Ben LaMar Gay - Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun (IA11 Edition) // OUT NOW on all digital music platforms // LP in stores on March 28th
Ben LaMar Gay
Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun
(IA11 Edition)
Out Now on all digital music platforms
vinyl LP out March 28th, 2025
Ben LaMar Gay’s de facto debut album, Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun, was our attempt to introduce the legendary Chicago composer / improviser / renaissance man to the rest of the world with a compilation of tracks from 7 albums he made over 7 years (though he hadn’t yet made the effort to actually release). The material showcases Gay’s penchant for genre-hopping – from Steve Reich-ian soundscape voyages to Don Cherry-esque polyrhythm treks to Jorge Ben-style vocal-and-string earworms – while keeping his singular musical voice in focus.
In the years since its release, this long OOP collection has become a touchstone, foreshadowing the breadth and scope of Gay’s output since. The songs-between-the-songs warped Soul Americana madness and beauty of Open Arms To Open Us, the unhinged long form freedom of Certain Reveries – each fresh mode would defy expectation if without the context established by Downtown Castles. To quote our OG announcement of the album: “to call it ‘eclectic’ would only scratch the surface. This music is everything.”
The IA11 Edition of this LP comes with an IARC 2025 obi strip plus a 4-page insert booklet featuring new (old) photos and new liner notes by musician (and longtime BLG friend/collaborator) Gira Dahnee.
In anticipation of that, the #IA11 edition of the album is now available on all digital music platforms.
IA11 Liner Notes by Gira Dahnee
Photos by Maren Celest
The IA11 Edition vinyl LP comes complete with new liner notes penned by Gira Dahnee, a longtime friend and occasional collaborator of Ben's (heard doing backing vocals on several tracks on Downtown Castles). Her notes (excerpted below) are available to read via this fresh release page on our website, which also includes a gathering of info, stories and reflections about the album.
"When Ben sees the light in others, he feels a profound responsibility to nurture that light. As a friend of his, I am thankful and blessed that he follows this path because it is truly his nature to be a light in this world."
Read.
Magic, Or The Closest Thing To It
(Maren Celest on Working With Ben LaMar Gay)
Chicago photographer, filmmaker, and musician Maren Celest shot the photographs used for Ben LaMar Gay’s Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun. She also filmed, edited, and animated the accompanying video for a track from the album, “Muhal.”
Tracing The Lines editor David Brown recently caught up with Celest to pick her brain about that collaboration and those processes, as she remembers it. The following piece is compiled from parts of that casual conversation.
Read.
Deluxe Vinyl Package
Ben LaMar Gay's Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun (IA11 Edition) comes on a 140 gram classic black LP inside a heavyweight jacket with 4-page insert booklet (new for IA11, with additional photos and new liner notes written by Gira Dahnee), IARC 2025 obi strip and printed poly-lined printed inner-sleeve. Pressed at Pallas in Germany, with new lacquers cut by Daniel K at SST.
BLG ON TOUR
EU spring 2025
3 April - KÖLN/Germany - Stadtgarten. Europäisches Zentrum für Jazz und Aktuelle
4 April - DEN HAAG/Netherlands - Het Koorenhuis
5 April - OOSTENDE/Belgium - De Grote Post
6 April - BRUSSELS/Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
8 April - SOPOT/Poland - Centrum Kultury Mamuszki 14
9 April - BARCELONA/Spain - El Molino Barcelona
11 April - VILLINGEN/Germany - MPS-Studio
12 April - FERRARA/Italy - Torrione San Giovanni - Jazz Club Ferrara
...about...
IA11
On December 2nd, 2024, we marked the ten-year anniversary of our first release. With a full decade under our belt – ten years of commitment to a growing community of artists, and our original mission statement ("to vitalize demand for boundary defying music," among other things) – we've spent a lot of time thinking about how we'd like to celebrate this milestone. What we keep coming back to is: desire to use this opportunity to revisit and revivify music and memories from our first decade; but keeping true to our ethos of always looking forward, all the way.
In that spirit, across 2025, we'll be rolling out a series of releases and events under the IA11 banner. Celebrating our eleventh year. Doing our best to retell essential, foundational stories from our past, while keeping our hearts and minds fixed on the present. Trying to establish new standards that can help carry our mission through another decade of work – and hopefully more.
We created an emblem for IA11 with a vibrating interpretation of a chrysanthemum as the central symbol. Aside from just loving the delicious golden nectar that comes from the leaves of this flower, for us, the image of the chrysanthemum resonates as a symbol of longevity and rejuvenation. Two of the driving intentions behind this effort.
Please stay tuned for announcements of IA11 events and special releases across 2025. We look forward to a beautiful year of celebrating the past, present and future with you all.
IA11 Editions
Over the course of 2025 we will be revisiting some of the most celebrated entries in our decade of releases with this series of IA11 Edition LPs. These revamped LP packages will be presented with new liner notes, new insert booklets, and the fresh 2025 redesign of our iconic obi strip and dome logo. They will also be set at a price point intended to make the albums more accessible than ever before.
So far, the first three of that series have been announced:
IARC0001LP11 Rob Mazurek - Alternate Moon Cycles (IA11 Edition)
IARC0003LP11 Makaya McCraven - In The Moment (IA11 Edition)
IARC0017LP11 Ben LaMar Gay - Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun (IA11 Edition)
All three LPs will be in stores March 28th, and are available for preorder on our Bandcamp page now.
International Anthem is proud to present this special event series in Chicago, focusing on a different album from our catalog on the last Monday of every month across 2025 at the Hungry Brain. Each 11 of 11 event will feature deep listening of an album, followed by a small group of musicians performing an interpretation of that album.
The 11 of 11 event on Monday March 31st will feature a full listening to Rob Mazurek's minimalist masterpiece Alternate Moon Cycles (originally released December 2014), followed by a performance by Tromblau, with Emma Blau (trombone) and others TBA, as the musicians respond to and reinterpret the music of the album. Get tickets here.
The 11 of 11 event on Monday April 28th will feature a full listening to Makaya McCraven's breakout album In The Moment (originally released January 2015), followed by a performance led by Anisha Rush (sax) in trio with Kurt Shelby (bass) and Joshua Ross (drums), as the musicians respond to and reinterpret the music of the album. Get tickets here.
