Joseph Shabason and Spencer Zahn are two of the best in the game — the game of composing and performing high-minded yet populist ambient-leaning instrumentals in the jazz and classical realm. (You've probably heard Shabason on Destroyer records and Zahn's work with Dawn Richard, among their many other affiliations.) The duo has teamed up for a new EP called Buds, out next month, and its lead single is quite promising.
The song is called "a river a museum." It's a dreamily skittering electronic jazz workout that brings Zahn's bass and Shabason's keys and sax into conversation with percussion from Vibrant Matter, guitar from Thom Gill, and trumpet by Vince Spilchuk. "I wanted to experiment with space in how quickly chord changes happened," Shabason explains in a press release, emphasizing a focus on "through-composed melodies." Zahn adds that the EP is a chance to re-emphasize his bonafides as an improviser: "I wanted to leave behind my previous sound of spacious piano/acoustic driven compositions," he says, in favor of spontaneous creation.
Hear "a river a museum" below.
Buds is out 4/11 on Western Vinyl.
