Cover of the album begin discussed
Two days ago Edgetone Records released a new album of Lords of Outland, a “bleeding edge” jazz combo led by Rent Romus, who plays a prodigious number of saxophones. The title of the album is Ghost Moon; and it offers fifteen tracks of adventurous improvisations, all inspired by a science fiction narrative, which can be found on the Bandcamp Web page for this release. The other members of the Lords of Outland combo are Ray Schaeffer on a variety of electric basses, percussionist Anthony Flores, and Philip Everett, dividing his attention among synthesizer, electric lap harp, Xlarinet, and additional percussion. They are joined by guest artist Tony Passarell, alternating among flute and tenor and soprano saxophones.
According to my records, this is Romus’ first release through Bandcamp since Itkuja Suite, which came out early in 2023. The suite was based heavily on the Finnish classic Kalevala (probably familiar to fans of the music of Jean Sibelius); so this new release is a venture into the fictional future, rather than traditional myths from past. That future evokes a wide variety of unconventional images, matched by the combo sonorities, which, more often than not, venture quite some distance from the instrumental sonorities one encounters from a more “traditional” jazz combo. Mind you, while Lords of Outland is consistently inventive, they most likely are aware of similarly adventurous predecessors, such as Roland Kirk or Eric Dolphy. Nevertheless, Ghost Moon definitely has a voice of its own, which has been scrupulously attuned to the bizarre qualities of the narrative that inspired it.
I have now listened to the album several times. I am just beginning to acclimate myself to the journey that unfolds. Nevertheless, I definitely appreciate that this is a trip worth taking.
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