{"id":32423,"date":"2026-02-17T14:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T14:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/?p=32423"},"modified":"2026-02-17T14:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T14:55:14","slug":"nois-announce-new-album-what-is-nois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/?p=32423","title":{"rendered":"~Nois announce new album, What is ~Nois<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: Nick Zoulek<\/p><\/div>\n

Founded in 2016, Chicago-based saxophone quartet ~Nois<\/a> has established itself as one of the most vital forces in contemporary chamber music. With hundreds of shows under their belt, they have gained widespread recognition for championing new music for saxophone, with an unwavering commitment to the commissioning of living composers, resulting in more than 120 world premieres to date. The quartet, made up of Julian Velasco, Natalia Warthen, Jordan Lulloff, and J\u00e1nos Csontos, have announced the release of their new album What is ~Nois<\/em>. Unlike traditional chamber recording models, the upcoming What is ~Nois<\/em> was developed closely in the studio with composers Darian Donovan Thomas, Aeryn Jade Santillan, Francisco del Pino, and Travis Laplante, along with multi GRAMMY-Award-Winning producer\/engineer Mike Tierney. By shaping the works directly in the studio, performers, composers, and producer were able to refine and capture what they considered the “most fully realized version of the pieces possible”.<\/p>\n

What is ~Nois<\/em> sprouted from early seeds. \u201cYou can make your music however you want to, you just have to be vulnerable enough to take that leap”, composer Darian Donovan Thomas shared with ~Nois\u2019 Julian Velasco in 2023. As Lulloff explains, \u201cWe wanted to make something that we really liked while not being limited by the traditional perceptions of the relationships between composers and performers. This feeling really embodies the idea behind ~Nois\u2026new music, new ideas, new sounds that all have the saxophone as a core part of it but it’s not solely a capital \u2018S\u2019 sax, capital \u2018Q\u2019, quartet record.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album closes with the three-movement suite ‘Running in a Field of Flowers’ by Travis Laplante, reflecting on a time in his life when \u201che was consciously more connected to the Earth through listening.\u201d Velasco describes the suite as a love letter to the instrument, \u201celiciting sound worlds that only technicians of the instrument can fully understand and unlock.\u201d The closing movement, ‘Searing Joy’, culminates in a soaring soprano saxophone solo, where the composer asked Velasco to \u201csoar like a comet”. Utterly gorgeous and gripping, \u2018Searing Joy\u2019 is after your ears.<\/p>\n