THE SINGLE “earendel” IS OUT NOW ON ALL DIGITAL PLATFORMS!
I’m so excited to share the news that the single “Earendel” from my upcoming septet record “Breaking Stretch” is out now on all digital platforms under the label Pyroclastic Records.
About the single “Earendel” - This composition takes its name and feeling from Earendel, the oldest and more distant star we have yet discovered. The name derives from the old English word meaning “morning star” or “rising light”. Earendel, discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2022, lies 28 billion light years from earth. (It is also known by the less poetic name: WHL0137-LS). Astronomers estimate that Earendel is twice as hot and 1 million times brighter than our sun! This song begins and ends over a pulsing, fading heartbeat, which represents the beginning and end of matter, including Earendel itself as it journeys away from us. In this piece we explore the concept of constant expansion, the elasticity of the universe, and our never ending travel through space into infinity.
The full album will be released on September 6 but you can pre-order NOW on Bandcamp HERE while you enjoy listening to the first single.
THE SINGLE “PALO DE OROS (SUIT OF COINS)” FROM MY SEPTET RECORD IS OUT NOW ON ALL DIGITAL PLATFORMS!
I’m so excited to share the news that the single “Palo de Oros” (Suit of Coins) from my upcoming septet record “Breaking Stretch” is out now on all digital platforms under the label Pyroclastic Records.
The full album will be released on September 6 but you can pre-order NOW on Bandcamp HERE while you enjoy listening to the first single.
The septet features an incredible group of musicians and humans: Adam O’Farrill on trumpet with electronics, Jon Irabagon on alto & sopranino saxophones, Mark Shim on tenor saxophone, Kim Cass on bass, Marcus Gilmore on drums & Mauricio Herrera on percussion.
I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for listening and for all the support.
My QUARTET album “MORE TOUCH” is available ON ALL PLATFORMS!!!
I’m really excited to share the release of my second album as a leader: “More Touch”
This quartet record, represents a process of inner search, backwards to my roots in Veracruz, Mexico and forwards into my future. A music of fluidity, flexibility, precision, and density. And above all, a music rich in imagined imagery.
The quartet features a quite unusual instrumentation: mallet percussion, percussion, drum, and bass. Essentially, a small percussion ensemble with bass, carving a space where rhythm, color, and texture could flourish.
More Touch is Kim Cass on bass, Marcus Gilmore on drums, Mauricio Herrera on percussion and myself on mallet percussion and effects.
Released on November 18, 2022 under the label Pyroclastic Records.
ORDER ‘MORE TOUCH” HERE
*Also available on all digital platforms and streaming services.
“The jazz world can get stuck in a battle between the head and the heart, but rarely do you find an improviser like Patricia Brennan, the Veracruz, Mexico-born vibraphonist, marimba player and effects maven, who skirts that dichotomy almost completely. Her music seems to exist in a realm outside the body, but stays loaded with feeling. “More Touch” is the follow-up to Brennan’s spellbinding debut, the solo LP “Maquishti” and it introduces a new quartet of advance rhythmic thinkers: the drummer Marcus Gilmore, the percussionist Mauricio Herrera and the bassist Kim Cass. They venture between dreamy swing, bobbing bolero, the Afro-Caribbean rhythms of Brennan’s hometown, and free time.”
Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times, 2022 Fall preview
“Rhythm is paramount for any vibraphonist — we’re talking about a percussion instrument, after all — but it’s rarely foregrounded with the sort of deep intention that Patricia Brennan brings to More Touch. Her second album as a leader is a jostling disquisition on groove, made with a team of aces: Kim Cass on bass, Mauricio Herrera on percussion and especially Marcus Gilmore on drums. The compositions shift easily from in-the-pocket to out-on-a-limb, and Brennan uses electronic effects as a deft enhancement to her enveloping sound. Nov. 18. Pyroclastic.”
Nate Chinen, Jazz Fall Preview 2022, WRTI
“MAQUISHTI PRISMATIC” IS OUT ON VALLEY OF SEARCH!
Vibraphonist/composer Patricia Brennan, along with percussionist/turntablist Arktureye have released "Maquishti Prismatic," an electronic re-working of Brennan’s highly praised debut album Maquishti, one of the most highly praised experimental albums of 2021.
