Brent Cordero & Peter Kerlin - A Sublime Madness (2023) [Hi-Res]

Psychic Ills keyboardist, Brent Cordero and Sunwatchers bassist, Peter Kerlin’s, first full length collab A SUBLIME MADNESS is the culmination of decades of circling each other's creative orbits. After years of casual jamming, numerous fledgling one offs, and touring sideman gigs (ibrighden addition to Sunwatchers, Kerlin was also Chris Forsyth’s long time bass player and in the John Dwyer helmed improv project, Bent Arcana. Cordero worked for years with Psychic Ills and Mike Wexler among others). Here, the two sidemen synchronize orbits and create a sound with keys and bass as a molten center. The impetus to embark on a larger collaboration began with an off-handed suggestion after the two recorded an improv duet for Kerlin's, Glaring Omission (2020). Later, with touring canceled worldwide and the untimely death of Psychic Ills frontman, Tres Warren, it seemed like a good time to pick up the thread left hanging “from before” to create something to respond to the moment and/or escape into. But A SUBLIME MADNESS is not a strict duo album or a COVID bedroom record, by any stretch. Drummer, Ryan Sawyer provides torrents of percussion and each tune is built out as the two invite in a crew of past collaborators, legends, luminaries, cohorts and stalwarts: Daniel Carter (woodwinds), James Brandon Lewis (tenor sax), Jessica Pavone (viola), Ryan Jewell (percussion), Charles Burst (percussion), Adam Amram (congas), Aaron Siegel (vibraphone), Jesse DeRosa (modular synth) - each person contributing their musical voice throughout. The result is an expansive sound and vision. A conjuring of spontaneous, collective spirit in which each player’s contribution is highlighted and distilled in conversation with each other over the arc of the record. Titles of several pieces are a tribute to NYC based Black radical activist groups, Movement To Protect The People and Decolonize This Place, that organize against gentrification and economic inequality as well as for the interconnected struggle for Indigenous, Black, and Palestinian liberation. This activism has been met with state violence along with media dismissal and condescension. The first song, “Movement to Protect the People”, is a dedication to Brent’s partner, LaShaun Ellis, a member of a Black women-led group of that name, who has successfully fought corrupt developers and politicians attempting to build in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The song titles “Affordable for Who?” and “White Supremacy in Black Face”, frame the instrumental music in a context of on-the-ground struggle against gentrification, displacement, and other racist policies.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Brent Cordero & Peter Kerlin - Movement To Protect The People (4:31)
1.02 - Brent Cordero & Peter Kerlin - Decolonize This Place (5:46)
1.03 - Brent Cordero & Peter Kerlin - Affordable For Who (6:20)
1.04 - Brent Cordero & Peter Kerlin - Freedom Jazz Dance (6:44)
1.05 - Brent Cordero & Peter Kerlin - White Supremacy In Black Face (6:17)
1.06 - Brent Cordero & Peter Kerlin - Between The Carrot And The Stick (11:50)
1.07 - Brent Cordero & Peter Kerlin - Pyrrhic (3:34)