Adam Shead
Volumes & Surfaces
*2025 stock* Balance Point Acoustics proudly presents Volumes & Surfaces, a bold new statement in contemporary free jazz from the extraordinary trio of Jason Stein (bass clarinet), Damon Smith (double bass), and Adam Shead (drums). Recorded in Chicago at Elastic Arts and The Hungry Brain, this album showcases three of creative music’s most distinctive voices in full flight.
Volumes & Surfaces reveals the trio’s uncanny synergy, adventurous spirit, and unyielding commitment to improvisational exp…
Stinger
Recorded live at Chicago’s renowned listening rooms, Constellation in February 2023, and Hungry Brain in July 2023, Stinger captures an exhilarating blend of precision and spontaneity. This album showcases a band that has fine-tuned its sound while embracing the thrill of unpredictability. At the forefront of this musical conversation is Keefe Jackson, a saxophonist whose deep and resonant tones on the tenor saxophone reflect his artistry as both composer and performer. Celebrated for his abilit…
Spi-raling Horn
*2025 stock* Irritable Mystic Records and Balance Point Acoustics are thrilled to announce the release of Spi-raling Horn, an audacious, boundary-blurring album from a staggering quartet: bass clarinetist Jason Stein, pianist Marilyn Crispell, double bassist Damon Smith, and drummer Adam Shead.
Born from a chance collaboration rooted in a shared appreciation between Smith and Crispell for the radical visual art of Cy Twombly, Spi-raling Horn invites listeners into a sonic universe where improv…
Hum
*2025 stock* Since the Stein/Smith/Shead trio's inception in the fall of 2021 they have quickly become one of the most creative and prolific bands working in the fields of jazz and improvised music. Hum see's the group moving deeper into their collective language, producing an album that is unlike any bass clarinet trio album recorded to date. Throughout this recording Jason Stein proves again and again that he is indeed the greatest living bass clarinetist working in improvised music today. Dam…