Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton first met in 2005. This introduction inspired them to record a live LP titled “Black Vomit” on May 21, 2005. The performance happened at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Victoriaville, Quebec. This groundbreaking concert captured the essence of Wolf Eyes’ unpredictable live shows and Anthony Braxton’s love of uncompromising experimental music. “Black Vomit” was subsequently released by Les Disques Victo in 2006, becoming a significant entry in the band’s discography.

In 2023, Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton performed as a trio at Pioneer Works in NYC and Zebulon Concert House in Los Angeles. The joint concerts by Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton not only showcased the evolution of Wolf Eyes’ experimental sound but also paid homage to Braxton’s legacy. The fusion of these two avant-garde forces marked a historic moment in the exploration of sonic possibilities, creating an unforgettable and groundbreaking musical experience for attendees. Braxton’s collaboration with Wolf Eyes adds another layer of complexity and creativity to the band’s 2 decades of music, art, poetry.

Prolific multi-reedist/composer Anthony Braxton is among the most influential jazz artists to emerge from the 20th century. He has engaged in nearly every conceivable area of musical creativity during his extraordinary career. Beginning with jazz’s essential rhythmic and textural elements, Braxton combines them with all manner of experimental compositional techniques, from graphic and non-specific notation to serialism to multimedia, electronic, and prodigious use of improvisation. Largely considered a genius, his self-invented, heavily theoretical approach to playing and composing jazz has as much in common with late 20th century classical music as it does jazz, and therefore has alienated some who consider jazz a full remove from European idioms. Further, Braxton has a healthy respect for, and has collaborated with, rock and noise musicians. His genuine — if highly idiosyncratic — ability to play older forms (influenced especially by saxophonists Warne Marsh , John Coltrane , Paul Desmond , Charlie Parker , and Eric Dolphy ), he has never really been accepted by the jazz establishment due to his manifest infatuation with the practices of such non-jazz artists as John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen . Some critics have even insisted that Braxton’s music is not jazz at all. Whatever one calls it, however, there is no questioning the originality of his vision; Braxton has created music of enormous sophistication and passion that is unlike anything else that has come before it. He is able to fuse jazz’s visceral components with contemporary classical music’s formal and harmonic methods in an utterly unselfconscious — and therefore convincing — way. His best work runs threadlike throughout his career, beginning with the bona fide classic Three Compositions of New Jazz in 1969 (and the solo For Alto in ’71), his Creative Orchestra Music and In the Tradition volumes during the ’70s, his solo, duo, and quartet work for that included collaborators ranging from Marilyn Crispell , Woody Shaw , Derek Bailey , and Max Roach in the ’80s and ’90s, as well as his large ensemble recordings in the 21st century that include operas and structured improvisations. His work is on a level of the finest and most forward-thinking art music of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, jazz or classical, including Six Compositions (GTM) 2001, Trio (New Haven) 2013 with Tomas Fujiwara and Tom Rainey , and the large ensemble opera Trillium J in 2016.

Born in Chicago in 1945, Braxton began playing music as a teenager, developing an early interest in both jazz and classical musics. He attended the Chicago School of Music from 1959-1963, then Roosevelt University, where he studied philosophy and composition. During this time, he became acquainted with many of his future collaborators, including saxophonists Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell . Braxton entered the service and played saxophone in an Army band; for a time he was stationed in Korea. Upon his discharge in 1966, he returned to Chicago where he joined the nascent Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The next year, he formed an influential free jazz trio, the Creative Construction Company, with violinist Leroy Jenkins and trumpeter Leo Smith . In 1968, he made his debut as a leader with Three Compositions of New Jazz, which featured fellow AACM members Jenkins , Smith , and Muhal Richard Abrams . He returned a year later with For Alto, the first-ever recording for solo saxophone. Braxton lived in Paris for a short while beginning in 1969, where he played with a rhythm section comprising bassist Dave Holland , pianist Chick Corea , and drummer Barry Altschul . Called Circle , the group stayed together for about a year before disbanding ( Holland and Altschul would continue to play in Braxton-led groups for the next several years).

Braxton moved to New York in the ’70s, a decade that saw his creative star rise. He recorded a number of ambitious albums for ECM and for major label Arista , including New York, Fall 1974, and Creative Orchestra Music 1976. He also maintained a quartet with Holland and Altschul — even appearing on Holland ‘s landmark debut album, Conference of the Birds. Also during this period, he performed with a bevy of artists including the Italian free improvisation group Musica Elettronica Viva , guitarist Derek Bailey , and in a duet setting with drummer Max Roach (Birth & Rebirth). In 1978, he welcomed the birth of son Tyondai Braxton , a composer, musician, and founder of the indie rock outfit Battles .

