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.

Dan Rosenboom's "Coordinates" is boundary-less and meticulous, "a programmatic concept album that is as sonically rich as it is emotionally riveting."

For trumpeter-composer-producer Dan Rosenboom, there are no boundaries when it comes to making music. Genre distinctions are meaningless, unusual combinations of instruments are a hallmark, and sources of inspiration are as numerous as the stars. His expansive and explosive new album Coordinates is a multi-faceted exploration of self through the lenses of found numerical patterns, cosmic temporal imagination, orchestrational possibility, and true friendship. It spans the stylistic universe from progressive jazz to metal, world, symphonic, and chamber music sensibilities and features 28 virtuoso musicians from the Los Angeles jazz scene and Hollywood film recording studios. Through an idiosyncratic approach to rhythm and complex unfolding compositions, Rosenboom presents a programmatic concept album that is as sonically rich as it is emotionally riveting.

"Rosenboom at his toughest and most colorful, busting the walls to find grandeur in the collapse of modernity and opening cracks into the corners of the soul."
–Greg Burk, MetalJazz

The title Coordinates reveals the origin of the compositions at the heart of this new album. Throughout his life, Rosenboom has felt an almost mystical connection to the numbers in the world around us. “Coordinates really started as a game,” says Rosenboom, “a challenge for myself to make compelling music out of a series of “found” numbers. These numbers, a series of coordinates that flashed across the screen in a favorite science fiction show, gave me the idea to lay out a grid of time signatures like a game board and to see if I could make those metric relationships groove.” Using these numbers to create the rhythmic frameworks for a series of five pieces, Rosenboom embarked on what would ultimately become a four-year journey in writing and production. Rosenboom continues, “Each piece is an exploration through sound, investigating different moods and aspects of my own persona and imagination - coordinates of being, so to speak. As I wrote and produced this album, I imagined each as a sort of ritual dance from an unknown civilization, somewhere among the stars.”

Coordinates bounces and weaves with a rhythmic language that feels as connected to Balkan dance music as to Igor Stravinsky and Olivier Messaien. The orchestration is lush and varied, as Rosenboom brings friends from two worlds together to create a distinct sound, with A-list Hollywood strings, brass and percussion, as well as virtuoso soloists from the vibrant LA jazz scene.

Once the compositions were complete, Rosenboom spent over a year recording and producing Coordinates. Guitarist Jake Vossler, bassist Jerry Watts Jr., and drummer Caleb Dolister, who have all been frequent collaborators with Rosenboom, acted as co-producers and contributed multiple workshops and recording sessions to shape tones, phrasing, stylistic ideas, and to sculpt each piece into its final form. As hard-hitting as Coordinates can be, Rosenboom achieves his varied and transportive sound through primarily acoustic orchestration. By combining guitars and bass with instruments like Wade Culbreath’s vibraphone and 5-octave marimba and Gloria Cheng’s concert grand piano, Rosenboom creates a composite core to the sound that is both intriguing and unusual. Two of his most epic compositions, "Coordinate 3" and "Coordinate 5," include orchestral brass with horn players Laura Brenes and Katie Faraudo, trombonists Steve Suminski, Ryan Dragon and Steve Trapani, and tubist Doug Tornquist. He also brings in strings, featuring The Lyris Quartet with violinists Alyssa Park and Shalini Vijayan, violist Luke Maurer, and cellist Timothy Loo, as well as legendary contrabassist Michael Valerio. A remarkable host of Rosenboom’s friends appear as guest soloists across the project, including Jacqueline Kerrod (harp), Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (electric 5-String violin), Lauren Elizabeth Baba (viola), Nicole McCabe (alto saxophone), Katisse Buckingham (flutes), Joshua White (piano), Gavin Templeton (baritone saxophone), Brian Walsh (contralto clarinet), Ryan Dragon (trombone), and Jon Stehney (bassoon and contrabassoon). All-star keyboardist Jeff Babko and A-list multi-percussionist Petri Korpela both augment the sound with character and personality.

For Dan Rosenboom, Coordinates represents a high-water mark as a composer and producer. Beyond the wide array of colleagues and stylistic influences, this music is his most compositionally adventurous work to date. He says, “Coordinates is a far-reaching exploration of different sound-worlds, styles, rhythms, and personalities. It feels grounded in natural and cosmic proportionality and mathematical magic. It is both highly personal and otherworldly.” Dan Rosenboom’s Coordinates presents a refined vision from one of Los Angeles’s most creative voices, and something truly unique in the modern musical landscape.

Composer, pianist, and Synthesist Philip Rankin Releases Wild With Life, the Debut Jazz Sextet Album Dedicated to the Los Angeles River.

A genre-blurring blend of chamber jazz, modular synthesis, and cinematic composition, the album captures Rankin’s reflections on life living beside the Los Angeles River, particularly the Glendale Narrows — one of the few areas where the river still flows freely amid the city’s concrete sprawl.

"The album is a reflection on both the wonder that is the Los Angeles River, and how having access to such a space allows access for our thoughts to blossom." –Philip Rankin.

Rankin, known for his expansive musical vocabulary and creative voice under the alias oneL, returns to acoustic ensemble writing with a renewed sensitivity and sense of place.

Featuring:
Philip Rankin – Piano, Modular Synth, Field Recordings, Compositions
Andrew Conrad – Clarinet & Bass Clarinet
Yvette Holdsworth – Violin
Greg Zilboorg – Trumpet
David Tranchina – Bass
Trevor Anderies – Drums

Wild With Life blends layered harmonies, expressive improvisations, and immersive soundscapes to capture the dual experience of being beside the Los Angeles River—both the contrast of nature within an urban landscape and the depth of thought inspired by its solitude. Co-produced by Rob Shelton (aka Bobby Kalamino), the album weaves together atmospheric field recordings, Rankin’s signature use of modular synthesis, and his distinctive compositional style. The intricate interplay of the band—blending jazz improvisation with the precision and intimacy of chamber music—infuses each piece with Rankin’s unique, reflective approach to melody and structure. The result is a sonic journey that reflects the river’s impermanence—its cycles of near-drought and flooding—while echoing the resilience of life that persists in the face of a channelized, urbanized floodplain. This is a space where beauty and chaos coexist, creating a unique experience of serenity amidst the hum of city life and the constant rush of the freeway. 

L-R: Andrew Conrad, Trevor Anderies, Yvette Holdsworth, David Tranchina, Philip Rankin, Greg Zilboorg