| Mandatory Reality | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 2019 | |||
| Recorded | June 11, 2017 | |||
| Studio | Electrical Audio, Chicago, Illinois | |||
| Genre | Free jazz, minimalism | |||
| Label | Eremite Aguirre Records | |||
| Producer | Joshua Abrams, Michael Ehlers | |||
| Natural Information Society chronology | ||||
| ||||
Mandatory Reality is a 2019 album by guimbri player Joshua Abrams and the Natural Information Society.
Featuring two long pieces totalling over an hour in duration, followed by two shorter works, the album was recorded on June 11, 2017, at Electrical Audio in Chicago, with each piece captured as a single take. It was released in 2019 on vinyl and CD by Eremite Records, based in the United States, and on vinyl by Aguirre Records, a Belgian label. On the album, Abrams is joined by saxophonist Nick Mazzarella, bass clarinetist Jason Stein, cornetist Ben Lamar Gay, pianist Ben Boye, harmonium player Lisa Alvarado, and percussionists Mikel Patrick Avery and Hamid Drake. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
In an interview with Jason P. Woodbury of Aquarium Drunkard , Abrams suggested that the music attempts to combine aspects of jazz and minimalism. He commented: "You often see collaborations between various figures—Don Cherry and Terry Riley, Harold Budd and Marion Brown. It's kind of shining a light on those connections, which are for whatever reason considered a little more separate." [6] Regarding the longer pieces, he stated that they "give the musicians the opportunity to slow down, to try and take the approach of savoring what we're building together... If we can get to that space, you notice the focus broadens and zooms in at the same time." [6]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| DownBeat |   [7] |
| Jazzwise | [8] |
| Pitchfork |    [9] |
| PopMatters | [10] |
| Tom Hull – on the Web | B+ [11] |
In a review for DownBeat , Aaron Cohen stated that the musicians know "how much power comes through movements that might at first appear sparse, but take on stunning resonance with each added layer.... they emphasize minimalism over complex harmonic changes and favor a series of subtle sonic shifts over virtuoso solos." [7]
Giovanni Russonello of The New York Times singled out the track titled "In Memory's Prism" for praise, writing: "It all has the implacable momentum of migration, or the feeling of a big new idea just coming into being. At the very least, it will put your mind in a place of peaceful wandering; by the end, you're likely to wind up deep in your own imagination, remembering or inventing a story of your own." [12]
Commenting on the second track, "Finite," The Washington Post's Chris Richards noted: "Abrams gently draws his seven comrades... into a groove that instantly feels like it's spinning, but with enchanted slowness... all of this is being done with human hands and human breath. No electricity. It's beautiful." [13]
Writing for Jazzwise , Daniel Spicer called the music "spiritually charged ecstatic minimalism," and remarked: "Sincere, serious and deeply transporting in equal measure, Mandatory Reality deserves your attention." [8]
Pitchfork's Andy Beta described "In Memory's Prism" as "exquisitely slow, like tai chi or a record played back at 16 rpm," and wrote: "It's so languid that you feel not so much like you are listening to a band so much as walking among them... The music moves so slowly as to impart the notion that this sense of pause, of dilated attention, might itself be the mandatory reality, rather than the one that clutters our waking lives from every possible angle." [9]
Spyros Stasis of PopMatters noted the presence of a "constant process of transformation" in the music, and stated: "As the ensemble moves from one track to the next, it feels like they are discovering something new about their compositions and ideas each time. It is this simple fact that makes Mandatory Reality such an enticing listen." [10]
In an article for Aquarium Drunkard, Jason P. Woodbury commented: "the sense of possibility, space, and most importantly, freedom, makes Mandatory Reality feel like a balm in our hyperspeed times. We often don't allow ourselves the luxury of experiencing individual, focused moments. The music Abrams seeks to create not only celebrates the possibility of focus, but widens and expands its boundaries." [6]
Composer Ben Vida described the album as "the sound of people together, doing something in real time that takes time to do." He remarked: "for as much hypnotic beauty as there is in this music, there is also something charged with risk—something that manifests from inexactitude, from not making corrections, and from the complete live studio take. This is the sustained breath of time shared and ceremony invoked." [14]
Nilan Perera of Exclaim! wrote: "The music itself is measured and takes its time to breath in layered meters... While this release really doesn't break any boundaries, it's beautiful and doesn't demand much more than good feelings. In these times, that's no small thing." [15]
Las Vegas Weekly's Spencer Patterson included the recording in a list of his favorite albums of the past 20 years, [16] and stated: "Tones, glorious tones, at the nexus of jazz and drone. One can get so deeply lost in this." [17]
Commenting for Point of Departure, Stuart Broomer noted: "Development... is incremental, sometimes microscopic; band and listener alike are drawn ever further into repeated rhythmic figures... When solos emerge... they rise through the network of patterns, barely varying it... it's illuminating work, seemingly eroding barriers between self and other, creating a kind of bliss. In listening to these piece, subjective experience expands, while the objectively describable manifestation of the music contracts to the vaguest description." [18]
Hamid Drake is an American jazz drummer and percussionist.