The ’80s saw Braxton continue to record and issue albums on independent labels at a dizzying pace. He also moved easily between ambitious large-ensemble albums like 1981’s Composition No. 96 and more intimate trio albums like 1987’s …If My Memory Serves Me Right with pianist David Rosenboom and bassist Mark Dresser . Braxton’s steadiest vehicle in the ’80s — and what is often considered his best group — was his quartet featuring pianist Marilyn Crispell , drummer Gerry Hemingway , and bassist Dresser , with whom he recorded such albums as Six Compositions (Quartet) 1984 and Quartet (London) 1985. From the mid-’80s onward he taught regularly, first at Mills College in California, and finally at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. In 1994 he received a large grant from the MacArthur Foundation that allowed him to finance some large-scale projects he’d long envisioned, including an opera. He also founded his own Braxton House label, releasing such albums as Sextet (Istanbul) 1996 and Trillium R: Composition 162 – An Opera in Four Acts/Shala Fears for the Poor.

Braxton taught at Wesleyan throughout the 2000s, during which time he continued to perform and record, delivering a mix of large and small group projects like Quartet 2006: Ghost Trance Music and Creative Orchestra: Bolzano 2007. He also revived his long dormant nonprofit Tri-Centric Foundation to promote his work and support up-and-coming creative artists. In 2013 he was bestowed the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award for lifetime achievement in jazz. That same year, Braxton retired from the faculty of Wesleyan. Since then, he has remained a vital presence both live and in the studio, with albums like the expansive box set Quintet (Tristano) 2014 and Solo (Victoriaville) 2017. Two years later, he released Quartet (New Haven) 2014, a four-disc box that brought him into dialogue with 21st century rock. In addition to longtime bassist Taylor Ho Bynum , the set also included contributions from an ensemble that featured Wilco guitarist and avant-jazz explorer Nels Cline as well as idiosyncratic drummer Greg Saunier , co-founder of Deerhoof.

Since she began making music in the early ’90s, Samara Lubelski has split her time between being a member of bands Hall of Fame, the Sonora Pine, and Tower Recordings (to name a few); a respected contributor on violin and guitar with Fiery Furnaces, MV & EE, and White Magic; a busy recording engineer; a member of avant-garde outfits; a guitarist in Thurston Moore’s band Chelsea Light Moving; and a solo artist who has crafted a series of compelling albums that delve into light psychedelia and acid folk.

Lubelski released her solo debut, Fleeting Skies, on the Social Registry label in 2004. She returned in 2005 with another collection of intimate and offbeat pop confections, Spectacular of Passages, while 2007 saw the release of the equally kaleidoscopic Parallel Suns, again on Social Registry. During this time she was an in-demand session musician and engineer, working with artists like Fiery Furnaces, MV & EE, White Magic, and Thurston Moore. Thanks to this last connection, she moved to Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! for her 2009 album, Future Slip. She fit another solo album into her busy schedule in 2012, releasing Wavelength on the De Stijl label. Soon after, she joined Moore ‘s band Chelsea Light Moving and played guitar on their self-titled 2013 album.

Around this time she also began playing in a duo with noise guitarist Marcia Bassett and formed the avant-garde trio Augenmusik. Her next album was a solo violin outing on the Ultra Eczema label titled String Cycle. It came out in 2014 and was followed in 2016 by the baroque pop album The Gilded Raid, which was issued by Drawing Room. She continued to be a steady presence on the N.Y.C. music scene and remained a steady collaborator on Thurston Moore ‘s projects, appearing on his 2017 Rock n Roll Consciousness album and joining his live band. That same year, Lubelski’s third collaboration with Bassett, Live NYC, was released by Feeding Tube Records. She swung back to her solo records after that, working with her longtime friends Metabolismus in their studio in Germany and coming up with Flickers at the Station, which was released by Drawing Room in early 2018.

Marcia Bassett is a NYC-based musician and artist known for her innovative and unconventional approach to music. Exploring the realms of sound collage, improvisation, and immersive audio-visual environments, Bassett’s work delves into the cultural world and immediate surroundings, encountering various phenomena that have the potential to be transformative within ourselves and our environment. Her artistic vision is to create a heady sonic interplay of otherworldly narratives that blend elements of trance and critique.

