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ORENDA RECORDS

"Orenda Records is a small Southern California label that punches above its weight... Orenda’s offerings are informed by rock, modern classical, and jazz, and combine these genres in a natural, organic fashion... Orenda’s musicians grew up in a post-Braxton era where musical styles are viewed on a continuum rather than as individual silos of expression."
–Avant Music News


LATEST NEWS:

Featured
May 16, 2025
Saxophonist Joe Santa Maria and Bassist David Tranchina’s OBLIQUE RHYME is an eclectic, innovative, improvisatory album featuring Gary Fukushima and Colin Woodford
May 16, 2025
May 16, 2025
May 2, 2025
L.A. guitarist Max Walker announces virtuosic and exploratory full-length, Chronostasis
May 2, 2025
May 2, 2025
Dec 20, 2024
Dan Rosenboom, Joshua White, Billy Mohler & Shawn Baltazor Drop Surprise End-Of-Year Bootleg Album
Dec 20, 2024
Dec 20, 2024
Aug 2, 2024
Pianist/Composer Zack Clarke Releases "Plunge," A Multi-Stylistic Array of Pianistic and Electronic Inspiration
Aug 2, 2024
Aug 2, 2024
Jun 7, 2024
Dominican Drummer/Composer Ivanna Cuesta Releases Powerful Debut Album, "A Letter To The Earth"
Jun 7, 2024
Jun 7, 2024
Apr 5, 2024
Guitarist/Compser/Multi-instrumentalist Max Kutner Releases New Trio Album "Partial Custody" featuring Tubist Ben Stapp and Percussionist James Paul Nadine
Apr 5, 2024
Apr 5, 2024
Feb 29, 2024
Composer and Multi-Instrumentalist Vera Weber Releases "A Soft Lunacy," an Expansive Duet for Prepared Pianos With Vicki Ray
Feb 29, 2024
Feb 29, 2024
Nov 3, 2023
LA-Based Saxophonist-Composer Joe Santa Maria Issues His “Sonic Autobiography,” The Bold and Wildly Imaginative Echo Deep
Nov 3, 2023
Nov 3, 2023
Apr 28, 2023
Trumpeter/Composer Dan Rosenboom Levels Up with New Band on Polarity, the 101st Recording on Orenda Records
Apr 28, 2023
Apr 28, 2023
Mar 31, 2023
Drummer and Music Educator Dean Mucetti Releases ISOLATE//INTEGRATE With His Band Rhythm Real
Mar 31, 2023
Mar 31, 2023
Feb 24, 2023
Mat Muntz Leads a Band of East Coast Luminaries with an Astonishing Album Driven by a Unique Croatian Bagpipe
Feb 24, 2023
Feb 24, 2023
Jan 27, 2023
Dark Ambient Electric Guitar Duo KillDry Release "Pool of the Black Star"
Jan 27, 2023
Jan 27, 2023

Mat Muntz Leads a Band of East Coast Luminaries with an Astonishing Album Driven by a Unique Croatian Bagpipe

February 24, 2023

Bridging the worlds of contemporary composition, classic free jazz, and obscure folk traditions, Phantom Islands employs diverse sounds to construct a unified, ethereal landscape. The record is the leader debut of New York-based composer, bassist, and bagpiper Mat Muntz (of The Vex Collection), whose use of the unique Croatian bagpipe primorski meh serves as the music’s centerpiece. The instrument’s brazen timbre and alien tuning are anchored by ghostly, microtonal orchestrations for winds, guitar, and percussion, executed with sensitivity and dynamism by a skilled cast of improvisers.



The band features up-and-coming luminaries of the East Coast scene, including Yuma Uesaka on clarinet (Marilyn Crispell, Anna Webber, Ocelot) and Xavier Del Castillo on tenor sax (Adam O’Farrill’s Stranger Days). Guitarist Alec Goldfarb, oboist Pablo O’Connell, and drummer Michael Larocca complete the sextet to create richly textured collective improvisations.

The title Phantom Islands refers to nonexistent landmasses which were recorded on nautical maps for centuries, often with bizarre, “here be dragons” associations. By using this concept of “haunted geography” to channel maritime mythologies from around the world - Croatia, Bahrain, Okinawa - Muntz’s compositions render a correspondingly haunted musical vocabulary: a folk music from nowhere.

← Drummer and Music Educator Dean Mucetti Releases ISOLATE//INTEGRATE With His Band Rhythm RealDark Ambient Electric Guitar Duo KillDry Release "Pool of the Black Star" →
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email: info@orendarecords.com
phone: +1 (323) 696 5780