Performed solo by Brennan on vibraphone and marimba and employing unusual techniques and occasional electronics, many of the compositions on Maquishti were borne from improvisations created live in the studio. At times exploring silence and space, stillness and patience the album investigates new sonic territories with an endless sense of curiosity.
Speaking on"Maquishti Prismatic," Arktureye says “Texturally paradoxical, smooth but sharp, Maquishti has been in my ear and part of my life since the compositions were being created. I feel fortunate to have gotten to know Patricia’s musical personality and be around its patient strength. This electronic piece is made up of various samples across her solo record. The collection of phrases chosen are moments on the record floating in time. This piece brings sonic abstractions of an underlying pulse based on each sample's texture.”
order “Maquishti” OUT NOW!
Released on January 15, 2021 on the Valley of Search label.
“This album is a personal statement not only as a vibraphonist but also as an improviser and composer,” says Brennan. “From bowing and bending pitch, to the use of extended effects via guitar pedals, this album reflects my vision for the vibraphone and the potential of all the possible ways it can be played. I wanted to not only incorporate all those techniques in the compositions but also wanted them to become part of my general improvisatory language.”
“..the experimental vibraphonist’s solo debut carves out its own place in contemporary music.”
“Above all, Brennan’s musicianship on Maquishti conveys an embodied relationship to vibraphone and marimba that transcends the histories and associations those instruments carry with them. Performing, and indeed practising to hone her technique to such high level have clearly been acts of love rather than obligation. In meaningful practice, as sociologist Richard Sennett has noted, “hard-won movements become ever more deeply ingrained in the body”. Brennan’s own physical movements, the closely coordinated rhythms of her body in action, her incorporated awareness of space and timing, form the substance of this music, and that is compelling to hear.”
A limited pressing of 100 signed, hand-numbered LPs on smoke vinyl. Double LP in gatefold jacket with obi strip. Available exclusively on Bandcamp.
“Valley of Search are releasing Maquishti by vibist Patricia Brennan in early-2021. The exquisite 'Sonnet' is streaming. One of two tracks available heralding the 15 January release; the second 'Magic Square' sounds as if it joins the dots between say Lofty Fake Anagram-period Gary Burton and Thelonious Monk, an intimation of 'Blue Monk' for a split second sprung to mind like a halo. All originals of the Mexico-born musician and composer who is debuting and whose playing credits include Meredith Monk, Theo Bleckmann, Jon Irabagon, Scott Robinson, Ambrose Akinmusire, Marcus Gilmore and Mary Halvorson, the album is a 2018 solo vibes/marimba studio recording made at the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio in New York city. One to look forward to.”
Maquishti Announcement on remezcla:
Premiere: Patricia Brennan’s ‘Magic Square’ Paints an Abstract Picture of Disassembled Cuban Landscapes
“SONNET” Single by Patricia Brennan
Sonnet, recorded in August 2018 at Samurai Hotel recording studio, is one piece from a soon to be released full album which will be Patricia Brennan's solo debut. This album is a documentation of a sonic and personal journey using mallet percussion as a vessel. By exploring sonic textures via extended techniques and electronic effects, each piece in this project creates a unique and incomparable experience.
“Vibraphonist Patricia Brennan delivers a work of quiet beauty in “Sonnet”, each note arriving like gentle rain on a rooftop”
Bandcamp, New and Notable List, 2020
“Sonnet has an alluring Ambient undertone with a seemingly improvisational quality akin to a Jazz performance however, there is no meandering about to be found here, as Brennan clearly steers melody and structure along like the seasoned professional that she is, expertly guiding you through her sonic ruminations within her composition.”
“Beautiful, engaging music that rewards repeated listening. Can’t wait to hear more.”
“First career single for the Brooklynoise vibraphonist, Sonnet reveals a marked talent for simple and vesperal melodies and dissonant chords that adds a little mystery to the atmosphere. It’s sweet and beautiful!”
credits
released May 28, 2020
Patricia Brennan - vibraphone and composition (MAQUISHTI MUSIC - BMI)
Valley of Search - label
Recorded at the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio, Queens, NY August 24, 2018
Engineered by Max Ross and Mike Marciano from Systems Two
Mixed and Mastered by Max Ross from Systems Two
Patricia Brennan uses her signature BlueHaus Mallets
