Needle Drops

Welcome to another installment of Needle Drops, where The Tonearm recommends a few under-the-radar new releases that we feel worthy of your ear-space. Fridays are a terrific day for musical exploration—all these new releases!—and we aim to provide a little guide to what might otherwise get missed.

This week, we've been celebrating the musical memories of Lou Donaldson and Roy Haynes, enjoying Terry Riley's "In C" on its 60th anniversary, and feeling shocked but not surprised by Philip Sherburne's struggle with online imposters. We're also encouraged by the shift of the fabled AIR Studios toward sustainability, delighted by the responses to Ann Powers' Bluesky query about song interruptions, and worried about The Onion's nefarious plans as it grows its media empire (okay, not too worried).

Our musical recommendations range from ECM piano jazz to BBQ-capital psychedelia to Peruvian modular improvs to painting-inspired violin manipulations. And that's just mentioning four of this week's seven album selections. So, fire up your speaker cones and listen along with The Tonearm.

Ben Kono - Voyages

Ben Kono's third album, Voyages, brings together his jazz quintet and a classical string quartet to tell the story of his family's American immigration. The Vermont-born woodwind player builds the recording around his grandfather's 1911 memoir Setsuri No Jinsei (Human Life and Divine Providence), which recounts his journey from Japan to America at age thirteen. Working with an ensemble that includes keyboardist Mike Holober, guitarist Pete McCann, and violinists Sara Caswell and Meg Okura, Kono crafts an eight-part suite that moves from personal narrative to broader cultural exploration. The opening pieces, including "Yobiyose (The Calling)" and "Bata Kusai!!," paint specific moments from his grandfather's early American life. At the same time, the subsequent four-movement "Generations Suite" maps the changing experiences of Japanese American families across four generations.

This work follows Kono's 2023 opera Fractured Mosaics, which addressed anti-Asian violence in America. A Grammy winner who has played with Michael Brecker and Wynton Marsalis, and spent eleven years in the Broadway production of "Jersey Boys," Kono blends Japanese scales and work songs with jazz improvisation and orchestral music in a style that carries through to this personal exploration of heritage and identity. (LP)

Colin Vallon Trio - Samares

Swiss pianist Colin Vallon's Samares, on ECM Records, arrives seven years after his previous album, Danse. Recorded at Lugano's Auditorio Stelio Molo with producer Manfred Eicher, the album features Patrice Moret on bass and Julian Sartorius on drums. The music draws from natural imagery—particularly the spinning descent of maple tree seeds—with track titles reflecting botanical themes: "Racine" (Root), "Ronce" (bramble), and "Brin" (blade of grass). Vallon also includes two personal pieces, "Lou" and "Timo," named for his children, marking his first album since becoming a father.

Regular performances at a bi-weekly concert series in Thun, Switzerland, have refined the trio's interplay. Vallon modifies the piano's sound throughout the recording, placing wooden blocks between strings to create unusual tonal colors, particularly evident in "Ronce" and "Souche." The album moves between quiet reflection, as in the brush-driven waves of "Racine," and rhythmic intensity on tracks like "Mars." JazzTimes noted the group's "cool detachment, insistent grooves, and post-postmodern sensibility." The recording joins Danse and Le Vent to complete a trilogy centered on movement and group interaction. (LP)

Mysterious Clouds - Drifting Diamonds

Psychedelic music doesn't exactly come to mind when one thinks of Kansas City. Jazz and blues, maybe. But there's much more below the surface, like any urban concentration of creative folks. There's also a truism that it only takes a small group of dedicated (or stubborn) people to create a scene. For a couple of decades, the band Monta At Odds and those in their orbit have done just that for psychedelic sounds in the Paris of the Plains.

Brothers Dedric and Delaney Moore have long been the engine behind Monta At Odds (with Delaney stepping back some in recent years) and numerous offshoots like Gemini Revolution and as participants in the KC Psych Fest. Mysterious Clouds is one of those projects, trading Monta's post-punk dreaminess and Gemini Revolution's ambient artsiness for a more ragged, acid-drenched psych-rock appeal. The outfit's latest release, the six-song Drifting Diamonds, hits the day-glow ball out of the kaleidoscope park.

Taryn Blake Miller, who records for Domino Recordings as Your Friend, laid down the album's ghostly vocal melodies in a time-limited recording session. Miller was departing for New York, and songs were recorded quickly, then left to sit unattended as Dedric and co. contemplated Mysterious Clouds' next steps. Eventually inspired by Beak>'s recent album, Dedric mixed these tracks in "a weekend in a heady state full of focus" and readied Drifting Diamonds for immediate release.

