Kuzu

Featuring: Tashi Dorji

From March 8th-14th, 2020, Kuzu was on a seven-concert tour of the United States in the South and Midwest. During that week it became apparent in this country that the world was on the brink of a crisis unknown to humanity for almost exactly a century. In those seven days, the feeling on the street changed from one of anxiety to one of impending doom. By the time the band arrived at Elastic Arts on Thursday, March 12th, their home base in Chicago, it was clear that these would be the last concerts any of them would perform for quite some time. It would also be one of the last gatherings of the small, dedicated, cohesive, and highly interconnected communities built around the music in all of the cities where they performed. So the final concerts documented on this album from Chicago and Milwaukee were wrapped in a depth of emotion that’s impossible to convey with words; a moment of friends bidding farewell for who-knows-how-long. A few days later, the entire country was in full lockdown. There isn’t a better group to provide that soundtrack. 

Kuzu is a band already known for the raw emotion baked into their musical language. All of their previous records – Hiljaisuus (2018), Lift To Drag (2019) Purple Dark Opal (2020), and The Glass Delusion (2021) have ratcheted that approach up further and further as these three stellar musicians have continued to refine their trio dynamic through regular work. But their ability to construct musical tension in an almost agonizing way reaches a new peak on All Your Ghosts In One Corner. Drawing on these musicians’ love for a range of weighty musical expression from doom metal to the deeply-rooted spirituality of saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, this record perfectly captures the depth of the abyss into which we faced. And yet this record isn’t about fear. Redemption is found in the life-affirming energy of these performances, which reflect a will to survive in the band’s committed focus and tenacity. These are spontaneous rituals performed to brace an entire community for the upcoming storm.

Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/bari saxophone Tashi Dorji – guitar Tyler Damon – drums