CCMusic.com

Vinyl LP pressing. Fantastic studio recording, caught by Taylor Hales at Chicago's legendary Electrical Audio, documenting the first full meeting of all the players on this album. Mako Sica, at this point in time revolve around the core duo of Przemyslaw Krys Drazek (electric trumpet, mandolin, electric guitar) and Brent Fuscaldo (vocals, electric bass, harmonica, thumb piano, gong, percussion). For this session, these two are joined once again by Chicago's always-revelatory percussionist, Hamid Drake, with whom they have previously recorded Ronda and Balancing Tear. In addition, Ourania features the upright bass and shamisen of Tasu Aoki (Drake's longtime partner in Fred Anderson's trio). Also included in the roster is Thymme Jones, the leader of Chicago's epic Cheer-Accident (among many other roles), and a dab hand at everything from balloon to grand piano. The basic idea for the album was to continue building on Mako Sica's recorded collaborations with Drake, and to do so in as spontaneous as setting as possible.