The Cosmic Tones Research Trio, Roman Norfleet , Harlan Silverman - All is Sound (2024) [Hi-Res]

All is Sound's title points to the openness of Portland, Oregon-based Cosmic Tones Research Trio—alto saxophonist Roman Norfleet, cellist Harlan Silverman, and pianist Kennedy Verrett. The group, whose members also play flutes, percussion, and other instruments, draw on various influences to create ambient tracks often tinged by jazz. Forerunners include Alice Coltrane, Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, and other innovators who looked to Eastern and African traditions for inspiration. Additionally, there's a clear affinity with André 3000's 2023 album, New Blue Sun, the recordings of the Los Angeles collective Build an Ark, and artists associated with the Brainfeeder label.

Sustained tones often mark this meditative jazz-adjacent music. Touches of bluesy piano and breathy sax timbres are present, but the longer solo statements and driving trap-kit rhythms associated with jazz are absent. "Black Rest" inverts the typical relationship between melody and accompaniment. Norfleet repeatedly plays a single line on alto sax, with only slight variations, while strings and other sounds continually morph around it. The briefest track, "A Sleeping Planet," might also be the one that comes closest to feeling like a song. A saxophone melody unspools over a catchy bass ostinato, electric piano, and low-end drones on this blissed-out keeper.

Thick-toned bowed bass, percussion, and didgeridoo craft a soundscape topped by an Eastern-inflected wooden flute on album closer, "The Offering." Sax and higher string pitches eventually appear, slightly shifting the solemn mood: if this composition is a kind of prayer, this section is where it ascends. It's a satisfying end to this pleasing album. © Fred Cisterna

Tracklist:
1 Creation
2 A Sleeping Planet
3 Peace Prayer
4 Black Rest
5 Nada Brahma
6 The Offering