ASSYRIAN CAESAREAN by Michael Zerang

Digital release of the 2019 vinyl LP recording released on HOLIDAY RECORDS.
LP’s available: https://www.holidaysrecords.it

With ASSYRIAN CAESAREAN, Chicago-based percussionist Michael Zerang presents his first solo recording for percussion after a long career as an exploratory musician and composer. The album features a range of approaches to percussion that Zerang has developed over the years, including the use of vibrating drumhead surfaces, expressive friction passages, multiple timbre percussion, and straight up trap-set drumming - all infused with a rich sense of melodic, rhythmic and textural innovation. The album was recorded and mixed by Matt Bordin at Outside Inside Studio in Italy for Holiday Records.

Zerang has performed and recorded with some of the most adventurous artists of his era, including a 14 year stint with The Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, Joe McPhee’s SURVIVAL UNIT III, and a extended collaboration with drummer and percussionist Hamid Drake. Frequent collaborators also include cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, pianist and synthesist Jim Baker, bassist Kent Kessler, trumpeter Axel Dorner, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist KA Baird, saxophonist Edward Wilkerson, Jr., violinist Biliana Voutchkova, pianists Elisabeth Harnik and Magda Mayas, along with an ever-widening pool of international improvisors.

Zerang recently began performing with the experimental Middle-Eastern super group, KARKHANA with Mazen Kerbaj, Sharif Sehnaoui, Maurice Louca, Tony Elieh, Sam Shalabi and Umut Caglar, as well as with his own group, Michael Zerang & The Blue Lights, featuring, Kessler, Mars Williams, Dave Rempis and Josh Berman.

All titles composed and performed by Michael Zerang
©munimulamusic 2019/ ASCAP

Tracklist

1.	CHICAGO FLYAWAY	5:04

2.	THE DJINN OF NINEVEH	3:58

3.	ASSYRIAN CAESAREAN	4:02

4.	CAPITALISM'S LAST SHRED	3:34

5.	THE SWIFT AND SORDID PURIFICATION OF JIMI JIHAD	5:00

6.	SONG FOR MOURNERS	7:28

7.	THRENODY FOR A DESERT STORM	6:06

Credits

released September 22, 2019

Recorded and Mixed by Matt Bordin
Outside Inside Recording Studio - Montebelluna, Italy
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Lacquer cut by Daniel Krieger at SST, Frankfurt am Main
Cover art by Mazen Kerbaj
Photographs by Kazimierz Ździebło
Holiday Records HOL122
Limited Edition of 300
Vinyl Release date: June 10, 2019
Digital Release Date: September 22, 2019

REVIEWS:

dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/188086326867/michael-zerang-assyrian-caesarian-holidays

avantscena.wordpress.com/2019/09/17/michael-zerang-%E2%80%8E-assyrian-caesarean-holidays-records-2019/

www.freejazzblog.org/2019/10/solo-percussion-percussion-duets-and.html

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