Ari Brown is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and pianist.
Nicole Mitchell is an American jazz flautist and composer who teaches jazz at the University of Virginia. She is a former chairwoman of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
Tomeka Reid is an American composer, improviser, cellist, curator, and teacher.
Eremite Records is an independent American jazz record label founded in 1995 by Michael Ehlers, with early involvement from music writer Byron Coley. Ehlers was a student of Archie Shepp's at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After college, he began producing concerts in the Amherst area, and Eremite evolved from those events. The label name came from an alternate title to the Thelonious Monk tune "Reflections": "Portrait of an Eremite". The label's logo, designed by Savage Pencil, is an image of a robed Joe McPhee playing soprano saxophone. Eremite organized a concert series in Western Massachusetts that ran through 2008 and produced roughly 100 concerts, including five Fire in the Valley festivals. From 1998–2018, Eremite managed a touring organization that arranged hundreds of concerts across North America for its artists.
Joshua Abrams is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist who plays the double bass and guimbri.
Lisa Alvarado is an American visual artist and harmonium player.
Natural Information Society is a music ensemble described as “ecstatic minimalism”. The group formed in 2010 and is led by multi-instrumentalist and composer Joshua Abrams. NPR called the group a "staple" of the underground music scene in Chicago. Their performances often include the paintings of Lisa Alvarado.
The Summer House Sessions is a live album by trumpeter Don Cherry. It was recorded in July 1968 at the summer home of musician and recording engineer Göran Frees in Kummelnäs, Nacka, Sweden, after Frees invited Cherry to visit for a series of jam sessions and rehearsals.
12° of Freedom is the debut album by the Chicago Underground Duo, featuring multi-instrumentalists Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor. It was recorded during January and June 1997 at three different locations, and was released in 1998 by the Thrill Jockey label. Guitarist Jeff Parker also appears on three tracks.
Jazz: A Music of the Spirit / Out of Sistas' Place is an album by Diaspora Meets AfroHORN, featuring the combined forces of two bands led by Sun Ra alumni: trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah's group Diaspora, and percussionist Francisco Mora Catlett's ensemble AfroHORN. It was released in 2019 by Abdullah's Amedian label. On the album, Abdullah and Mora Catlett are joined by saxophonists Don Chapman and Alex Harding, tubist Bob Stewart, pianist Donald Smith, vocalist Monique Ngozi Nri, bassist Radu ben Judah, and percussionists Ronnie Burrage and Roman Diaz.
Descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is a live album by Natural Information Society, featuring guimbri player Joshua Abrams, bass clarinetist Jason Stein, harmonium player Lisa Alvarado, drummer Mikel Patrick Avery, and special guest soprano saxophonist Evan Parker. It was recorded on July 9, 2019, at Cafe Oto in London, and was released in 2021 by both Eremite Records, based in the United States, and Aguirre Records, a Belgian label.
Since Time Is Gravity is an album by the Natural Information Society Community Ensemble, led by double bassist and guimbri player Joshua Abrams. It was recorded on May 18, 2021, at the Graham Foundation in Chicago, Illinois, and on August 24, 2021, at Electrical Audio in Chicago, and was released in 2023 as a double-LP set by both Eremite Records, based in the United States, and Aguirre Records, a Belgian label. On the album, Abrams is joined by alto saxophonists Nick Mazzarella and Mai Sugimoto, bass clarinetist Jason Stein, cornetists Josh Berman and Ben Lamar Gay, harmonium player Lisa Alvarado, harpist Kara Bershad, percussionists Mikel Patrick Avery and Hamid Drake, and a guest artist, tenor saxophonist Ari Brown.
Father of Origin is a box set album by multi-instrumentalist Juma Sultan and his open-ended ensemble the Aboriginal Music Society. Drawn from Sultan's archive of recorded material, and released by Eremite Records in 2011, it consists of two vinyl LPs, a CD, and a book containing photos and an extensive essay by jazz scholar Michael Heller, all of which help to document aspects of the loft jazz era of the early 1970s.
Gong Gong Gong is an experimental rock band founded in Beijing in 2015. It consists of bassist and vocalist Tom Ng and guitarist Joshua Frank.
Simultonality is a 2017 album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Joshua Abrams and the Natural Information Society.
Mind Maintenance is an album by the duo of the same name, featuring Joshua Abrams on guimbri and Chad Taylor on mbira. It was released on vinyl in 2021 by the Drag City label.
Magnetoception is a 2015 album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Joshua Abrams, on which he is joined by members of the Natural Information Society.
Automaginary is a 2015 collaborative album by the Natural Information Society and Bitchin Bajas.
Represencing is a 2012 album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Joshua Abrams, on which he is joined by members of the Natural Information Society.