Label: Pyroclastic Records, 2025
Personnel - Patricia Brennan: vibraphone with electronics, marimba; Miles Okazaki: guitar; Sylvie Courvoisier: piano; Kim Cass: bass; John Hollenbeck: drums, percussion; Arktureye: electronics; Modney: violin; Pala Garcia: violin; Kyle Armbrust: viola; Michael Nicolas: cello.
Patricia Brennan, a rare and vibrant force behind the vibraphone, returns with a multi-layered experimental work involving both a jazz quintet and a string quartet, following her 2024 triumph Breaking Stretch, arguably the best album of that year. Inspired by possible symmetries in constellations and how these might be translated musically, Brennan created a map to explore new relationships between pitches, chords, and key signatures through the circle of fifths. Of The Near and Far comprises seven tracks—five named after constellations—drawing influences from contemporary classical music, twisted jazz traditions, and modern experimental soundscapes.
“Antlia” opens the record with a mechanical precision, evoking the air pump it’s named after. Persistent rhythmic patterns, agile string movements, John Hollenbeck’s fractured drumming, and Miles Okazaki’s expedient guitar lines all combine into a restless, gear-like motion. Afrobeat and EDM rhythmic fluxes underlie the structure, keeping it constantly shifting. “Aquarius” takes a more fluid direction, exploring the textural qualities of water through Brennan’s and Okazaki’s interwoven melodies, anchored by a gentle pulse in five.
“Andromeda” is light-footed yet percussive, with bass and drums playing a central role. It into veers to alternative rock territory, pushing sound and form beyond the expected as several undercurrents seem to point out simultaneous directions. The jazzier “Lyra” opens with free-floating guitar and strings, soon turning darker through Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier’s harmonic coloring and then brighter through Brennan’s radiant vibraphone improvisation, which searches for light. Its complex 8+5 opening meter eventually settles into a chamber-like 3/4 passage of lyrical counterpoint and melodic consensus before resolving in 4/4.
On “Aquila”, the final constellation, Brennan and Okazaki engage in enigmatic, kinetic interplay before the string quartet joins with buoyant cadence and exuberance. The two remaining pieces—“Citlalli”, an abstract electroacoustic sound collage derived from graphic scores, and “When You Stare Into the Abyss”, steeped in Kubrick-like electronic tension—expand the album’s cinematic reach.
Though not as stunning as Breaking Stretch, Of The Near and Far thrives on curiosity, courage, and invention. Its mathematical approaches and spontaneous developments take time to absorb, revealing a music of pure risk and imagination—fearless, unguarded, and free from convention.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Antlia ► 03 - Andromeda ► 05 - Lyra