LA-Based Guitarist, Composer, Producer Alexander Noice's "Perpetually & Forever" Is An Electro-Acoustic Visionary Masterpiece

Perpetually and Forever, the new album by Alexander Noice, marks a bold evolution in the Los Angeles-based guitarist, composer, and producer’s already adventurous career. Known for his genre-defying work at the intersection of jazz, contemporary composition, electronic music, and art rock, he turns inward on this solo record, crafting an electro-acoustic sound world that balances precision with spontaneity. The album weaves glimmering synth textures, heavy 808-driven beats, processed pianos, pitch-shifted woodwinds, and inventive timbral manipulations into intricate layers that move between intimacy and expansiveness. At its core, the project reflects on the buoyant optimism of late-1950s and early 60s America through the fractured lens of our contemporary moment. What begins as a bright invocation of the “American Dream” gradually unravels into darker, more dissonant terrain, mirroring a world grappling with diminished agency and the suffocating weight of late-stage capitalism.

The album unfolds as a three-part journey through shifting sonic and emotional landscapes. It begins in light with “Love Makes the World Go Round,” whose vibrant grooves channel mid-century optimism, followed by “Third Corso,” which sustains that atmosphere of warmth and possibility, and “They Talk Things Over,” where luminous textures and nostalgic samples come into focus. For “Love Makes the World Go Round,” Noice incorporates samples from a decade-old bedroom improvisation session with saxophonist Gavin Templeton, transforming intimate archival material into exuberant, joyful textures. As the record progresses, brightness gives way to fracture: “Albert in Loghaven” and “Sinking Santa Maria” layer dissonant 808s with pitch-shifted, freely improvised performances by Joe Santa Maria on saxophone, flute, and bass clarinet, shaping them into angular, beat-driven forms, while “Cinerama Holy Days” pushes further, with rhythmically hocketed pianos and chopped lines splintering the surface into jagged, unsettled patterns.

The record ultimately resolves with “Body Is Reality,” a stark and meditative piano piece that strips the sonic palette to its essence. After dense collisions of optimism and fracture, the closing track offers fragile clarity—sparse, contemplative, and deeply human. By its conclusion, Perpetually and Forever arrives at a delicate equilibrium, acknowledging the weight of realism while sustaining a small but persistent flame of hope. In this way, the album functions as both soundscape and allegory, capturing the collision of past promises and present truths, nostalgia and disillusionment, despair and perseverance. Even as Noice pushes electro-acoustic composition into forward-thinking territory, his music remains inviting: melodies are clear, grooves infectious, and the emotional arc unmistakable.

Trumpeter Kris Tiner and Pianist Cathlene Pineda Release Stunning Duo Album, "Sung" on Orenda Records.

Trumpeter Kris Tiner and pianist Cathlene Pineda have been playing music together for over 15 years, initially in Pineda’s quartet and also in groups led by LA avant-garde figurehead Vinny Golia and indie jazz producer Chris Schlarb. Over time, their deep friendship and intuitive musical connection quite naturally led them to the duet format. In concert appearances together they have explored original compositions, improvisations, and insightful arrangements of American jazz and folk song repertoire. Sung is the definitive statement of their duo music to date, featuring an exquisitely recorded collection of performances that seamlessly blend influences ranging from Ellington to Chopin, from Stravinsky to Kenny Wheeler.

Tiner and Pineda both attended California Institute of the Arts, where Pineda now co-directs the jazz program and teaches piano and composition. Her three previous quartet albums on Orenda Records have earned praise in DownBeat and the LA Times. Recent projects include collaborations with the LA Philharmonic, Weimar Film Institute, Big Show Dance Company, Angel City Jazz Festival, Merce Cunningham Dance Studio, the Skirball Center, and the Jane Goodall Institute. She has performed with Bobby Bradford, Art Lande, Albert “Tootie” Heath, Dave Douglas, and Jeff Parker. Her music is featured in the critically-acclaimed film, Jason Nash is Married, produced by Comedy Central Studios.

Tiner has toured and recorded with the Empty Cage Quartet (Clean Feed Records), Tin/Bag (Big Ego Records), and The Industrial Jazz Group (Innova Recordings). He studied with Wadada Leo Smith at CalArts, and collaborates with artists across the jazz and new music spectrum including Tatsuya Nakatani, Kraig Grady, Lisa Mezzacappa, and Lukas Ligeti. He has been featured at the FONT Festival of New Trumpet Music, Aperitivo in Concerto in Milan, Clean Feed Festival, Angel City Jazz Festival, Is That Jazz? Festival in Seattle, and the Gateshead Jazz Festival in the UK. Tiner directs the jazz program at Bakersfield College, and was recognized as California’s jazz educator of the year by CMEA in 2023.

The profound musical and personal connection between these two musicians can perhaps be traced to a shared understanding of the importance of balance in their artistic lives, teaching responsibilities, and family commitments. The beauty and tension that inevitably arise from the interplay of these roles has informed the music on Sung in a very direct and personal way.

The album begins with a collection of older works inspired by friends, mentors, and influences. Tiner’s “Wheeler Song” inhabits the harmonic language of trumpet hero Kenny Wheeler, while Pineda’s nostalgic and reflective “LPJ” was written after the passing of a dear childhood friend. Tiner wrote the title track “Sung” 25 years ago as a statement of gratitude to the teacher who first inspired him to compose music, Dr. Doug Davis. They close the first side of the LP with a heartfelt interpretation of “Silence”, written by jazz legend Charlie Haden, with whom they both studied at CalArts.

