Label: Pyroclastic Records, 2025
Personnel - Ingrid Laubrock: composition, conduction; Fay Victor: voice; Mariel Roberts: cello; Sara Serpa: voice; Matt Mitchell: piano; Rachel Calloway: voice; Ari Streisfeld: violin.
Ingrid Laubrock is an extraordinary German-born saxophonist and composer whose work has left a distinct mark on the modern creative scene. Whether performing in a duo with drummer Tom Rainey or pianist Kris Davis, leading a highly unusual septet in Serpentines (2016), or expanding her vision into a chamber orchestra in Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt (2018), her music consistently exudes quality, complexity, and dedication. Yet, a Laubrock record without her playing feels undeniably different, as is the case with her latest work, Purposing the Air—a double album featuring four different duos and 60 vocalized pieces.
Laubrock initially considered participating as a duet partner herself or expanding some duos into trios, but she ultimately didn’t hear saxophone in her angular miniature compositions, which focus on just one or two core ideas. A passionate admirer of poetry and literature, she found inspiration in Erica Hunt’s poem ‘Mood Librarian-a poem in koan’.
Disc one opens with vocalist Fay Victor—renowned for bridging rootsy and experimental styles—paired with cellist Mariel Roberts, a member of the sought-after Mivos Quartet. Though they had never played together before, their chemistry is remarkable, shifting from eerie and downcast—marked by droning textures and poignant melodies (track 1)—to playful provocations (track 2), and jazzy swoops into avant-garde jazz-inflected flights (track 6). Other highlights include low-pitched cello attacks set against prismatic vocal circularity (track 10) and suspended, postmodern soundscapes that invite reflection (track 14).
The remaining 15 pieces feature Portuguese vocalist Sara Serpa and American pianist Matt Mitchell, two disciplined musicians known for their textural sensitivity. Together, they navigate ethereal yet densely paced trajectories (track 16), blend dreamy timbres with whimsical intervallic movement (track 18), contrast looping vocals against two-handed pianistic creativity (track 21), and explore minimalistic gestures with intermittently combed piano strings (track 29).
Disc two, featuring longtime collaborators and expert colorists Theo Bleckmann (voice) and Ben Monder (guitar), presents 15 strikingly evocative pieces, where imaginative ideas emerge from versatile arrangements. Listeners are drawn into reverb-drenched reveries (track 1), canvases of fierce guitar distortion paired with repetitive vocal riffs (track 3), expansive harmonic washes and guitar swells (track 5), exquisite fingerpicking beneath unexpected vocal lines (tracks 8 and 10), and churning, forebodingly dark narratives (track 9). Closing the album is Duo Cortona, comprised of mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway and her husband, violinist Ari Streisfeld, whose lyrical modern-classical waves of abstraction strike with varying intensities.
Co-produced by Laubrock and David Breskin, Purposing the Air is a challenging listen—complex and conceptual, it does not always unfold in an immediately accessible way. Yet, Laubrock’s compositional prowess is on full display, affirming her distinctive voice in contemporary music.
Favorite Tracks:
Disc One - 06 - Koan 11 ► 10 - Koan 38 ► 21 - Koan 42 // Disc Two: 01 - Koan 23 ► 03 - Koan 24 ► 10 - Koan 59 ► 21 - Koan 57