Zs

Seminal NYC ensemble Zs present their first release on Social Noise: the label dedicated to documenting a career in telepathic collaboration. Noth was recorded live at Cafe Oto in London in April 2017 and, in their usual maximalist (un)convention, features Sam Hillmer on tenor sax, Patrick Higgins on guitar and electronics, Greg Fox on drums and electronics, and Michael Beharie on electronics. Frenetic, impassioned, intentional and above-all connective improv explorations intended to cause neuron rapid-fire and unpreventable hair-raising. Energizing since the 2000s, Zs were motivated to start their own label in part "to develop a series, an on-going project of releasing our most current work in a more direct way, less mediated and less inhibited by the constraints of the traditional "album cycle"" (Higgins), as well as specifically controlling output away from monolith streaming services. The intention and the result of this latter motivation in particularly are exemplified in the highly site-specific nature of these releases, undeniably contextualized by their distinct sonic, visual (all visual direction and album art by Tauba Auerbach), collaborative and performative nature.