Chaotic Good Jazz: 24 of 2024
Part 1 of 3: Experimental and Electronic
Hey there, Chaotic Good Jazz Readers!
Thanks for being part of this community. This week, I've got something really cool to share with you. I love a good list, and I've curated a collection of 24 albums that have profoundly resonated with me throughout the year. I avoid ranking albums or calling any list a “The Best ______” because, let's face it, “best” is too subjective a term. Instead, these 24 albums collectively form the soundtrack of my year—a musical journey that has accompanied me through the full spectrum of human emotions.
These albums hold special significance for me, and I encourage you to approach this list not as a definitive ranking, but as an invitation to explore. Each of these records found me (or I found them) at just the right time, and they're too good not to share.
So, let's dive into this list together and see if you discover some new favorites. Stay tuned for the full reveal of these 24 remarkable albums that have defined my year in jazz. The first 8 albums on the list lean towards the experimental and electronic side of things and I’ve got fusion and world music planned for next week with contemporary and neo-traditional on the 20th.
Each selection comes with a hand-drawn sound wave with my listening annotations. I’ve always loved finding ways to make music a visual experience. As a lifelong doodler, this project started as a meditative practice while listening and notating the parts where I found my head bobbing, toe tapping, and brain exploding. It’s all the parts I would be excited about sharing with friends in person.
This is my way of saying, “hey, check this out!” in the most visual way possible. I’m really excited to share these and hope you guys enjoy!
Albums
Abstract Intuition
Emantive | Home Planet Recordings | July 30, 2024
Messy, weird, unusual, and powerful. These characteristics are what embodies Abstract Intuition, an album that defies any normalcy in its creation, and therein lies its beauty. Created from the curious mind of emanative, aka Nick Woodmansey, Abstract Intuition goes beyond being encapsulated in a single genre.
- excerpt from Abstract Intuition album review by Twisted Soul
Featured Track: “Spice Routes“
Lotus Blossom
Edrix Puzzle | Battagon Records | October 25, 2024
Adventurous psychedelic jazz outfit Edrix Puzzle is happy to announce another interstellar offering in the form of a new long player, "Lotus Blossom" on their own label Battagon Records. Edrix Puzzle’s unique sound blends acoustic instrumentation with hypnotic electronics, and incorporates a myriad of influences from Zappa’s Hot Rats and Sun Ra to Mahavishnu Orchestra and the stank of electric-era Herbie Hancock.
Featured Track: “Hercules“
The Volcano Listening Project
Leif Karlstrom | Adhyâropa Records| August 2, 2024
Listen to data from the natural world and you may hear music. The Volcano Listening Project documents the many moods of volcanoes through the ambient music of their data, chaotic and serene, below and above the Earth’s surface, spanning seconds to centuries. This album is a collection of composed and improvised performances that integrate volcanic data turned into sound by computer algorithms as well as field recordings from volcanoes around the globe.
- excerpt from The Volcano Listening Project album via Bandcamp
Featured Track: “Large earthquakes during caldera collapse, Kīlauea, 2018“
Krononaut II
Krononaut | Palomino | August 9, 2024
Coming out of the fertile London jazz and experimental scenes, Krononaut is an improvisatory duo consisting of guitarist /producer Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Imogen Heap, Jon Hopkins) and drummer Martin France (Nils Petter Molvær, Evan Parker).
The follow-up to their highly-acclaimed 2021 debut is a duo recording, improvised with no overdubs or post-processing.
Featured Track: “PGC 20513“
Water Still Flows
Rich Ruth | Third Man Records| June 21, 2024
Rich Ruth, the recording project of Nashville multi-instrumentalist Michael Ruth, makes wholly immersive instrumental songs that thread the line between gleefully adventurous and calmingly meditative. His music starts in solitude with mesmerizing loops and drones anchoring the arrangements that are eventually colored in by an eclectic cast of collaborators. The resulting exploratory compositions, which combine spiritual jazz, synth-infused post-rock, and cosmic ambient, often beguile but they always soar with a palpable immediacy. His new album Water Still Flows is both his heaviest and his most cathartic. Across seven songs, the LP is both a document of an artist stretching the limits of his process and a testament to how songwriting can be a personally grounding force.
Featured Track: “No Muscle, No Memory“
BLACK MUSEUM
Bruno Letort | SoOnd | April 26, 2024
… The rule was simple: improvise on a metronome, with no other constraints, neither rhythmic nor harmonic; simply play freely. Laurie Anderson, David Krakauer, Evan Ziporyn, David Torn, Mile Ladd, Régïs Boulard and David Linx, among others, were enthusiastic about the project and the first recorded elements, and agreed to embark on this astonishing, subtle marriage of the written word and free form. "Black Museum" explores the most unexpected sounds of orchestral playing and the most surprising harmonic and rhythmic constructions.
Featured Track: “BLACK MAGIC“
Lightship
Unknown To Known | Maps for Getting Lost | September 13, 2024
Tamar Osborn, Idris Rahman, Jihad Darwish and Yusuf Ahmed make up Unknown To Known. This album literally has literally brought me to tears, the emotion in the musicianship and the way the quartet respond and react to one another is just terrific.
Sculpted through long form improvisations, this music reflects their personal transformations as well as the rapidly evolving world in which we live.
With its gradually unveiling intricacies and soundscapes rich in colour and depth, we sincerely hope this album can provide some moments of calm and joy.
Featured Track: “Good Morning Moon“
UTK is not on Spotify, you can check out the rest of their discography on Bandcamp.
Emergence
Ill Considered, Rob Lewis | New Soil | October 31, 2024
This performance sees the band in a state of transition from previous incarnations with the core trio augmented by composer Rob Lewis on cello and effects to create a more open, cinematic performance sound which follows the loose narrative of a ghost story. Each song forms a chapter of sorts drawing on the spectral echoes of the deserted theatre and the empty pandemic streets outside.
- excerpt from “Live not Live - Emergence” performance description via YouTube
Featured Track: “It’s Aliiiive“
And especially since it’s Bandcamp Friday, go support your favorite musicians!
Thanks again for reading and being a part of this growing community.
Check out the rest below: