Carlos Niño &
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
Chicago Waves
Now Available
Chicago Waves
What people Are Saying
“The musicians’ telepathic connection enlivens even the most hushed moments, lending an arresting charge to every microscopic shift.”
– Leor Galil, The Chicago Reader
“…atmospheric and mind-expanding… ”
“…this is a vast, stretched-out spaced out trip that intoxicates, transports and guides the listener to places that were previously unprecedented.”
– Philippe De Cleen, Dansende Beren
“…it’s minimalism with the harmonic complexity of a Romantic tone poem; it’s ambient music with the rigour of jazz.”
“…beautiful ambient work…”
“...it's fitting that this freely improvised music, highly experimental music, was created in that city and titled in tribute of that.”
Announcing IARC0033: Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson - Chicago Waves
In stores September 25, 2020
Available on LP/CD/Digital via our Bandcamp page
In late November of 2018, long-time collaborators (& life-long Los Angelenos) Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson flew to Chicago to participate in the album release performance of Makaya McCraven’s Universal Beings. Just 11 months prior, Carlos & Miguel were part of recording the ‘Los Angeles Side’ of Universal Beings at Jeff Parker’s house in Altadena, California, and this performance in Chicago would be the first time that all of the musicians reunited to re-learn and perform the music they’d collectively composed during those sessions.
The Universal Beings performance and preceding days of rehearsal took place at the iconic South Shore Cultural Center – a historic gilded-era urban club-turned-public facility deep on Chicago’s Southside and right along the reedy shore of Lake Michigan, giving the building’s backdrop an infinitely blue Northern expanse.
The night after the performance at South Shore Cultural Center, friend of International Anthem Jeremy Cunningham was scheduled to debut new music (The Weather Up There, which has since been released on Northern Spy Records) at our HQ, Co-Prosperity Sphere. Since Carlos & Miguel were still in Chicago (before they’d head to New York City for a second Universal Beings performance at Le Poisson Rouge), we invited them to do a Special Guest duo set to open the show.
At the conclusion of their 44-minute improvised set that night, Carlos spontaneously dubbed the piece “Chicago Waves.” His proclamation gave us the distinct impression that the previous days spent in South Shore (and the many commutes to-andfrom, along Lake Shore Drive) had imprinted the deep blue vastness of early-Winter Lake Michigan into Carlos & Miguel’s respective & collective consciousness, and thus, into the spirit of the luminous music they created that night at Co-Prosperity Sphere. We at IARC are happy to share this recording of Chicago Waves with the world in a time when peace-bringing sound and a sweet memory of live music, sparkling inside the collective breath of community in communal space, has potential to provide the utmost nourishment.
Notes
All music composed by Carlos Niño (Third Side Music)
and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (Warp Publishing).
Recorded live November 30th, 2018,
at Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport, Chicago, Illinois.
Carlos Niño – percussion & soundscapes
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson* – 5-string violin & effects
Recorded & Mixed by Dave Vettraino.
Mastered by David Allen.
Cover Art by Sam Klickner.
Portrait by Kristie Kahns.
Layout & Liner Design by Craig Hansen.
Produced by Scott McNiece.
*Miguel Atwood-Ferguson appears courtesy of Brainfeeder Records.
All rights reserved
About Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
Carlos Niño – a multidimensional and catalytic producer, arranger, percussionist and DJ – made early in-roads through independent music in 1995, founding Spaceways Radio, the longstanding program for LA’s KPFK station and, shortly thereafter, co-founding non-profit internet radio giant Dublab. Moreover, Niño has been front-and-center in the forging of post-hip hop, contemporary Spiritual Jazz and New Age lexicons in Los Angeles. From community activism at Leimert Park’s The World Stage to kindred allyship within Leaving Records’ all-genre manifestations, his ensemble, Carlos Niño & Friends is a living collaborative force that has engaged a fountain of inspired players such as Sam Gendel, Jamael Dean, Dexter Story, Jamire Williams, Josh Johnson, Deantoni Parks, Madlib, Kamasi Washington, and of course, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.
Atwood-Ferguson – an arranger, composer, music director, producer and multi-instrumentalist – rose as a classically trained session musician to what the New York Times would call “a leader of skilled ensembles, a celebrator of repertories and an organizer of legacies.” He has composed string arrangements for everyone from Dr. Dre to Anderson .Paak, Thundercat and Flying Lotus (among many, many others).