Brent Cordero & Peter Kerlin – A Sublime Madness LP Astral Spirits

PSYCHIC ILLS keyboardist, BRENT CORDERO and SUNWATCHERS bassist, PETER KERLIN’s first full length collab A Sublime Madness is the culmination of decades of circling each other’s creative orbits. After years of casual jamming, numerous fledgling one offs, and touring sideman gigs. Here, the two sidemen synchronize orbits and create a sound with keys and bass as a molten center. The impetus to embark on a larger collaboration began with an off-handed suggestion after the two recorded an improv duet for Kerlin’s, Glaring Omission (2020). Later, with touring canceled worldwide and the untimely death of Psychic Ills frontman, Tres Warren, it seemed like a good time to pick up the thread left hanging “from before” to create something to respond to the moment and/or escape into. But A Sublime Madness is not a strict duo album or a COVID bedroom record, by any stretch. Drummer, RYAN SAWYER (BENT ARCANA) provides torrents of percussion and each tune is built out as the two invite in a crew of past collaborators, legends, luminaries, cohorts and stalwarts: DANIEL CARTER (woodwinds), JAMES BRANDON LEWIS (tenor sax), JESSICA PAVONE (viola), RYAN JEWELL (percussion), CHARLES BURST (percussion), ADAM AMRAM (congas), AARON SIGEL (vibraphone), JESSE DEROSA (modular synth)—each person contributing their musical voice throughout. The result is an expansive sound and vision. A conjuring of spontaneous, collective spirit in which each player’s contribution is highlighted and distilled in conversation with each other over the arc of the record.