We’re just days away from the release of Burn the Plastic, Sell the Copper, the solo debut album from cellist, guitarist, improviser, and composer Ishmael Ali. A key figure in the Chicago’s avant-garde scene, Ali is known for his work on the fringes of jazz, improvisation, and electronic music, and collaborations with the likes of Kahil El Zabar and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Avreeayl Ra, Angel Bat Dawid, Josh Berman, Jason Stein, and many more.

Straddling the line between avant-garde and pop in a unique and exciting way, Burn the Plastic, Steal the Copper marks a bold step forward for Ali. The album’s title is inspired by a friend’s remark about some old, faulty cables in the studio. “The phrase,” Ali says, “kind of stuck with me. I’ve been trying to finish a solo record for a long time and have a lot of music in a lot of different conceptual worlds.” It also reflects the themes that run throughout the record about the sense of stripping things down to their essential and questioning the value of what we hold onto. Burn the Plastic, Steal the Copper features a range of collaborators from the Chicago music scene, including Ed Wilkerson Jr., Corey Wilkes, Jim Baker, Brianna Tong, and Bill Harris, all shifting effortlessly between collective improvisation and intimate solo moments, always anchored by Ali’s cello.

For a taste of what’s to come ahead of the album’s release on February 13th through Amalgam Music, check out the bonkers, brilliant and compelling ‘Every Circle a Moon’. The track comes with an accompanying video made by Ali and Augustine Esterhammer-Fic.