THE BURNING BRIGHT LIGHT is a mind-meld between improvisation trio DROMEDARIES (saxophonist Keir Neuringer of Irreversible Entanglements, Shayna Dulberger on double bass and percussionist Julius Masri) and sci-fi writer/vocalist ALEXOTERIC (Alex Smith), evoking epic sci-fi cinemascapes, vocabulary- and reference-rich underground writing, the liberatory jazz tradition, and playful avant-garde experimentation.
Recorded in a single high voltage burst of cosmic collaboration on an October afternoon at Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Soundworks, THE BURNING BRIGHT LIGHT is a sonic document like no other. A mind-meld between improvisation trio DROMEDARIES and sci-fi writer/vocalist ALEXOTERIC (Alex Smith), the album emerges organically on a foundation of speculative fiction, free jazz interaction, avant-garde textures, and freestyle refrains. With no rules set in advance, each participant brought their entire creativity to bear on a session that birthed a constellation of shimmering stories narrated through equally deep music and words. While it retains all the power and excitement of a spontaneous meeting, the album also reveals deep and atypical shared affinities that are simultaneously sonic, musical, social, political, and cosmic. A key figure in multiple Philadelphia arts subcultures, Smith’s literary voice is unlike any other, and on this recording he stretches his vocal acrobatics to their greatest extent yet. We hear references to grounded, earthly concerns and figures shot through the farthest reaches of spacetime, always with Smith’s incisive queer afrofuturist lens.
Smith describes the album as “a future color spray, a hidden missive laser etched intotheseams of your galactic multi-death cult corporation flight jacket, the snow fallen ash and embers of a world you can only view through a prism-powered holo-sim. Wild jazz, bad, fresh with no jive—the perfect script for the download digital age, transcending experimental musics through the solar battery at the bio-borg filling station. The anti-Boeing, proto-mothership, swinging the body eclectic, crash landing on a brass planet. Dromedaries are plugged in and transforming, delivering ancient spells like slam poetry on Cybertron.”
All of the music you hear was recorded in real time; for their part instrumentalists Shayna Dulberger, Julius Masri, and Keir Neuringer expanded their energetic, telepathic, playful mode of collective improvisation developed over the past decade together to both embrace Smith as a fourth and equal voice and elevate him as a sacred cosmic orator. The Burning Bright Light at once evokes epic sci-fi cinemascapes, vocabulary- and reference-rich underground writing, the liberatory jazz tradition, and playful avant-garde experimentation. Recording took place in October 2022 at Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Sound works (home to notable recent recordings from Sun Ra Arkestra and Irreversible Entanglements, among others) and was mixed there through 2023 by engineer Mike Richelle and Masri.
DROMEDARIES is a collaborative improvisation trio active since 2014 comprised of saxophonistKeirNeuringer (Irreversible Entanglements), Shayna Dulberger (Chaser; Warrior of Light)on double bass, and percussionistJuliusMasri (Mephisto Halabi; Spectral Forces; Night Raids). They climb deep into their instruments and play hard to reward listeners for their time, grounding their work in technical virtuosity, instrumental physicality, and a rigorous approach to form. Each has received critical praise for their solo work and collaborations. DROMEDARIES has previously released studio recordings on Relative Pitch Records (2020) and Already Dead Tapes (2017), as well as a live recording released in 2021 by Fire Over Heaven.
ALEXOTERIC, aka Alex Smith (Spectral Forces; Solarized; Arkdust short story collection), is a Philadelphia artist and activist whose writing—from science fiction, to superhero comics, to music and art critique—delves into worlds often forgotten, inhabited by people often marginalized. His work as a critic has appeared on Bandcamp and Pitchfork, as well as in local press for Artblog, The Key, and Philadelphia Gay News, highlighting the strange worlds inhabited by gender, class and racial outliers. As does his fiction.
Musicians:
ALEXOTERIC aka ALEX SMITH voice and texts
SHAYNA DULBERGER double bass
JULIUS MASRI drums and electronics
KEIR NEURINGER saxophone, synth, percussion
Credits:
All music composed in real time by the artists
Recorded October 1, 2022 at Rittenhouse Sound Works in Philadelphia by Mike Richelle
Mixed by Mike Richelle and Julius Masri
Produced by Julius Masri
Mastering and vinyl cut by Ruy Mariné at D&M, Berlin
Cover art “Ghetto / Griot Cyborg Jawn” by Alex Smith
