarist Jeff Parker (on “The Careening Prism Within”).

The song "A Wrinkle in Time Sets Concentric Circles Reeling," Mazurek explains, is "a tone poem in three parts concerning possibilities. There are so many different sides to a thing ... a kaleidoscope of possibility exists in each moment in each breath in each movement. The first part of the piece is the winding up, intricate layering, the study of time, of angles, of color, of space. The second part is the breakthrough, the realization that each moment is a possibility for cathartic action through universal love wave correspondence, the sound of feeling, the sound of healing, the sound of joy. The third part continues this idea as if in a dream...what is real, what is imagined...perhaps we can break through the galaxial ceiling of what we think we know and treat each other, this planet, this universe with the respect and dignity it so deserves."

Avery says of his accompanying video: "Watching and being around my five-year-old daughter, I am constantly reminded of the imaginary spirit that is in all of us. Over time we are subject to a fading of this spirit. In these films I wanted to explore the idea of our imagination being a different type of currency that we must fight to protect and carry with us despite its oppositions."

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Music by Rob Mazurek
Lyrics by Damon Locks

Produced by Scott McNiece, David Allen, Dave Vettraino & Rob Mazurek
Engineered, Recorded, and Mixed by David Allen & Dave Vettraino
Additional Recording by Nicole Mitchell, Mikel Patrick Avery, John Herndon & Rob Mazurek
Edited by Dave Vettraino
Mastered by Dave Cooley

Painting by Rob Mazurek: Some Other Time. 2020.
Gatefold Prints by Rob Mazurek with technical assistance by Mathieu Constans
Package Design by Craig Hansen

FormatRestrictions

Available from Nonesuch Records in North and South America only.

ns_album_releasedate
Album Status
Artist Name
Rob Mazurek
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Rob Mazurek, director, composer, piccolo trumpet, electronic renderings, modular synth, moog sub 37
Damon Locks, voice, electronics, text
Nicole Mitchell, flutes
Macie Stewart, violins
Tomeka Reid, cellos
Joel Ross, vibraphone
Jeff Parker, guitar
Jaimie Branch, trumpet
Angelica Sanchez, acoustic piano, electric piano
Ingebrigt Hāker Flaten, bass
Chad Taylor, drums, percussion
Mikel Patrick Avery, drums, percussion
John Herndon, drum machine

reissues?
new-release
Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
"Moon Dust" Color LP+MP3
UPC
075597918465
Label
LP+MP3
Price
21.00
UPC
075597918564
Label
CD+MP3
Price
13.00
UPC
075597918557
Label
FLAC
Price
10.00
UPC
075597918588
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
075597918595

News & Reviews

  • The Jazz Journalists Association has announced the 2021 JJA Jazz Awards nominations, including three for Rob Mazurek for the new Exploding Star Orchestra album, Dimensional Stardust; all four members of the RoundAgain quartet, Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade; performers on Pat Metheny's album From This Place, including Metheny, Linda May Han Oh, and Grégoire Maret; Jeff Parker for Suite for Max Brown; and Cécile McLorin Salvant, whose Nonesuch debut album is forthcoming.

  • Rob Mazurek is on the latest episode of Kreative Kontrol with Vish Khanna, who says this "tremendously gifted" artist has created "one of the finest and most vivid albums of 2020" in the new Exploding Star Orchestra album, Dimensional Stardust. You can hear their conversation here.

  • About This Album

    Marfa, Texas–based multidisciplinary abstractivist and creative auteur Rob Mazurek released a new album with Exploding Star Orchestra, Dimensional Stardust, via International Anthem / Nonesuch Records on November 20, 2020. Mazurek has made an indelible impact on creative music over the past thirty years since emerging from the musical nexus of the 1990s Chicago scene. He has written more than 400 compositions, is featured on more than seventy recordings from various labels, and has led or co-led many ensembles, including Exploding Star Orchestra (his flagship large ensemble), Chicago Underground, Isotope 217, and more.


