Photo: Toby Driver

Multifaceted musician Jeremiah Cymerman, who is a phenomenal clarinetist, composer and producer, has a new album on the way entitled Citadels & Sanctuaries. With an impressive career of nearly twenty years in New York’s avant-garde and improvised music scene, Cymerman’s upcoming album is dedicated and reflects the influence composers such as Alvin Lucier, Morton Feldman, Evan Parker, Tony Scott, and many others have had on him. “I feel these pieces are genuine offerings of love and respect to just a few of the artists who have had a huge impact on me”, Cymerman explains. He continues:

“I wanted to inhabit the sound worlds of these artists, participating with the music as a player like I have as a listener. Some pieces were very deliberate from the start, while others happened more organically after they were being shaped. With different people in mind, it helped me focus each piece to get it to completion.”

Slated for an August 20th release through his own 5049 Records, Citadels & Sanctuaries was recorded during a month-long residency at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works at the tail end 2020, and unlike previous works, most tracks were captured in a single take. “This album was recorded when playing lines and melodies were feeling really good for me,” Cymerman explains. “It feels good to be able to share my work with people who might not have all this context about the music. They can just enjoy it because it has an immediacy to it. There are abrasive, dissonant parts that might be off-putting, but for the most part I like showing another side of myself. I don’t want to just make abstract, dark music all the time.”

Following lead single ‘From the Metaphysical to the Transcendental (For Bill Smith)’, Cymerman is enticing us with a new sublime piece from his album called ‘For As Long As Grass Grows (for Tony Scott)’. “I was 21 the first time I heard Music for Yoga Meditation and Other Joys by Tony Scott and it was nothing short of an epiphany,” Cymerman says about the inspiration behind this piece. “Beautiful and elegant lines on the clarinet by a master improviser, played with a restraint and groundedness not commonly found — it changed the way I thought about my instrument.”
The single is offered with an accompanying video. Watch it below and listen to the previously released ‘From the Metaphysical to the Transcendental (For Bill Smith)’ straight after.