DROMEDARIES x ALEXOTERIC - THE BURNING BRIGHT LIGHT (LP)

"»The Burning Bright Light« is a mind-meld between improvisation trio »Dromedaries« (saxophonist Keir Neuringer of Irreversible Entanglements, Shayna Dulberger on double bass, and percussionist Julius Masri) and sci-fi writer/vocalist »Alexoteric« (Alex Smith), evoking epic sci-fi cinemascapes, vocabulary- and reference-rich underground writing, the liberatory jazz tradition, and playful avant-garde experimentation. Recorded in a single high-voltage burst of cosmic collaboration on an October afternoon at Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Soundworks, »The Burning Bright Light« is a sonic document like no other. A mind-meld between improvisation trio »Dromedaries« and sci-fi writer/vocalist »Alexoteric« (Alex Smith), the album emerges organically on a foundation of speculative fiction, free jazz interaction, avant-garde textures, and freestyle refrains. With no rules set in advance, a constellation of shimmering stories is narrated through equally deep music and words. While it retains all the power and excitement of a spontaneous meeting, the album also reveals deep and atypical shared cosmic themes. A key figure in multiple Philadelphia arts subcultures, Smith's literary voice is unlike any other, and on this recording he stretches his vocal acrobatics to their greatest extent yet. We hear references to grounded, earthly concerns and figures shot through the farthest reaches of spacetime, always with Smith's incisive queer afrofuturist lens." (label info)