"Thanks to Josh Berman, Mike Reed and Hungry Brain for hosting us as part of the Sunday Night Jazz and Improvised Music Series and the lovely audience that came out for it. This was the first time Avreeayl and I played together. Matt and I had played a bit previously."-Thollem

"WARNING! This album truly needs a warning label, because the music you're about to hear is at a level of dangerous intensity. I remember this concert well. The sun had already set on that brisk Chicago evening, and people were starting to make their way to the Hungry Brain. My brain was certainly very hungry. I came in thinking I might need a coffee, but upon hearing a few minutes of the trio's quick sound check, I realized all the energizing power I needed was about to be given to me by these three improvisational monsters! Absolute creative masterminds! Hearing Thollem play is quite the experience on its own, but the addition of Matthew Lux and Avreeayl Ra was something of a whole new category. Each of these creators pushed each other in new directions and new heights, each knew exactly when to let it all out, and when to play as softly as possible; when to start a new piece, and when to let it ride. I am so thankful that evening was captured for posterity. Listeners will be wrapping their minds around this for centuries to come."-Matt Scutchfield

"Chicago master drummer / percussionist Avreeayl Ra was born in Chicago on May 21st, 1947 and still lives there today. He is a renowned musician always in demand among visiting jazz artists in Chicago. Avreeayl's father, Arthur "Swinglee" O'Neil, was a tenor saxophonist who was mentor to many young Chicago musicians, including John Gilmore, later the mainstay of Sun Ra's Arkestra. (Avreeayl reports that John Gilmore had a crush on Avreeayl's sister and so spent as much time as he could at the family house.) Swinglee O'Neil played in one of Sun Ra's early Chicago bands, and Sun Ra played in one of Swinglee's groups as well.Avreeayl is a long-term member of the Chicago AACM, his relationship with the seminal music organization having begun with early studies with AACM co-founder Kelan Philip Cohran. Avreeayl has performed and / or recorded with Fred Anderson, Amiri Baraka, Fontella Bass, Lester Bowie, Ari Brown, Oscar Brown, Jr., Henry Butler, Henry Byrd ("Professor Longhair"), Hamid Drake, Malachi Favors, Donald Raphael Garrett, Charles Gayle, Henry Grimes, Billy Harper, Joseph Jarman, Edward "Kidd" Jordan, Nicole Mitchell, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Malachi Thompson, and many more.Avreeayl considers himself greatly blessed to have come up in the richly progressive Chicago "avant-garde" jazz community. Though he has lived briefly in New Orleans and New York and has toured widely in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Far East, and Africa, he has always returned home to live in Chicago.

Matthew Lux (1973, Chicago) Known primarily from group Isotope 217, Iron & Wine, and his association with Rob Mazurek's various ensembles. Performing and recording with musicians such as - Peven Everett, Bill Callahan, Pharoah Sanders, Nobukazu Takemura, George Freeman and Eddie Kirkland over his 30 year career. His first release as a leader, Contra/Fact came out in 2018 on Astral Spirits."-Astral Spirits

"Ravish and I have played together here and there for years. Mostly when I'm on the east coast and our respective schedules work out for a meeting. A few years ago we had back to back residencies at Pioneer Works and played quite a bit together for our various projects then. We both feel like it all came together, however, when I came through Philadelphia and we recorded in his studio. The raw material for this album was generated freely in one afternoon. Ravish brought it all into Ableton and produced an album with it. That said, it's not far removed from what it sounded like live, and we can certainly play this live again (more or less)."-Thollem

"Ravish Momin is an Indian-born drummer, electronic music producer and educator. A Structural/Civil Engineer by training, Momin also privately studied with Jazz master- drummer Andrew Cyrille for years while he worked as an engineer in New York City in the late 1990s. He quit his engineering practice in 2003 to become a professional musician. His unique approach quickly led him to work as a sideman with a diverse cast of musicians ranging from pop-star Shakira to legendary US avant-saxophonist Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre (of the AACM).

He led the acclaimed Global/Jazz/Electronic band Tarana (members included Jason Kao Hwang, Sam Bardfeld, Tanya Kalmanovitch and Rick Parker) on international stages for 14 years and recorded several albums to critical acclaim. In addition to his duo with synth whiz Thollem McDonas, he currently leads the live electronic music duo 'Turning Jewels Into Water' with Haitian electronic music pioneer Val Jeanty. As a solo- artist, his highlights include performances at Moogfest (Durham, NC, US), The Unyazi Festival of Electronic Music (Johannesburg, SA), the Diagonal Festival (Catanzaro, Italy) and the Beirut Art Center (Lebanon).

For the past decade, Momin has been experimenting with enhancing his acoustic drum sounds with electronic ones, and has crafted a unique electro-acoustic approach. He triggers sounds and textures, layers live-loops and manipulates them 'on the fly', to blur the lines between composition and improvisation.

He will debut as an electronic music producer under the moniker "Sunken Cages" on the UK based OnTheCorner Records in the Spring of 2021. "-Astral Spirits

"Love the tracks I heard on the new record with Thollem and my cousin Ravish. It's got the vibes of what I love about Mahavishnu Orchestra and 70s fusion put thru a modern bass and beat driven left field electronic production. Definitely don't sleep on this!" - Alap Momin (Dälek, MRC Riddims and Internet and Weed Records)