Collin Sherman: Organism Made Luminous

The Covid pandemic slowed artistic progress for many musicians. Opportunities to collaborate became scarce; live music in front of an audience blinked out. However, the enterprising players out there found a way. File sharing and solo projects blossomed, and these—along with the relative affordability of home studio set ups—had an invigorating effect on musical creativity. If you cannot go out and play to an audience, you might as well stay home and create.

But for multiple instrumentalist (primarily a reed guy) Collin Sherman not much changed in his way of crafting his sounds, in a home studio where he records all the instrumental parts for assembly, pentimento-style, that result in the finished product. Pre-Covid, post-Covid, it is all the same to Collin Sherman.

The finished product at hand is Sherman's fourteenth album, Organism Made Luminous. It, and most of his output, is accurately tagged on Sherman's website as: "Experimental electro-acoustic jazz, ambient, drone, noise." And this one is heavier on the electro side than his previous albums, an approach which benefits the final product, since the possibilities of synthesized vibrations are limitless—from his use of the Soniccouture Canterbury Suitcase (midi Rhodes), Doepfer Dark Energy II, Dreadbox Nymphes, FXPansion BFD3, Pittsburgh Modular SV-1, etc. Add to this eclectic mix Sherman's reeds, his electric guitars, a Remington Portable Model 1 typewriter, a bowed Fender Telecaster and you have the Sherman sound.

Opening with "Failed Deontological Promise (or, the Haphazard Application of the Rule of Law)" which features a dense and penetrating electro swirl of synths as a backdrop to Sherman's on-edge soprano sax and oboe proclamations, the synth drone-like rise and fall of a surging deep sea at night, the reed-like flares rising to their zeniths to illuminate a surreal vision. "Space Mission of the Immortals" sounds like an enormous interstellar craft shifting into the velocity above the speed of light, the ship's propulsion system pushed to its limit, making noises which may be concerning to the chief engineer—sizzles and wall-of-sound electro-hummings, blips and beeps from the emissions coming in from stars passed by in much less time than it takes to blink an eye.

Moving deeper into synth territory is a risk. Sherman has done it brilliantly here, exploring assemblages of unexpected sound, sometimes expansive, often ominous, occasionally spare and introspective and at times twangy, with ventures into relentless grooves and luminescent ambient washes. Collin Sherman's best outing thus far.