The Revolution Vol. 24

By now, the bedroom recording artist is an established and maybe even passé phenomenon. After all, the tools are at everyone’s fingertips. But Matthew Anderson’s musical journey has been different.

Surrounded from infancy by classical piano repertoire and sacred choral music, Anderson was already developing a natural ear for melody, harmony and musical form before he even sat down at a drum kit for the first time. So when Anderson first encountered the world of recording at 13 years old, his musical path was already set for him. Rather than concocting sun-soaked lo-fi freak-outs, or hushed indie folk tunes, he began trying to craft overblown, epic rock operas.

The Sparrow EP is technically Anderson’s 9th release (and 4th EP), but it’s the debut of a new vision and identity. Sparrow is born out of a reconnection with the past, and a confrontation with reality. The EP embraces these gestures, featuring 4 stark portrayals of an inner world shared by everyone, but only rarely given voice. Moments of ambience, collage and experimentation hint at the forthcoming full-length record, which encapsulates Sparrow as a project. The EP introduces us to Anderson’s musical world; a world that was always there but is only now coming to fruition.

The Institute of Flyer Learning is a five-member Brooklyn-based neo-soul collective. Their music is a unique groove-based synthesis of human, analog, and digital sounds that draw inspiration from artists such as Little Dragon, Erykah Badu, Daft Punk, and Funkadelic.

The collective’s aesthetic and overarching themes are rooted in an understanding that the mainstream society offers empty promises in exchange for conformity to a sick, soulless system. Flyer Learning is the defiant act of finding one’s own path within the decay – an audacious act of subversion to reclaim, rebuild, and remold one’s soul in the machine.  

‘SULA’ is a NYC-based crossover jazz group, led by drummer Diego Joaquin Ramirez. The group formed in 2016 and has since been refining their sound with performances around New York City, and were finalists of the 2017 DC Jazz Prix Competition. The group’s members hail from Ireland, Israel, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Syracuse and are alumni of Berklee College of Music, The Thelonious Monk Institute, Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program, Oberlin, The New School, and SUNY Purchase. SULA’s members have performed and recorded with musicians including Taylor Swift, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jimmy Cobb, Vijay Iyer, Mike Stern, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Nate Smith.

Michael Mayo-vocals/compositions, Wayne Tucker-trumpet, Asaf Yuria-tenor saxophone, Michael King-piano/keyboard, Tamir Shmerling- Electric Bass, and Diego Joaquin Ramirez-drums/compositions.