OUT THIS WEEK: Tomin's "A Willed and Conscious Balance"
IARC0088
Tomin
A Willed and Conscious Balance
Vinyl LP/CD/DD out this Friday November 1st, 2024
(( full album out on streaming platforms November 11th))
Ensemble leader debut by Brooklyn born and based brass- and reed-centered multi-instrumentalist, composer & arranger Tomin !!!
(( found in the bins at Revancha in Mexico City ))
!!! Buy it IRL !!!
Below (and here on our website) is a list of record shops in the UK, USA, Canada and Mexico that we've confirmed to be stocking A Willed and Conscious Balance for its release day this Friday.
Please consider showing your neighborhood small business some love!
London, UK - Dreamhouse
London, UK - World of Echo
Loveland, OH - Plaid Room Records
Madison, WI - B-Side
Manchester, UK - Piccadilly
Mexico City, MX - Revancha
Miami, FL - Sweat Records
Milwaukee, WI - Acme Records
Minneapolis, MN - Down in the Valley
Montréal, QC - Atom Heart
Montréal, QC - Sonorama Disques
Nashville, TN - Grimey's
Norridge, IL - Rolling Stones Record Store
Olympia, WA - Rainy Day Records
Oxford, MS - The End of All Music
Portland, OR - Music Millennium
Portland, OR - Mississippi Records
Portland, OR - Clinton St. Records
Princeton, NJ - Princeton Record Exchange
Saint-Hyacinthe, QC - Frequences Le Disquaire
Seattle, WA - Silver Platters
Seattle, WA - Sonic Boom Records
Somerville, MA - Vinyl Index
St. Paul, MN - Cheapo Discs
St. Louis, MO - Euclid Records
Troy, NY - Sound House Records
Vancouver, BC - Audiopile Records
Wallingford, CT - Redscroll Records
Washington, DC - Spin Time Records
Winooski, VT - Autumn Records
Ann Arbor, MI - Encore Records
Asheville, NC - Harvest Records
Austin, TX - Breakaway Records
Baltimore, MD - Sound Garden
Bloomington, IN - Landlocked Music
Brighton, UK - Mr Bongo
Brighton, UK - Family Store
Brighton, UK - Resident
Calgary, AB - Blackbyrd Myoozik
Calgary, AB - Melodiya Records
Carp, ON - Birdman Sound
Chicago, IL - 606 Records
Chicago, IL - Dusty Groove
Chicago, IL - Reckless Records (Belmont)
Chicago, IL - Reckless Records (Loop)
Chicago, IL - Reckless Records (Wicker Park)
Chicago, IL - Tone Deaf Records
Cincinnati, OH - Shake It
Dearborn, MI - Dearborn Music
Denver, CO - Twist & Shout
Durham, NC - Carolina Soul Records
East Lansing, MI - Flat Black and Circular
Edinburgh, UK - Underground Solushn
Encinitas, CA - Lou's Records
Greenville, SC - Horizon
Iowa City, IA - Record Collector
Ithaca, NY - Angry Mom Records
Kansas City, MO - Mills Record Company
London, UK - Stranger Than Paradise
London, UK - Venus Vinyl
London, UK - Rough Trade
((( photo by Alejandro Ayala )))
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.
Within his new album A Willed and Conscious Balance (the bulk of which was recorded in one day at The Bunker in Brooklyn, NY), the potential for comparisons is both endless and unsatisfying. Though imagine the density of a JJ Johnson arrangement being 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.
While there were certainly hints of these directions on Tomin’s collection of solo recordings, Flores para Verene / Cantos para Caramina — entrancing chord progressions that favor the dirge and the repetitive — the sounds heard on A Willed and Conscious Balance go somewhere new; fresh yet familiar. It’s a group exploration of simplicity that yields something complicated, just like life itself.
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 and drummer Tcheser Holmes are the rhythm section in Irreversible Entanglements, and alongside Lester St. Louis, cellist #2 here and a key member of jaimie branch’s Fly or Die, 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. Each plays on and off the page, less engaged in soloing than in the interaction of the collective. The building of a band sound and how that informs the building of society is the album’s foundational point.
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
Listening Party on Bandcamp
This Friday 11/1 is our ((VIRTUAL)) Bandcamp Listening Party for 𝑨 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝑩𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆.. Please join Tomin and the IARC team in the chat as we listen to the album in its entirety !!
10pm Los Angeles // 12pm Chicago // 1pm NYC // 6pm Berlin
Free.
** 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
