Chicago Underground Duo (Rob Mazurek & Chad Taylor)

Kaleidoscope of sounds and rhythms by American multi-instrumentalists.

On paper, it is a small ensemble, with Rob Mazurek on piccolo trumpet and Chad Taylor on drums, but together they create a universe of sounds. On Hyperglyph, their most recent album, they do this with the help of synthesizers, samplers, and an arsenal of percussion instruments. And on stage, they mix and match experimental sounds with rhythms from all over the globe.

Mazurek and Taylor formed their duo thirty years ago in Chicago, as a link between the progressive jazz in the city and the emerging post-rock of bands like Tortoise. Since then, they have branched out to other cities and bands. Mazurek founded large ensembles like Exploding Star Orchestra and Taylor collaborated with, among others, jaimie branch, Marc Ribot, and James Brandon Lewis. Hyperglyph, their first duo album in eleven years, was released on the trendsetting, Chicago-based label International Anthem.

'The liberated playing of Don Cherry is a reference, but certainly also the sound of Miles Davis in the seventies. While the infectious marching rhythms in the opening track also show kinship with the free-spirited music of Sun Ra' (de Volkskrant).

'On their first album as a two-piece in eleven years they reassert their folk-rooted futurism, setting free-form trumpet-drums duets alongside pulsing electroacoustic grooves and blissful thumb-piano interludes, imbuing it all with surreal wonder' (New York Times).

Rob Mazurek trumpet, Chad Taylor drums