Album Notes

Ken Critchfield: Upright bass
Ethan Levitt: Saxophone
Marty Steinberg: Drums
Brad Stock: Guitar
Original readings by: Aniko Safran & Craig Cleveland

Performed January 16, 2006; SLC, UT

All music was spontaneously composed during improvisation with the following exceptions: Pulse, which emerged and evolved across multiple sessions; Lychee and Nonacceptance, composed by Ken Critchfield; and Lost Loves, inspired by a duet structure called 'Rotunda' (special thanks to David Smith and members of Holophrase for early work with this). Texts were prepared in advance by their readers (used by permission) and were described in general terms to the musicians just before performance.

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Seraphim was formed as a free-jazz outfit in the Fall of 2003. The group consists of veteran musicians brought together by psychologist and bassist Ken Critchfield to explore the emergent process of freely improvised music. This group builds on Ken’s earlier work in SLC with bass and drums (resulting in “Foundation,” released 1998) as well as with another free-jazz outfit; the Brooklyn-based, Holophrase, led by trombonist David Smith. Compositions are spontaneously created in the moment, or involve loosely-defined parameters for the form and structure of a piece, requiring the musicians to stretch themselves in unusual directions. The result is a sound that rests almost entirely on dialog and conversation between the individual instruments – alliance, disagreement, misunderstanding, boredom, miasma, complete connection, it’s all in there. “Seraphim” was chosen as identifier for the group because of the simultaneous association with mythic concepts of heaven and creation – creating order from disorder – as well as with destroying angels, returning order back to chaos.