Christopher Icasiano - Provinces (2020)

Filipino-American percussionist and composer Christopher Icasiano presents his debut solo work "Provinces," two suites that explore the complexity of cultural identity and community as a second generation immigrant in Seattle. Composed predominantly on the drum set, "Provinces" virtuosic rhythmic patterns evoke melodies over long cyclical phrases, while a lush color palette provided by keyboards and percussion fill out the soundscape. Added field recordings taken from Icasiano's first ancestral trip to the Philippines are blended in, transporting the listener to a world that is foreign yet familiar. Christopher's lifelong study of jazz, his love of 90's R&B and folk music, and his 12-year collaboration in the experimental drum and saxophone duo "Bad Luck," make "Provinces" a unique intersection of the avant-garde and the mainstream - always compelling, always challenging.