Label: Boomslang Records, 2025

Personnel - Jonathan Reisin: tenor and soprano saxophone; Shinya Lin: piano, prepared piano; Jarred Chase: drums.

With his fourth album as a leader/co-leader, Too Good X Unreality, Israeli-born, Brooklyn-based saxophonist Jonathan Reisin reaffirms the strong impression left by his debut, Option B (Habitable Reords, 2022), as well as by Earthquake (577 Records, 2023), which featured him alongside his mentor, the creative Cuban drummer Francisco Mela. As a firm representative of a young generation of contemporary avant-gardists, Reisin tackles compositions that require sharp improvisational insight. For this recording, he spearheads a bass-less trio featuring pianist Shinya Lin and drummer Jarred Chase, centering on the connection between complexity and simplicity in music.

“Walk and Talk” proceeds at a casual pace yet crackles with excitement. A brittle soprano saxophone, steeped in microtonalities and angular phrase work, shapes landscapes guided by ostinatos. A dark 3/4 vamping section, evoking a sense of danger, pushes Chase into unaccompanied stretches. “Through the Glass” incorporates counterpoint and parallel motion, shifting between ensemble calmness and bursts of sound. Designed for sight-reading, the piece uncovers dynamic nuances and leads to fresh musical terrain.

Taking more abstract paths and sinister tonalities, “Too Good X Unreality Pt.1” explores with strange noises and off-beat gestures. Long saxophone notes oppose to sudden single-note flurries and cycles of circular breathing, producing somewhat heavy, whirling resonances. “Too Good X Unreality Pt.2” follows a similar trajectory—exploring pulses and repetition while unfolding with tuned percussion, gong-like prepared piano timbres, air saxophone techniques that evolve into wide-ranging tones, and mysterious droning textures complemented by coruscating cymbal work.

“Offertorium”, inspired by Soviet composer Sofia Gubaidulina, unfolds deliberately with a laidback swagger, entering an intricate rhythmic flux that lurches in precise lockstep. Mischievous pianism—grounded in low-end resonance and prepared key textures—and a communicative saxophone solo call to mind the pervasive Perelman/Shipp alliance or the escapist fantasy of Matt Mitchell’s musical universe. “Prelude” closes the journey with recurrent ideas that expand and dissolve, with Reisin on soprano and Lin’s piano as it leaps through bold intervallic shapes.

Reisin, who developed his concept and compositions over two years, confirms himself of a saxist of penetrating focus. This new work should deservedly elevate his musical profile.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Walk and Talk ► 02 - Through the Glass ► 05 - Offertorium

Label: Habitable Records, 2022

Personnel - Jonathan Reisin: tenor and soprano saxophone; Moshe Elmakias: piano; Nitzan Birnbaum: dums (#1,3,6,7); Brian Richburg Jr.: drums (#2,4,5,8).

Israeli saxophonist and composer Jonathan Reisin spearheads a bass-less trio that makes his improvisational propensity obvious. He reveals instinctive chemistry and peculiar intimacy with the members positioned at the base of the triangle: drummers Nitzan Birnbaum and Brian Richburg Jr., who take turns and play four pieces each, and Israeli pianist Moshe Elmakias.

The album, his first as a leader, is bookended by group improvisations - “One” opens the set stealthily with tenor vibratos and multiphonics skimming over a minimalist accompaniment; and “Juka” closes it, with volcanic tenor magma rising above the blissful, if cryptic, sonic grid weaved by bass and drums. “Glue” is on the same wavelength as the former piece, but its angular theme is cooked under the pressurized steam of the snare drum and irregularly pounding drum kicks. Playing in the same league is “It’s Not the Same” - initially outlined by soft piano caresses and palpable soprano melodies before turning into something more rhythmically and emotionally intense. The record rises in a crescendo, making us want to discover more.

In the title track, “Option B”, the trio goes for a diffuse propagation of sounds based on a tone row. The saxophonist and the pianist explore imperturbably in sync, but soon the threesome communicates closely, working on dynamics. They loosen up in one moment and charge in the next, and the final section almost feels tender after a stormy irruption. Inspired by Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata and equally tense, “Four Boats” is built on four notes, also engulfing us in mystery. Its flow is interrupted by a minimalist piano figure that is reused at the end, following an increase in agitation.

“Roy’s Room” features the tom-tom dances and cymbal frothiness of Brian Richburg Jr., who sets a tonally interesting conversation with himself at the outset. The piece develops via sax/piano unisons and more harmonic allure, before plunging into a quiet atmosphere comprised of sensitive piano work, whispering brushes, and idle saxophone phrases.

Reisin picks out possible sonorities that, creating intentional ambiguity and surprise, complement each other. Option B, which is dedicated to the saxophonist’s late grandfather, is a most welcome debut.

Favorite Tracks:
06 - Four Boats ► 07 - It’s Not the Same ► 08 - Juka