MORGAN, THOMAS
AROUND YOU IS A FOREST
Label: LOVELAND MUSIC
Releasedatum: 04-03-2026
Herkomst: NL
Item-nr: 4865689
EAN: 5707785014929
Voor 16:00 besteld, dezelfde dag verzonden.
Recensie
The long-awaited debut album from bassist-composer Thomas Morgan is a lush, layered journey through ambient textures and open improvisation. Featuring an all-star cast—Bill Frisell, Craig Taborn, Ambrose Akinmusire, Immanuel Wilkins, Henry Threadgill, Dan Weiss, and Gerald Cleaver—the record is both spacious and intricate, with Morgan’s own virtual instrument WOODS shaping its organic feel. The inclusion of poet Gary Snyder’s voice adds another dimension to this environmental soundscape. Around You Is A Forest is co-produced by David Breskin and Jakob Bro and represents a bold statement from one of jazz’s most revered collaborators stepping fully into the spotlight.
WIRE Magazine: “Morgan is an in-demand American jazz bassist but, for his debut as a leader, he plays WOODS a virtual instrument he designed using SuperCollider software which emulates pan-global string instruments. Morgan calls upon an impressive line-up including trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, drummer Gerald Cleaver, and Henry Threadgill on flutes, for a series of duets and it works like a charm. With Bill Frisell, he approximates a donso ngoni while the guitarist weaves acoustic webs smeared with electric swells. A meeting with 95 year old Beat poet and Zen prophet Gary Snyder matches suitably koto-like cascades with rich and unhurried spoken meditations. "Why are we here?, asks Snyder. To make and appreciate art like this, of course.”
Bandcamp Daily: "Hearing Morgan deploy his strange machine, featuring a stacked guest roster that includes Bill Frisell, Ambrose Akinmusire, Henry Threadgill, Gerald Cleaver, and others, runs amok, updating and evolving the algorithm as the mood dictates—it’s a glorious mind-melt."
Jazztrail: "Still absorbing its many layers, I have no doubt Around You is a Forest is the work of a visionary—distinct, immersive, and profoundly original. Each piece feels self-contained yet essential to the whole. Traditionalists may balk, but this may well be the year’s most imaginative and best debut."
WIRE Magazine: “Morgan is an in-demand American jazz bassist but, for his debut as a leader, he plays WOODS a virtual instrument he designed using SuperCollider software which emulates pan-global string instruments. Morgan calls upon an impressive line-up including trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, drummer Gerald Cleaver, and Henry Threadgill on flutes, for a series of duets and it works like a charm. With Bill Frisell, he approximates a donso ngoni while the guitarist weaves acoustic webs smeared with electric swells. A meeting with 95 year old Beat poet and Zen prophet Gary Snyder matches suitably koto-like cascades with rich and unhurried spoken meditations. "Why are we here?, asks Snyder. To make and appreciate art like this, of course.”
Bandcamp Daily: "Hearing Morgan deploy his strange machine, featuring a stacked guest roster that includes Bill Frisell, Ambrose Akinmusire, Henry Threadgill, Gerald Cleaver, and others, runs amok, updating and evolving the algorithm as the mood dictates—it’s a glorious mind-melt."
Jazztrail: "Still absorbing its many layers, I have no doubt Around You is a Forest is the work of a visionary—distinct, immersive, and profoundly original. Each piece feels self-contained yet essential to the whole. Traditionalists may balk, but this may well be the year’s most imaginative and best debut."
