Heavy avant-garde improvisers Dan Rosenboom, Jake Vossler, and Tina Raymond evoke the spirit Butoh and the scale of Kaiju with enormous sound and fiery invention on their second album as Trio Subliminal. Recorded in 3 live, uncut takes at Rosenboom's BoomHill Studio, this album will shake your walls with unusual and exciting music!
These three singular musicians have shared a long history of collaboration, though this is only their second outing as a trio, and each brings a lifetime of experience in a variety of musical arenas. Rosenboom has spent nearly 20 years entrenched in the Los Angeles creative music scene as well as the classical and studio recording communities. Vossler is a devout death metal guitarist and vocalist who has delved deeply into the worlds of free sonic improvisation and Eastern European folk music. Raymond is a leading light in the Los Angeles jazz community with a highly distinctive, sought-after drum sound, and has a background in classical percussion, African drumming, and even played tympani with the rock band Evanescence.
Trio Subliminal shares a belief in the power of improvised music to connect with our collective humanity and inspire the imagination. Rosenboom muses:
"I’ve always been interested in metaphysical realities, mystical thought, and extra-sensory perception. Collective improvisation taps into these mind spaces in a way that almost nothing else does. The intuitive connection between band mates and the co-creation of something previously unknown is akin to pure conjuring or the formation of a new element."
Trio Subliminal 2: Cinema Infernale embraces a slightly different approach than the band's self-titled debut. Building forms that unfold more gradually, and incorporating a quartertone trumpet, live electronic effects, three gradually-descending guitars and bigger drums, the band weaves cinematic soundscapes and narratives that play out like a monster movie! From subdued, foreboding and beautifully melancholic textures to wildly explosive climaxes, the band covers range rarely heard in modern music, and the result is something truly transportive.
Creative improvisation also fills a significant role in Rosenboom's outlook on the state of the music industry:
"In the modern world, music is so produced and perfected that pure improvisation stands as a form of open rebellion. It is at once flying in the face of everything current, yet somehow feels most directly analogous to the way we live our lives, constantly navigating, changing plans and expectations based on the input and ideas of our peers, finding common ground, and building structure together. In this way, improvising provides an opportunity for the most profound human connection both with fellow musicians and audience members, as all experience the unfolding of a performance with equal mystery and surprise."
A sonic theater-of-the-mind, Trio Subliminal 2: Cinema Infernale offers the daring listener a chance to transcend the mundane, even if only for a moment. Through spontaneity and imagination Dan Rosenboom, Jake Vossler, and Tina Raymond bring us something unusual, something hair-raising, and something beautiful.