*announcing* Tomin's ensemble recording debut: 'A Willed And Conscious Balance' // out November 1st
*announcing* IARC0088
Tomin
A Willed and Conscious Balance
LP/CD/DD out November 1, 2024
Ecstatic news and new music today from Tomin! I.E. the Brooklyn born and based brass- and reed-centered multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and bioinformatician whose solo home recordings we compiled and released as Flores para Verene / Cantos para Caramina just last month.
His debut as an ensemble leader – A Willed and Conscious Balance – is out November 1st.
((( photos by Alejandro Ayala )))
A Willed and Conscious Balance is the first album of material arranged for an ensemble by Tomin. The bulk of the album was recorded in one day at The Bunker in Brooklyn by IARC house engineers Dave Vettraino and David Allen, and features a truly incredible lineup that includes members of Irreversible Entanglements and jaimie branch’s FLY or DIE.
Tomin’s discerning, emotionally weighty perspective is among his artistic superpowers, and it’s a primary reason A Willed and Conscious Balance is played by an all-star team of collaborators gathered from throughout his life. Trumpeter Linton Smith II and cellist #1 Clérida Eltimé are long-time compadres — Tomin describes the former as a “brother/mentor” and the latter as “section leader” with “sister vibes.” Bassist Luke Stewart, drummer Tcheser Holmes, and cellist #2 Lester St. Louis are all central figures of that Brooklyn community. Tomin first played with Chicago-based keyboardist Teiana Davis (who also records as Anaiet Soul) at a July 2021 show, “Angel Bat Dawid + jaimie branch and Friends.” That show is also where he first met Lester, Luke and Tcheser, making the spiritual influence those two great female bandleaders hold over the proceedings hard to deny. (Particularly branch, to whom Tomin co-dedicates a poem in the album’s sleeve notes.)
Yet as good as the band is, it’s the remarkable way these musicians approach these pieces — how the sound in Tomin’s head blossoms in their mutual hands — that makes A Willed and Conscious Balance a triumph. Imagine the density of a J.J. Johnson arrangement rhythmically stretched and pulled à la Thembi-era Pharoah Sanders, or the Dolphy-infused bop squawk elegance of Booker Little's Out Front sent through the sonic washing machine of Bennie Maupin's The Jewel in the Lotus. With each listen, the potential for comparisons feels both endless and unsatisfying, and while there were certainly hints of this direction on Flores para Verene / Cantos para Caramina – simple & entrancing chord progressions, favoring the dirge, favoring the repetitive – the sounds heard on A Willed and Conscious Balance take the listener somewhere new. Somewhere fresh yet familiar. A group exploration of simplicity that yields something complicated, just like life itself.
NYC Record Release Show
On November 11 Tomin will play a record release show at The Brooklyn Music School – which is the very same place where Tomin first performed as a child.
The full ensemble will feature Teiana Davis, Clérida Eltimé, Lester St. Louis, Linton Smith II, Luke Stewart and Tcheser Holmes.
November 11, 2024 @ Brooklyn Music School
126 Saint Felix Street Brooklyn, NY
...about Tomin...
Tomin is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, bioinformatician, and poet from Brooklyn, New York. His primary instruments are the flute, trumpet and alto clarinet, and he participates in the creative music scene as a performer, improvisor, composer and fan. Outside of music, he works in computational genetics, with a focus on oncology.
** Deluxe Vinyl Package **
A Willed and Conscious Balance comes inside a heavyweight reverse-board jacket, with UV gloss photo insert sheet, IARC OBI strip and poly-lined dome patterned inner-sleeve. Pressed at Pallas in Germany with lacquers cut by Daniel K at SST.
For the first pressing only, we also pressed the album on Limited Edition Contemplation color vinyl, available via our Bandcamp page.
Purchase A Willed And Conscious Balance as part of the
**Fall '24 Bundle**
For the fervent, faithful collector of our output.
A Willed And Conscious Balance is part of the FALL '24 BUNDLE! Perhaps our most mondo bundle yet, this single parcel will include all SIX (6!) LPs announced across Fall 2024 – including the recently announced albums by Anna Butterss and Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra. No spoilers on the rest here, but we can tell you for certain that the whole season is STACKED.
This bundle includes 5x single LP releases and 1x double LP release. Purchase gets you a bundle-exclusive discount of 10% off the LP prices, plus a 60% discount on shipping costs.
The bundle will ship from our warehouses in the US, EU and UK, but don't sleep.. the quantity available in each warehouse is limited! Early purchase is recommended to ensure the lowest possible shipping, tax, and VAT costs.
All items will ship together in one package around November 1st, so you'll be receiving half of your bundle 2-4 weeks after the initial street dates, and the other half you'll be receiving early.
Bandcamp downloads will be sent via email for all the releases by, or before, the ship date.
Order the Fall '24 Bundle on limited edition color vinyl here.
Order the Fall '24 Bundle on classic black vinyl here.
General Inquiries:
information@intlanthem.com
For Distribution, Orders & Customer Support:
orders@intlanthem.com
