Nicole Mitchell
At Earth School
*300 copies limited edition*
Recorded live 2nd October 2022 at Café OTO, London by Pedro SubtilMixed December 2022 by Alex BonneyMastered by Mikey Young
All compositions by Nicole Mitchell (Wheatgoddess Creations ASCAP) and Alexander Hawkins (PRS), except "There is a Balm in Gilead" (traditional, arr. Mitchell/Hawkins)
Intergalactic Beings
Double LP version. "FPE Records is thrilled to release Intergalactic Beings, Nicole Mitchell's second avant-jazz suite based on the Xenogenesis novels of Octavia Butler, recorded live on April 30, 2010, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Black Earth Ensemble features a cast of Chicago's most respected players and improvisers. This is their eighth album, and their first to see release on vinyl."
On Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds
Blurring the edges between philosophy and mysticism, modern art and radical political critique, the Afrofuturist impulse has been a cultural force since the mid-20th century. That’s when jazz visionary Sun Ra Arkestra first touched down on Planet Earth and told humanity that space (outer and inner) is indeed the place. It’s an impulse that in the new millennium has only grown more diverse thanks to a proliferating number of African-American musicians who use Afrofuturism as a platform to launch …
Three compositions
Despite the compositions’ respective demands, Nicole Mitchell and Black Earth Ensemble fully and vividly represented Roscoe Mitchell’s varied means of creating chemistry between written and improvised materials. At every turn in the program, they played with a palpable sense of familiarity and ease with the composer’s vernacular and methods. They sounded like they’ve been playing this music every night for a long time. Bill Shoemaker, excerpt from the liner notes