The compositions on the second side are more recent, telling a story of displacement and adapting to changing realities. Pineda and her family were forced out of their home in Altadena during the fires in January of 2025. Although the house survived, it had extensive soot and ash damage, as well as heavy metal contamination. Over the next nine months the family lived in hotels, moving 14 times as they looked for a more permanent room. In December, the New York Times published an extensive and damning article about the insurance company’s clear neglect toward the family’s safe return to their home.

Pineda wrote “New Build” during this time. It is a hopeful reflection of the incredible efforts by the Altadena community to take care of each other and stand together in rebuilding and remediation. Pineda’s “Pre/Inter/Post” follows, a solemn chorale that leads to a duo conversation full of unanswered questions. Tiner’s “Something Has Shifted” hints at quiet mysteries before unfolding into a frenetic yet tightly controlled improvisation. The album closes with “Displaced,” an Ellington-esque chorale that Pineda composed while living with her family in a one-room hotel. It expresses the feeling of stillness and static, of waiting for an answer that continues to be delayed.

Sung was recorded in Los Angeles in a single session in July of 2025. The recording was engineered and mixed by Talley Sherwood. The album is available on Orenda Records on all digital platforms and in a limited vinyl LP edition that includes liner notes by Josh Haden and a cover photo by Allen D. Glass.

NYC Composer, Producer, Multi-Instrumentalist Max Kutner's "Rogue Lash" is a Sonic Behemoth and a Magnum Opus

NYC-based composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Max Kutner returns with a sonic behemoth of a project entitled Rogue Lash on Orenda Records. The album exhibits a post-genre modernist sensibility rooted in ritualized repetition and abstract expressionism. Kutner treats sound as an evolving process or environment, rather than as a set of discrete songs. He uses repetition and groove as hypnotic or structural mechanisms emerging from a grand collage of funk, industrial, metal, and drone. Additionally, the music exhibits a meta-layer of socio-philosophical dimension based on Kutner’s satirized impressions of people, places and assorted phenomena while living in New York City.

The album was conceived during an extended hiatus from performance. While initially envisioned as a project for large chamber ensemble, Kutner shifted towards a “single-man” big band approach, working from home using extensive sample libraries, guitars, basses, keyboards and drum machines, and also remotely recording over a dozen different musicians in New York City, Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, and Boston. One aspect in particular that separates this project from Kutner’s other albums is that Kutner mixed and mastered the entire set himself for the first time and entirely from his own home. Each of the ten tracks on Rogue Lash is a tiny world of sound unto itself that draws inspiration from classic industrial (SPK, Art of Noise, Nine Nails), progressive rock (Frank Zappa, Magma, King Crimson), IDM (Aphex Twin, Autechre), post rock (Tortoise, Slint), drone metal (sunn0))), Abruptum), and experimental hiphop (Clipping, MF Doom, Death Grips). Unfettered by the limitations of traditional recording scenarios dealing with studios, scheduling engineers and musicians, and limited equipment and also working without strict deadlines, Kutner was able to reach a new height of realizing his artistic visions. It is the purest expression of his thoughts.

Despite all of these innovations, many facets of Kutner’s style are retained and continued from prior releases. The sharp and sardonic gestures of each track are best reflected in their titles. “Navigating the Nepomatrix” refers to a class of silently affluent young adults that weave themselves into society while adding nothing despite bogarting societal privilege and available space. The “Waves of Middle Management (Marching)” on the third track characterize the plodding, futile strivers that aim to ascend through strict adherence to mindless dross in corporate environments. Humans aiming to continue colonizing the universe are ultimately just “Stardust Apes” pursuing the arrogant delusion of dominating things beyond their comprehension.

Finally, Kutner’s use of varied personnel throughout the album showcases a hitherto understated interest in community building across supposedly disconnected city scenes and locales. The aforementioned “Navigating the Nepomatrix” features an ensemble of four trumpets, trombone, tuba, and four saxophones, along with sarunay and drum set including Eli Asher, Joe Moffett, Dan Rosenboom, Kelly Bray, Curtis Hasselbring, Ben Stapp, Michael Eaton, Matt Darriau, Elijah Shiffer, Jessica Lurie, Tamara Yadao, and Colin Woodford. Elsewhere, the ecstatic “Wonder, TM” features legendary drummer Marc Edwards, an alumnus of the bands of Cecil Taylor, David S. Ware and Weasel Walter. The apocalyptic doom metal is anchored by five separate, full drum tracks from Portland, OR-based improviser, Mike Lockwood — who formerly worked with Kutner in the trio Evil Genius. Closing track “Safe Travels” features a choir of four soprano saxophones, all played by Michael Eaton. The inclusion of all of these musicians and many others grants the album a special nuance and character that makes for a singular listen across its 70-minute duration.

Singularly Inventive Pianist Joshua White Releases Debut Solo Piano Album "Flora and Fauna: 9 Preludes for Solo Piano"

Composer and pianist Joshua White unveils a captivating new album, Flora and Fauna: 9 Preludes for Solo Piano, a collection of original works that explore the delicate interplay between the natural world and human emotion. The album will be available on all major streaming platforms on December 19, 2025 via Orenda Records.

Inspired by the textures, rhythms, and quiet mysteries of nature, Flora and Fauna brings to life a series of nine preludes, each representing a unique facet of the living world—from the gentle unfolding of a fern at dawn to the restless energy of wind through the canopy. Through intricate harmonies and vivid tone painting, Joshua White invites listeners to reconnect with the organic pulse of the environment that surrounds us.

“Each prelude is a miniature world,” says Joshua White. “I wanted to capture how sound can breathe like a forest, bloom like a flower, and move like an animal in motion. The pieces are reflections on how we coexist with nature—sometimes in harmony, sometimes in tension.”

Flora and Fauna: 9 Preludes for Solo Piano is both a meditation and a celebration—an invitation to slow down, listen, and rediscover the music inherent in the natural world.