“Ascending Primes” is a double album of Modney’s compositions for solo, trio, quintet, septet, and undectet pursuing transcendence and ecstatic space. Built on the foundation of Modney’s interests in tuning systems and exploring extremes of harmonicity and dissonance, the album convenes prime-numbered ensembles made up of the composer’s peers in the uncategorizable terrain between modern jazz and classical practices.

Modney writes in the liner notes, “Music, with its vibrational and temporal nature, gives us the possibility of ascending to states of being that would otherwise be inaccessible… It’s the liminal state artists are always chasing, the pursuit of which, for me, is a spiritual practice. The integration of Just Intonation into my music-making has brought this way of being closer to the surface. The primes in sonic form are, aptly, primal. They make you feel things, things that are powerful and contradictory and that lie outside the realm of language and rationality.”

Like the seventeen Ellsworth Kelly postcard collages featured throughout the album design, Modney’s music employs radical juxtaposition, overlaying organic, cultural, and elemental materials to create a supercharged new space.
credits
releases May 3, 2024

Track 1 — “Ascender”, for solo violin with distortion pedal:
Modney, violin

Track 2 — “Lynx”, for violin, cello, and electronics:
Modney, violin
Mariel Roberts, cello
Sam Pluta, electronics

Track 3 — “Everything Around It Moves”, for string quartet and piano:
Modney, violin
Gabriela Díaz, violin
Kyle Armbrust, viola
Mariel Roberts, cello
Cory Smythe, piano

Tracks 4-7 — “Fragmentation And The Single Form”, for septet:
Charmaine Lee, voice and electronics
Ben LaMar Gay, cornet and synth
Modney, violin with distortion pedal
Erica Dicker, violin
Cory Smythe, piano
Dan Peck, tuba
Kate Gentile, drums

Tracks 8-10 — “Event Horizon”, for undectet:
Anna Webber, tenor saxophone
Nate Wooley, trumpet
David Byrd-Marrow, horn
Dan Peck, tuba
Modney, violin
Eddy Kwon, violin
Joanna Mattrey, viola
Mariel Roberts, cello
Lester St. Louis, cello
Cory Smythe, piano
Kate Gentile, drums

Produced by David Breskin

Recorded by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY
Edited by Modney and Ryan Streber
Mixed by Ben Greenberg at Circular Ruin, Brooklyn, NY
Mastered by Scott Hull at Masterdisk, Peekskill, NY

All compositions by Modney, Septimal Triad Publishing (ASCAP)

Album design and layout by Spottswood Erving and July Creek for Janky Defense

Postcard collages by Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015), © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, images courtesy Ellsworth Kelly Studio. Unless otherwise specified, all postcards are from the Collection of Ellsworth Kelly Studio and Jack Shear. Cover: Horizontal “A”, 1957. Art Institute of Chicago, In honor of the Ellsworth Kelly Centennial, Gift of Jack Shear, 2023

Ascending Primes was made possible thanks to the generous support of The Shifting Foundation.

Thank you to all the musicians for their committed, beautiful performances and for their brilliant creative contributions as improvisers. Thank you to Ryan Streber, Ben Greenberg, and Scott Hull for bringing such artistry and technical prowess to this project. Thank you to Frank Heath for the stunning, poignant film version of “Ascender”. Thank you to Chelsea Hadley of The Shifting Foundation. Thank you to Isabel Breskin for bringing such meticulous artistry to the album design. Thank you to Kris Davis and David Leon of Pyroclastic Records for supporting this release. Thank you to Millay Arts for supporting the development of “Everything Around It Moves” and the editing of “Fragmentation And The Single Form” through an artist residency in September 2022.

Thank you to Jacqueline Tran of Matthew Marks Gallery and to Jack Shear, Mary Anne Lee and Allison Wucher of the Ellsworth Kelly Studio for their generosity of spirit in allowing our use of the fabulous Ellsworth Kelly postcard collages.

Special thanks to: David, my extraordinary producer, galvanizer, and mentor. Andrea and Jim, my unwaveringly supportive parents. Allyson, my magical person.

Pyroclastic has purchased carbon offsets to neutralize the carbon emissions associated with the production and distribution of this album.

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