Danny Lubin-Laden - Through Our Time (2021)

Slow & Steady Records announces the release of trombonist-composer Danny Lubin-Laden's sophomore album Through Our Time, which effortlessly blends Lubin-Laden’s natural lyricism and exploratory improvising with highly textured and rich, ambient soundscapes. Recorded in two sessions, Lubin-Laden worked closely with longtime collaborator, producer and guitarist Ari Chersky. The two looped free improvisations, weaving together trombone, synth and guitar over different song forms. Cellist Christopher Hoffman and drummer Craig Weinrib (both regular collaborators of Henry Threadgill) then joined for a second, live session to play and interact over these sound beds.

“This approach is common practice among many contemporary artists, but less so in the jazz/improvised music world,” notes Lubin-Laden. “It was a real departure from my own comfort zone, which I think is important to keep pushing forward as an artist.” Freed from traditional song structures, Through Our Time continually shifts, expands, and contracts, only to open up once again to new territory – ”it’s an honest reflection of life’s unpredictable soaring, darkening and resurrection,” says Lubin-Laden. Through Our Time is an entrancing sonic journey – from triumphant statements like “After You”, to the hypnotic “Depth & Distance” that nods to Alice Coltrane’s enduring spiritual jazz legacy, to the chaotic and urgent “What’s At Stake”, to the cinematic and easygoing “Throwing Pennies In A Fountain of Luck” – a deep meditation on the arc of lives preserved and lost.