*Announcing* IARC0063

Ben LaMar Gay - Certain Reveries

Cassette & Digital album out November 11th, 2022

In the tradition of toddler crayon scribbles on perfectly painted bedroom walls, multi-freshness composer Ben LaMar Gay expands on the teachings of Alabama star spirits and presents a collection of work involving sound, fabric, movement, rivers, shadows, Lagosian memories, light and listening.

Preview & preorder Certain Reveries

Certain Reveries is a long-form composition by Gay, performed in duo with percussionist Tommaso Moretti. It was originally filmed by Chris Strong for EFG London Jazz Fest’s 2020 live-stream program. Gay presented the original Certain Reveries visual program for EFG LJF in three parts, with the live performance portion dissected by a mesmerizing short film (or “revery”) he conceptualized, choreographed, and directed, alone in his Chicago apartment, as a tribute to the late inventor/composer Eddie Harris. This new album release is the first time the unedited audio from the live performance portion of that program is made available.

The lead "single" from Certain Reveries – "Água Futurism," an 11-minute segment from the late side of the set – is available on all DSPs today.

Listen

Ben LeMar Gay in EU and UK

Fall 2022

Ben embarks on a tour of the European continent very soon, along with his ace quartet featuring Tommaso Moretti (drums), Matthew Davis (tuba), Will Faber (guitar), and himself on cornet, synth, and vocals. (Edinho will replace Faber on guitar for some of the dates.) Full list of dates below:

Fr. Oct 28, 2022 - WARSAW/Poland - Klub Stodoła
Sa. Oct 29, 2022 - BUDAPEST/Hungary - Opus Jazz Club
Su. Oct 30, 2022 - ROMA/Italy - Fauves! Festival
We. Nov 2, 2022 - STOCKHOLM/Sweden - Jazzclub Fasching
Th. Nov 3, 2022 - MANNHEIM/Germany - Alte Feuerwache
Fr. Nov 4, 2022 - WIESBADEN/Germany - art.ist
Sa. Nov 5, 2022 - ST. GALLEN/Switzerland - Palace
Su. Nov 6, 2022 - BERLIN/Germany - Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Tu. Nov 8, 2022 - BRUSSELS/Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
We. Nov 9, 2022 - MILANO/Italy - Teatro Spazio 89
Fr. Nov 11, 2022 - FIRENZE/Italy - Sala Vanni
Sa. Nov 12, 2022 - LONDON/England - Barbican Centre

Get Tickets

Ben LeMar Gay & IARC @ The Barbican

The grand finale of Ben's tour is 11/11 in London at the legendary Barbican as part of CHICAGOxLONDON 2022, which we're co-presenting alongside EFG London Jazz Fest and our British besties Total Refreshment Centre. It's night one of the festival's "Generations of Chicago Weekender," and our showcase will include performances by Jeff Parker, Alabaster DePlume, Angel Bat Dawid, and of course BLG.

This will be a very special night for us on many many levels... Five years ago, over a dozen of us of Chicago ilk rolled into Total Refreshment Centre for our first CHICAGOxLONDON weekender with no real idea of how things would go... just some general ideas ho how we wanted it to go, and some general good feelings about our co-conspirators in London. It ended up being one of the richest times of our lives, and I think the many others who took part would agree. Ben was part of the performing artists contingency of our crew, along with Makaya McCraven, Angel Bat Dawid, Tomeka Reid, Mazz Swift, and Silvia Bolognesi's Hear in Now, and our late sister jaimie branch.

Five years later... it's freaking incredible to see how much has grown around this Trans-Atlantic collaboration. Not just in these shows (this hit at Barbican will be the 4th gig in London we've done under the CHICAGOxLONDON banner – the 2nd with support from EFG LJF) but also the residual projects, albums, friendships, family... There has been so much art and so much humanity that has come from this ever-growing interchange. It's beautiful to see its continuation in general; and it's thrilling to have the opportunity to celebrate it on a stage as prestigious as the Barbican's.

Tickets & Info Here for CHICAGOxLONDON 2022 at The Barbican

About Ben LeMar Gay

Ben LaMar Gay is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, poet, and patently eclectic polymath who Afropunk has called “strikingly original,” Pitchfork has called “uncategorizable,” and Jeff Parker has called "hands down, one of my favorite musicians on the planet today.” He channels a radical array of sound, color, and space through the universal language of folklore; but despite the widely attributed genius of his work, his artistic approach and general demeanor are characterized by an endearing humbleness and warm humanity. One of the most prolific collaborators in Chicago's creative music community, he makes active contributions to Theaster Gates’s Black Monks of Mississippi, Nicole Mitchell’s EarthSeed, Mike Reed’s Flesh & Bone, Matthew Lux’s Communication Arts Quartet, Joshua Abrams’s Natural Information Society, Bitchin Bajas & many more. He’s a default descendent and a long-time participant in the AACM (i.e. the legendary Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians).

And he’s well represented in the International Anthem catalogue as well. Beyond being the brains behind Bottle Tree – the future funk suite we released in April of 2017 that was named “Best Album of the Year” by London’s EZH Magazine and on NPR’s Sound Opinions (c/o producer Ayana Contreras) – he was a core component of Makaya McCraven’s Highly Rare, and a cornet cameo on jaimie branch’s Fly or Die (both of which were included in the New York Times’s “Best Albums of 2017”). He's a regular member of Damon Locks' Black Monument Ensemble and has also been featured on other IARC releases by Angel Bat Dawid and Dos Santos.

In 2018, his eponymous debut Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun collected fifteen tracks from seven unreleased albums he had made over the previous seven years; and the album ended up on numerous “Best Albums of 2018” lists including a #3 spot on WIRE Magazine’s prestigious roundup. Between 2018 and 2020, International Anthem issued the full editions of six of Gay’s seven unreleased albums.

In Spring of 2021, Gay recorded a new album titled Open Arms to Open Us at International Anthem studios in Chicago, alongside co-producer Dave Vettraino. The album was co-released in Fall of 2021 by IARC and Nonesuch Records with wide critical acclaim. Pitchfork said "Open Arms to Open Us is adventure writ large, a rhythmical hymn to boundless possibility," while AllMusic and WIRE Magazine named it among the best of 2021.