Anna Butterss, John Raymond & Ben Lumsdaine team up for new trio album, Beginningless

Three incredible musicians in their own right, Anna Butterss, John Raymond, and Ben Lumsdaine boast an impressive body of work spanning jazz, improvisation, indie, electronic music, and beyond. The three first crossed paths in Bloomington, Indiana, more than a decade ago, with Butterss and Lumsdaine meeting as students at Indiana University in 2010 and Raymond moving to the city in 2017 to teach at the university.  Their paths continued to cross in various projects and settings, eventually leading to the formation of this trio in 2024.

Now they’ve come together for Beginningless, their first album as a trio, born from years of friendship and musical exchange. Recorded live over two days in a Los Angeles studio, Beginningless is an entirely improvised record, with very little overdubbing or post-production. Despite their improvised origins, the tracks feel structured and melodic, each one building its own distinct mood. The trio use acoustic instruments alongside pedals and effects, expanding the traditional trumpet, bass and drums setup to create something atmospheric, spacious and unpredictable, with a strong sense of groove throughout it.

Beginningless arrives on November 13th though Northern Spy and coinciding with the album announcemente, Butterss, Raymond and Lumsdaine have shared the hazy, enveloping and gripping title track. Speaking about it, Butterss comments:

“Beginningless feels like a window into an underlying stream of music that is always around us. The loping bass and drums usher in a trumpet melody, which quietly floats through the rustling landscape. There’s a sense of unhurried tranquility, a gentle amble, as the counterpoint between bass and trumpet shifts, and the atmosphere gradually thickens. Ghostly trumpet undertones and bubbling drums build to a peak while the bass carries steadily on, giving the impression that the journey might continue on long after the song has ended.”

Listen to ‘Beginningless’ now.

Mixtape #163


A restless and forward-thinking artist, with the technical ability and versatility to back it up, Ben Lumsdaine is a force to be reckoned with. The LA-based composer, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and producer has a long list of credits as a live performer and studio musician on numerous recordings. As a producer/engineer/mixer he has shaped records for a cavalcade of artists including International Anthem labelmates Daniel Villarreal, Jeremiah Chiu, Anna Butters and Bex Burch, and many others. Last year he released his debut solo record, Murmuration Without End, a mesmerizing and magnificent collection of rhythmic compositions that saw him step out of his comfort zone and swap his primary instrument for modular synthesizers to create a record unlike anything he's ever done before. Worthy of repeated listens, we still haven’t been able put it down. So we’re ecstatic to share the superb mix he put together for us, featuring, as he puts it, “a pretty wide ranging selection of tunes that have impacted me in some lasting way over the last decade or so”. Press play!

  1. Joe Meek – Valley of the Saroos [Triumph]
  2. Colorlist – Montreal [Serein]
  3. Chris Cohen – Heart Beat [Captured Tracks]
  4. Jeff Parker Trio – Mainz [Delmark Records]
  5. Bitchin Bajas – Circles On Circles [Drag City]
  6. Lennie Tristano Sextet – Wow [Proper Records]
  7. Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano – Wednesday [ECM Records]
  8. Loren Connors – The Departing Of A Dream Pt. 2 [Family Vineyard]
  9. Bitchin Bajas and Natural Information Society – Anemometer [Drag City]
  10. Sonny Sharrock – Who Does She Hope To Be? [Axiom]
  11. Madlib – Freeze [Stones Throw Records]
  12. Idris Muhammad – Could Heaven Ever Be Like This [Kudu]
  13. The Manhattans – There’s No Me Without You [Columbia / CBS]
  14. Waylon Jennings – Waymore’s Blues [RCA Victor]
  15. Ultimate Painting – Kodiak [Trouble In Mind]
  16. Motherlode – When I Die [Buddah Records]

Ben Lumsdaine’s new album, Murmuration Without End, out in December

LA-based producer, composer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Ben Lumsdaine is gearing up to release a new album later this year. Entitled Murmuration Without End, it arrives on December 8th through International Anthem and features guest contributions from saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi (Bon Iver, Bill Callahan), trumpeter John Raymond (S. Carey, Sara Bareilles), and guitarist Drake Ritter (Durand Jones, Diane Coffee). The album is “a collection of rhythmic studies that began as meditative synth drones recorded by Lumsdaine”, as the press release describes, which “grew into multi-textural, poly-rhythmic sound worlds as he disrupted the meters and pulses implied by the synths’ inherent modulations with each instrumental layer added.”

Along with the album announcement, Lumsdaine has let loose the beautiful and absorbing lead single ‘Dallas’ and you can listen to it below.