Things we like: Weird of Mouth, Patrick Shiroishi

Los Angeles-based Otherly Love Records is the imprint of Stephen Buono, a longtime jazz publicist who also makes music under the rubric Church Chords. The label's latest release -- marking a dozen titles since its inception -- caught my eye with a handful of familiar names that are indicative of Buono's taste. 

Weird of Mouth, out October 4, is the self-titled debut from a cooperative trio of improvisers: Danish altoist Mette Rasmussen, pianist Craig Taborn, and drummer Ches Smith. Rasmussen, currently based in Norway, has played with a long list of noteworthy collaborators, but is familiar here through her work with longtime Austin resident, the Norwegian bassist Ingebright Haker Flaten's (Exit) Knarr ensemble, and her own Hatch Expansion project with guitarist Julien Desprez, which recorded two concerts in Texas in 2019 (released on Sonic Transmissions/Astral Spirits last year as Texas Edition). Taborn is responsible for two of the great jazz piano records of the century so far (Avenging Angel and Chants, both for ECM) and has worked with innovators like Roscoe Mitchell, Tim Berne, and William Parker; I was fortunate to see him perform in the Octopus duo with Kris Davis for two successive nights in 2022. Smith is as ubiquitous as Tom Rainey on recordings of creative music originating in New York City. His own albums as leader are diverse and uniformly excellent (the latest, Laugh Ash, is one of this year's finest).

The three musicians first performed as a trio at The Stone in NYC back in 2016. The seven tracks included here were recorded live and raw -- close-miked and in the same room -- in Brooklyn during the summer of 2022. Rasmussen's an altoist of uncommon power, sounding at times like a tenor of the '60s "energy music" school. Rather than swinging or grooving behind her, Taborn and Smith pitch and roil like an angry sea, with waves of crashing chords and crackling percussive clatter. But Weird of Mouth isn't a non-stop energy orgy; "Brooders of Joy" and "In Search of Soul Pane" showcase a quieter, more ruminative side of this group, with ample space for their conversations to unfold. "Planisphere" shows the trio's dynamic range at its fullest. Things get weirder as they go, with Taborn's electronics (familiar from his Junk Magic project) adding other textures and dimensions to the music. A meeting of creative minds you shouldn't miss, and impetus for me to seek out more of Rasmussen's work.

I first became aware of Los Angeles-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Shiroishi when he played last year's Molten Plains Fest, in a trio with bassists Aaron Gonzalez and Damon Smith, and I was quite taken with his 2023 album i was too young to hear silence -- solo saxophone in a resonant space, informed (as is much of his work) by his family's experience of World War II internment. His new album for Otherly Love, Glass House, out September 20, is a collaboration with choreographer Mamie Green of the dance theater collective VOLTA, and the four pieces were created to be performed "in a specific environment, in conversation with movement, spoken text, [and] embodied space." A YouTube video for "the procession" gives a good idea of the cumulative effect. 

Glass House evokes home and family, and Shiroishi's score employs field recordings, found sounds, drums, bass, keyboard, MIDI, and alto sax to create soundscapes that establish mood and provide a background for movement. With the exception of "the procession," all of the pieces' titles come from a script that's read in performance. The opening "memories (i am in the vortex)" is played to set the scene while the audience and dancers enter the space. The upbeat dance track "what i do makes no sense at all," while extremely uncharacteristic of Shiroishi, came from the musician observing the dancers in rehearsal to see how they work; the sense of movement is palpable even without the visual input. The closing "someday you'll wake up, and you just won't feel like playing anymore // why not? i say" flows languorously, with pulse and swells of melody gradually surfacing, becoming orchestral in its sweep. This surprising album shows the depth and dimension Shiroishi the composer is able to achieve in his solo work.