As the founder of Yew Recordings, Heavy Conversation and Heavy Blossom and working with smaller independent labels, Bassett has maintained a DIY approach to music publishing. Some of her recent solo recordings include the critically acclaimed “Midnight Xpander LP,” which was recorded at Elektronmusikstudion EMS in Stockholm. She also recently released “Undulating Arkasboning” cassette on Artsy Records in 2022 and a Digi-EP titled “Altering The Form” on the Belgian label KRUT.

Bassett frequently collaborates with other artists and musicians on live improvised performances, installations, and multimedia projects. Recent tours and works include a visual sound residency with Ursula Scherrer at Sonoscopia, Porto, PT; live performances with Samara Lubelski, including an evening at the Clark Art Institute (MA) and Tubby’s (NY); “Triangulated Waves,” an electric guitar and violin improvisation with Samara Lubelski for an abstract film showcased at Tabakalara in San Sebastián, Spain.  With Ursula Scherrer, she has engaged in an ongoing collaboration of light, sound, and installations, notably “Interwoven,” a site-specific installation, Tunis, TNSA, “Time_Untime” Roulette Intermedium, NYC, “FA\CE” a la Maison, Paris, FR and a multimedia installation featuring live visuals and sound with Ursula Scherrer and Sergej Vutuc at The Film Gallery in Paris, France. “The Eternal Now” is a collaborative project by Marcia Bassett, Ted Gordon, and Jeffery Perkins. The project showcases Jeffery Perkins’ colorslide stroboscopic light experiments while Marcia and Ted explore Buchla Music Easel improvisations.

Other past collaborations and solo projects include work with Andrew Lafkas’ large ensemble, Alternate Models, presenting “Two Paths with Active Shadows Under Three Moons and Surveillance” at Experimental Intermedia and Eyebeam in NYC; “Survival Of Laments” a live improvisation with Margarida Garcia and Manuel Mota at Festival Oude Muziek 2018, Utrecht. She showcased an improvised sound performance titled “Transitory Freezing of Perpetual Motion” with Jenny Graf and dancers at the Here-10 Evenings Festival in Sweden, created live improvised sound interaction with the performance artist Narcissister, and composed an original soundtrack for the Single Channel Video “Ten Ways of Doing Time,” directed by James Fotopoulos and Laura Parnes in 2013.

Her boundary-pushing approach, penchant for collaboration, and relentless exploration of the sonic realm continue to inspire and shape the contemporary music landscape. She has been an integral part of several influential bands and pursued solo work under the moniker Zaimph.

Bassett’s involvement with the band Un, formed in the early 1990s, showcased her distinctive approach to sound. Un, known for their hypnotic and dissonant soundscapes, released their self-titled album “Un” (1996) and tour-only 7” on the legendary Siltbreeze label. Another notable collaboration for Bassett was with Double Leopards, an experimental collective that emerged in the late 1990s. With their improvisational and exploratory approach, Double Leopards created densely layered sonic tapestries that blurred the boundaries between noise, drone, and psychedelia. Bassett’s involvement with the band resulted in a number of releases, including “Halve Maen” (2003) and “A Hole Is True” (2004). Bassett’s musical journey also led her to join forces with Pete Nolan and Steve Gunn, in the band GHQ. GHQ’s music delves into folk-infused territories, blending intricate guitar work and improvisation. Their collaborative efforts produced celestial raga-drenched drone albums such as “Cosmology of Eye” (2006) and “Crystal Healing” (2007). Bassett was also a member of Hototogisu alongside Matthew Bower. Together, they created blistering and intense sonic landscapes laced with smoked-drenched noise psychedelia. In addition to her collaborations, Bassett has released solo material under the moniker Zaimph. As Zaimph, she created cracked-raga song structures with dense electronic and synthesizer drones to create soundscapes where a lurking apocalypse is eclipsed by shimmering, meditative beauty. Her solo works often feature layers of vocals, guitar manipulations, percussive scrapings, and hypnotic textures, creating immersive sonic environments. Notable releases under the Zaimph moniker include “Sexual Inifity” (2006); “Between the Infinite and the Finite” (2016) and “Rhizomatic Gaze” (2018). Her work has left an indelible mark on the experimental music scene and has mapped regions still only dimly understood by subsequent sonic travelers.