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| Led by sound abstractionist, cornetist, improviser and composer Rob Mazurek, Exploding Star Orchestra is one the Chicago-area native's latest and grandest projects. Based in avant-garde hard bop, the group recorded a dense, serpentine concoction of cross-metered jazz for its 2007 debut, We Are All From Somewhere Else (Thrill Jockey). Looping rhythms, typically played by upright bass, vibraphone and brass or woodwind instruments, set the foundation for runs and improvisations by Mazurek and the other players on trombone, saxophone, flute, clarinet and piano. Laptop manipulation and other ambient layers augment compounded melodies and droning roots. We Are All From Somewhere Else is split into three sections—an aural triptych—and deals with an exploding star, intelligent conversations with electric eels and the cosmic transformation of a stingray ghost to a phoenix. Mazurek envisioned the story as an "animated adult/children's story that could be presented in book or video form."
Exploding Star Orchestra was created at the behest of the Chicago Cultural Center and the Jazz Institute, which hoped Mazurek would organize a group to represent the city's contemporary and avant-garde scene. The group typically performs as an octet at minimum, and its inaugural performance was at Millennium Park in August of 2005. Influential trumpeter/composer Bill Dixon performed with Exploding Star Orchestra at the Chicago Jazz Festival in September of 2007, and the group released a disc in February of 2008 that featured compositions by Dixon and Mazurek. The group plans to release various solo works that deal with sound/vision experiments based on the capture and release of light. For more information, visit their website: http://www.myspace.com/explodingstarorchestra
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