Just Announced!

Asher Gamedze & The Black Lungs

Constitution

(( Photo by Lungiswa Gqunta ))

IARC0084:

Asher Gamedze & The Black Lungs
Constitution

Out August 30, 2024

“Members of the dispossessed, won’t you lend me your ears!”

This is the repeated call and the rallying chorus of the nearly 40-minute centerpiece to composer and percussionist Asher Gamedze’s new album Constitution. The expansive double album, a minoritarian fellowship in breath, is Gamedze’s follow-up to 2023’s Turbulence and Pulse (IARC0057/M3H013), and his first with The Black Lungs, a ten-piece ensemble. The album – recorded in one day at Cape Town’s Sound and Motion Studios – is an elaboration of the possibilities of autonomous constitution in and through polyrhythmic, modal, large ensemble music.

Gamedze holds down duties on the drum kit, joining with Ru Slayen (percussion), Sean Sanby (bass), and Nobuhle Ashanti (piano) breathing together to cohere in what would otherwise be called a rhythm section. The ensemble is expanded by more breath - horns and voices. Tumi Pheko (cornet), Garth Erasmus (alto saxophone), Jed Petersen (tenor saxophone), Tina Mene (vocals), Athi Ngcaba (trombone) and Fred Moten (words) collectively explore and deconstruct the conceptual, tonal and atonal possibilities of themes which are at once of old and new dreams - curious and instantiative, melancholic and emergent.

As Moten puts it, “this polyrhythmic but also always polyphonic critical joining – this re-assemblage of ensemble, this loving violation – lets the nightmares of individuation all unravel.” The Black Lungs join a tradition of sound, struggle and thought that is constituted by this very process of unraveling the isolating questions of isolated philosophers: “Is Socrates happy?”; “Does the dialectician have a sound?” On Constitution, the power of the question, the possibility of an improvised answer and the celebration of being together exists not in the solo but in the group, the ensemble.

This is a theme present not just throughout Constitution, but in all of Gamedze’s work. “The ensemble experience of study and struggle is the basis of my thought and everything I try to do in this mad world,” he says in the album’s liner notes. Further situating the sound and the impulse of the ensemble within the multitudinous terrains of the historical and ongoing struggles of the dispossessed, he explains that “The Black Lungs is inspired by the revolutionary thought and practice of the Black Consciousness Movement. In particular, the relationship between antagonism – constituting a united front of all the oppressed against white supremacy and racial capitalism – and the possibilities for resistance and elaboration - the creative militant capacities of those assembled – enabled and unleashed by that process of constitution.”

Retail Locations

  • Austin, TX - Breakaway Records
    Austin, TX - Waterloo Records
    Baltimore, MD - Sound Garden
    Belfast, UK - First Press
    Berkeley, CA - Amoeba Music
    Berlin, DE - HHV
    Berlin, DE - Morr Music
    Berlin, DE - Scratch Records
    Bloomington, IN - Landlocked Music
    Boise, ID - Sonic Boom Records
    Brighton, UK - Family Store
    Brighton, UK - Mr. Bongo
    Brighton, UK - Resident
    Cardiff, UK - Spillers Records
    Charlotte, NC - Lunchbox Records
    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
    Chicago, IL - Torn Light Records
    Cincinnati, OH - Shake It
    Coventry, UK - Just Dropped In
    Davenport, IA - Ragged Records
    Dayton, OH - Omega Music
    Denver, CO - Twist & Shout
    Doylestown, PA - Siren Records
    Dublin, IR - Freebird
    Dublin, IR - Spindizzy
    Dublin, IR - Tower Records
    Durham, NC - Chaz's Bull City Records
    Edmonton, AB - Blackbyrd Myoozik
    Edmonton, AB - Blackbyrd Myoozik
    Encinitas, CA - Lou's Records
    Fulda, DE - Marleen Schallplatten
    Glasgow, UK - Some Great Reward
    Hamburg, DE - Groove City
    Hamburg, DE - Michelle Records
    Hamburg, DE - Zardoz
    Hannover, DE - 25 Music
    Huddersfield, UK - Vinyl Tap
    Iowa City, IA - Record Collector
    Kansas City, MO - Mills Record Company
    Kassel, DE - Scheibenbeisser
    Lawrence, KS - Love Garden Sounds
    Leigh, UK - Sticky Black Tarmac
    Little Canada, MN - Cheapo Discs
    London, UK - Dreamhouse
    London, UK - Honest Jons
    London, UK - Phonica Records
    London, UK - Rough Trade West
    London, UK - Sounds of the Universe
    London, UK - Stranger Than Paradise Records
    London, UK - World of Echo
    Long Beach, CA - Fingerprints
    Loveland, OH - Plaid Room Records
    Manchester, UK - Piccadilly
    Miami, FL - Sweat Records
    Minneapolis, MN - Electric Fetus
    Montreal, QC - Barnacle Records
    Montreal, QC - Explosive Groove Disquaire
    Montreal, QC - Le Vacarme
    Montreal, QC - Patient Records
    Montreal, QC - Sonorama Disques
    Munich, DE - Echt Optimal
    Nashville, TN - Grimey's
    New Orleans, LA - Euclid Records
    New York, NY - Ergot Records
    Norwich, UK - Venus Vinyl
    Nuremberg, DE - Mono-Ton
    Opelika, AL - 10,000 Hz Records
    Oxford, UK - Truck
    Pittsburgh, PA - The Government Center
    Portland, OR - Clinton St. Records
    Portland, OR - Jackpot Records
    Portland, OR - Mississippi Records
    Portland, OR - Music Millennium
    Princeton, NJ - Princeton Record Exchange
    Raleigh, NC - Jitterbug Sights & Sounds
    Richmond, VA - Biscuits & Vinyl
    San Francisco, CA - Amoeba Music
    San Luis Obispo, CA - Boo Boo Records
    Seattle, WA - Hex Enduction Records & Books
    Seattle, WA - Silver Platters
    Seattle, WA - Sonic Boom Records
    Sheffield, UK - Bear Tree Records
    St. Petersburg, FL - Daddy Kool Records
    Toronto, ON - Atom Heart
    Toronto, ON - Birdman Sound
    Toronto, ON - Bluestreak Records
    Toronto, ON - Elevated Music
    Toronto, ON - Sonic Boom
    Vancouver, BC - Audiopile Records
    Vienna, AT - Substance Recordstore
    Wallingford, CT - Redscroll Records
    Whitstable, UK - Gatefield Sounds
    Zapopan, JA - Tea Recs

Notes

Tumi Pheko – cornet
Garth Erasmus – alto saxophone
Jed Petersen – tenor saxophone
Ru Slayen – percussion
Athi Ngcaba – trombone
Tina Mene – vocals
Fred Moten – words
Nobuhle Ashanti – piano
Sean Sanby – bass
Asher Gamedze – drums

All compositions, concepts and arrangements by Asher Gamedze

Words by Fred Moten

Cover and insert artwork by Leila Khan (Kanaladorp Press)
Layout by Craig Hansen

Recorded by Carl Roberts and Finn Esterhuizen at Sound and Motions Studios, Cape Town, 15 June 2023

Produced by Asher Gamedze
Mixed by Carl Roberts
Mastered by David Allen
A&R by Scott McNiece

About Asher Gamedze

Asher Gamedze is a cultural worker based in Cape Town, South Africa, involved in music, education and history. As an independent musician he works as a drummer, composer and bandleader. A versatile drummer with an open sound and sensibility, Gamedze plays across and between multiple traditions of music including free improvisation, soul music, rock ‘n roll, and many locally situated traditions from Southern Africa.

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