Vertical Motion, by Anthony Davis / Kyle Motl / Kjell Nordeson

Vertical Motion

by Anthony Davis / Kyle Motl / Kjell Nordeson

supported by

Ulrich Jonas The return of Anthony Davis as improvisor!

more...

	/

Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
First pressing of 500 copies on Black Vinyl with artwork by D. Norsen!!! The first piano trio record EVER from Anthony Davis!!!

Includes unlimited streaming of Vertical Motion via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

Purchasable with gift card

$20 USD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$10 USD or more
Subscription

Subscribe now to receive all the new music Astral Spirits releases, including this album and 106 back-catalog items, delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android. Learn more.

Subscribe Now $15 USD/month or more

	1.	Vertical Motion 08:04
	2.	Fictions I 13:20
	3.	Lady of the Mirrors 06:58
	4.	Labyrinths 13:10
	5.	Fictions II 09:01

about

In 2018, I had the good fortune to organize a session with two absolute heroes of music: Anthony Davis, and Kjell Nordeson. I'd been playing with Kjell in various groups for a few years, and had been studying with Anthony at UC San Diego; the three of us had played as a trio a handful of times.

For the session, we played some of Anthony's older works, including some which referenced The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. With that idea of literature and music in mind, I brought some minimal pieces taking literary inspiration, Vertical Motion - referencing the story by Can Xue, and Labyrinths - in obvious reference to Jorge Luis Borges. We also improvised freely, some of those improvisations became the Fictions tracks.

Lady of the Mirrors is a classic Anthony Davis piece, most notably appearing on the solo piano record of the same name. Here, it allows different forms of interaction between voices and space. Vertical Motion and Labyrinths were both written with Anthony and Kjell's improvisational prowess and ability to develop material in mind: pretty bare sequences and themes that allow everyone to take an idea and really stretch.

The recording sat on the shelf half-forgotten for some years before I went through and picked the tracks that showed the improvisational interplay of the group in its best light.

It was truly an honor to make the music on this record.

-Kyle Motl

credits

released September 15, 2023

Anthony Davis - Piano
Kyle Motl - Bass
Kjell Nordeson - Drums

Recorded by Andrew Munsey & Andrés Gutiérre Martínez
Recorded at Warren Studio A, UC San Diego on February 13, 2018
Mixed & Mastered by Matt Baltrucki

Vertical Motion & Labyrinths composed by Kyle Motl (Motl Music, BMI).
Lady of the Mirrors composed by Anthony Davis (Episteme Music, ASCAP).
Fictions I & II by Anthony Davis, Kyle Motl, and Kjell Nordeson.

Artwork by D. Norsen
Photographs by Farshid Bazmandegan & Peter Gannushkin