Stirrup+6 - "Insen For Yonsei" (Official Audio) from 'The Avondale Addition' (Cuneiform Records)
STIRRUP
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Stirrup is Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello, tenor guitar), Nick Macri (bass), and Charles Rumback (drums). Formed in Chicago in 2009 to explore their mutual interests in deep grooves, moody harmonies, and extended structures, the genre-defiant trio continue to do so to this day. A true collective, all three write and arrange for the band.
The Avondale Addition is an amalgam of two of Fred Lonberg-Holm’s long-running projects: Stirrup and his “Lightbox Orchestra”, a revolving-door project that began over 20 years ago as a way to organize large, ad-hoc improvising ensembles using a light-based cueing system and cue cards. Typically, a Lightbox concert has no pre-composed materials, but for this performance recorded live at Elastic Arts in Chicago, compositions by members of Stirrup comprised a “book” from which the guest musicians (the “+6”) draw on in addition to freely improvising when called on to do so.
In effect, Charles and Nick continue to do things they might normally do on a Stirrup gig, but instead of Fred playing cello, he acts as a kind of improvising arranger stationed behind his Lightbox cueing station, with the invited guests taking on the melodic and soloist roles he might normally perform.
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“…sketches, swathes of brittle and brooding melody that turn caustic and crepuscular with the addition of acrid electricity...sawing ribbons of downcast, driving sound...vessel of both controlled and chaotically cathartic noise.” – Bill Meyer (Dusted Magazine)
“…hypnotic...pretty melodies unfold, roil, and mutate over churning ostinatos and shuffling, shape-shifting beats…extended, lyrical solos hit with the power of psych-rock…and tickle the ear with microtonal glissandos a la Arabic or Indian music..swing patterns, explosive rolls, and skittery flourishes…” – Peter Margasak (The Chicago Reader)
Stirrup:
Fred Lonberg-Holm - lightbox operator
Nick Macri - bass
Charles Rumback - drums
+ 6:
Jen Clare Paulson - viola
Zoots Houston - electronics
Keefe Jackson - reeds
Russ Johnson - trumpet
Peter Maunu - guitar, violin
Mars Williams - reeds
Recorded live on June 15, 2017 at Elastic Arts in Chicago, Illinois by Dave Zuchowski/One Room Studio.