It's a ferocious album filled with feedback, grit, prominent bass guitar lines, and jazzy drums. The opening, "Road To Sun Reprise," does well to set the tone, buzzing and flailing about with desirous concentration. Even when you play it soft, it sounds loud; even when you play it sober, it feels inebriating. "Doppled Light" is another highlight, sounding like a rare vintage that Nuggets somehow missed. Then there's the album's piece-de-resistance, the loping thirteen-minute title track, beginning with a groove beamed down from Damo-era Can. Layers of spooky-ville style Mellotron(ish) strings and disarmingly gentle electric piano riffs only hint at the freak-out yet to come. I try to avoid referring to music as 'a journey,' but, man, what else could this be? (MD)

Joe Fonda Quartet - Eyes on the Horizon

Joe Fonda's Eyes on the Horizon, on Long Song Records, reunites the bassist with his former mentor, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. This quartet recording, which includes pianist (and Spotlight On alum) Satoko Fujii and drummer Tiziano Tononi, grew from Fonda's study of Smith's musical concepts and their shared history. The compositions reference specific moments between teacher and student, including "We Need Members," which recalls their first meeting at a Creative Music Improvisors Forum gathering in the early 1980s.

The album balances written scores with open improvisation, echoing Smith's compositional methods. The title track moves between group sections and smaller exchanges, while "Like No Other" features Fonda and Smith in dialogue, honoring their mutual friend, the late vibraphonist Bobby Naughton. The project shows Fonda's growth since his 1981 debut, built on years performing with Anthony Braxton (1984-1999) and his recent work with Fujii, who has recorded five duo albums with him since 2015. (LP)

Mauricio Moquillaza - Mauricio Moquillaza

Mauricio Moquillaza's debut album presents four modular synthesizer compositions through Peru's Buh Records. A central figure in Lima's experimental music scene and founder of the Deshumanización collective, Moquillaza recorded these pieces in single takes without overdubs, combining his background in free improvisation and noise with analog synthesis.

Each track balances structured sequencing with abstract sound design, rooted in Moquillaza's work as a bassist and curator supporting new experimental artists in Lima. His single-take method captures live performance moments, highlighting the give-and-take between precise control and the synthesizer's own patterns. Mixed by Christian Mun and mastered by Simon Davey, with artwork by Aaron Julián, the vinyl edition arrives in a pressing of 300 copies.(LP)

Peggy Lee & Cole Smith - FOREVER STORIES OF: MOVING PARTIES

This album pairs Vancouver cellist Peggy Lee and guitarist Cole Schmidt in a project that grew from their collaborations in Echo Painting and SICK BOSS. After establishing regular duo practice sessions to develop material through improvisation, Lee and Schmidt expanded their musical partnership into this recording with guests including Wayne Horvitz, Frank Rosaly, and Sara Schoenbeck. The title reflects the album's conceptual framework—a musical gathering where conversations unfold across various sonic spaces.

While Lee and Schmidt form the core duo, they host an array of musical dialogues across fourteen tracks. The music ranges from structured compositions with shifting meters to atmospheric folk-jazz pieces and electronic experiments. The recording occurred at Montreal's Hotel2Tango and Vancouver's Afterlife Studios, with additional sessions captured remotely in Gothenburg, Melbourne, Amsterdam, and New York. The opening track, "Blame," highlights the album's organic approach, with Mili Hong's subtle drumming supporting interwoven melodies. Lee and Schmidt split the compositional duties nearly evenly, with Lee penning seven pieces and Schmidt six. (LP)

Stefan Smulovitz - Bow & Brush

Stefan Smulovitz's Bow & Brush: 12 Scores of Nadina Tandy merges visual art with musical composition through an intriguing collaboration. The project grew from a Vancouver New Music commission that brought Smulovitz together with painter Nadina Tandy. She created graphic scores, which Smulovitz translated into music. Each track connects to one of Tandy's paintings, functioning as artistic inspiration and musical notation.

The recordings highlight Smulovitz's musicianship and compositional approach. His interpretations blend traditional string instruments with electronic elements and field recordings. "The Pier" opens with microtonal string lines and sparse gong strikes floating above environmental sounds. Most pieces run three to four minutes, mirroring their single-page visual sources. "Quartz Veins" shows his sonic range—distorted viola and synth pulses echo the bold colors and fine lines of Tandy's painting. The acoustic-electronic fusion runs throughout the collection. "Maple Seed Pods" and "Owl Watching" build textured environments from processed string sounds, creating a direct musical response to Tandy's brushwork. (LP)

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