    Following the 2018 JazzFest Berlin debut of the new Exploding Star Orchestra music, Mazurek returned to Chicago, where International Anthem took the opportunity to capture his new ESO compositions with a cast of collaborators from their collective constellation of artists. Over a handful of studio dates between August 2019 and March 2020, Mazurek arranged his pieces for eleven musicians—Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Jaimie Branch, Joel Ross, Mikel Patrick Avery, Tomeka Reid, Chad Taylor, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Macie Stewart, Angelica Sanchez, and John Herndon. He also commissioned his long-time lyrics collaborator Damon Locks to draft original texts for each of the songs; Locks also recorded vocal tracks. After three months of rigorous post-production, editing, and assembly work, Mazurek completed Dimensional Stardust.

    Dimensional Stardust recalls an array of Mazurek’s symphonic­ influences—from Béla Bartók to Morton Feldman to Gil Evans to Sun Ra to Pedro Santos to Bill Dixon to The Art Ensemble of Chicago. Opting to focus on tight ensemble orchestration over passages of open improvisation, Mazurek distills an orchestra of explosive improvisers into a beautifully restrained, graceful group exercise in melodic minimalism. Mazurek himself is sparsely present as an instrumentalist, only occasionally joining the ensemble with his piccolo trumpet. All the way through, the electro-acoustic poly-rhythmic percussion section (Chad Taylor, Mikel Patrick Avery, and John Herndon) churns, peaking in rare soloist moments by flutist Nicole Mitchell (on the opener “Sun Core Tet”) and guitarist Jeff Parker (on “The Careening Prism Within”).

    The song "A Wrinkle in Time Sets Concentric Circles Reeling," Mazurek explains, is "a tone poem in three parts concerning possibilities. There are so many different sides to a thing ... a kaleidoscope of possibility exists in each moment in each breath in each movement. The first part of the piece is the winding up, intricate layering, the study of time, of angles, of color, of space. The second part is the breakthrough, the realization that each moment is a possibility for cathartic action through universal love wave correspondence, the sound of feeling, the sound of healing, the sound of joy. The third part continues this idea as if in a dream...what is real, what is imagined...perhaps we can break through the galaxial ceiling of what we think we know and treat each other, this planet, this universe with the respect and dignity it so deserves."

    Avery says of his accompanying video: "Watching and being around my five-year-old daughter, I am constantly reminded of the imaginary spirit that is in all of us. Over time we are subject to a fading of this spirit. In these films I wanted to explore the idea of our imagination being a different type of currency that we must fight to protect and carry with us despite its oppositions."

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Rob Mazurek, director, composer, piccolo trumpet, electronic renderings, modular synth, moog sub 37
    Damon Locks, voice, electronics, text
    Nicole Mitchell, flutes
    Macie Stewart, violins
    Tomeka Reid, cellos
    Joel Ross, vibraphone
    Jeff Parker, guitar
    Jaimie Branch, trumpet
    Angelica Sanchez, acoustic piano, electric piano
    Ingebrigt Hāker Flaten, bass
    Chad Taylor, drums, percussion
    Mikel Patrick Avery, drums, percussion
    John Herndon, drum machine

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Music by Rob Mazurek
    Lyrics by Damon Locks

    Produced by Scott McNiece, David Allen, Dave Vettraino & Rob Mazurek
    Engineered, Recorded, and Mixed by David Allen & Dave Vettraino
    Additional Recording by Nicole Mitchell, Mikel Patrick Avery, John Herndon & Rob Mazurek
    Edited by Dave Vettraino
    Mastered by Dave Cooley

    Painting by Rob Mazurek: Some Other Time. 2020.
    Gatefold Prints by Rob Mazurek with technical assistance by Mathieu Constans
    Package Design by Craig Hansen

  • Format Availability

    Available from Nonesuch Records in North and South America only.