What a wonder to hear the skin cells of Earth sing underneath the Spring skies! You can listen to them march along, despite the fact that (and this may surprise you) Big Bend is not a Texas geographical paradise — just as Laraaji is not an intercoastal warm-winds climate anomaly, Rob Nairn’s double bass is not a rolling thunder cloud, and Clarice Jensen’s cello is not a snow-spattered mountain range.
Instead, Big Bend is a sonic project of Ohio’s Nathan Phillips. Underneath his feet on this premiere track, these three other artists meet in the studio like a humming under Mendocino.
“Four” is the newest tremor from Phillips’s upcoming album, Radish, releasing May 10. It is all-balmy improvising at its most motive, with master players at work and Phillips as the seismic force pushing them all together.
“With Clarice Jensen–cello, Laraaji–electric zither, Rob Nairn–double bass, and myself on piano, we planned a series of guided improvisations in Spring, 2016. I set up a dry-erase board with instructions ready to go, but when we began the soundcheck, this song came out without a plan, which is why there’s still distortion from the zither signal chain. While the later takes had their strengths, nothing matched the promptness and excitement of this first and guide-less take. With the four of us there, the song got its name.”
-Nathan Phillips
If you want a more direct experience of the epicenter, you can of course pre-order Radish for yourself. You can also catch Big Bend live at a myriad of upcoming dates, listed below.
Radish tracklisting:
01. 1000 Ways
02. Before
03. 12’-15’ feat. Susan Alcorn
04. Can’t Get Around
05. Swinging Low
06. Four feat. Laraaji
07. Long Time
08. Floating
Big Bend tour dates:
03.27.19 - New York, NY - H0L0
03.29.19 - Provincetown, MA - FAWC
04.29.19 - New York, NY - H0L0
05.09.19 - Canton, OH - The Auricle
05.11.19 - Elgin, IL - N. Spring
05.13.19 - Omaha, NE - Anor Londo
05.14.19 - Lawrence, KS - Primary Color
05.15.19 - Kansas City, MO - miniBar
05.16.19 - Norman, OK - Opolis
05.19.19 - Chattanooga, TN - Palace Theater
05.20.19 - Durham, NC - The Pinhook
05.22.19 - Washington D.C - Rhizome
05.23.19 - Providence, RI - AS220
05.24.19 - Cambridge, MA - Lilypad
05.29.19 - Baltimore, MD - The Crown
05.31.19 - Brooklyn, NY - Big Irv’s Gallery
06.30.19 - Fukuoka, Japan - Kokura Megahertz
07.27.19 - Saga, Japan - Studio Kura
08.21.19 - Sydney, Australia - Eramboo