Bill Laswell - Against Empire (2020)

Over the course of three decades, visionary bassit/producer Bill Laswell has been one of the most prolific and restlessly creative forces in contemporary music, always a few steps ahead of the curve, EVOLUTION/REVOLUTION.

AGAINST EMPIRE, a new catagory of magical, electro/acoustic technology. Further research may shed a most revealing light on thr development of sound storage in material culture.

AGAINST EMPIRE projects a hybrid activity, constantly evolving texture crashes against smooth, unfolding rhythms built around the solid and elastic drum foundations of four iconic drummers - Jerry Marotta (Peter Gabriel), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Hideo Yamaki (Japan's top dummer) and Satoyasu Shomura (Japanese pop phenomenon). The legendary saxophoniost Pharoah Sanders, especially known for his radical collaborations with John Coltrane, versatile multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum, minimal contributions from the great Herbie Hancock on electric piano and the unmistakable touch of master percussionist Adam Rudolph.

AGAINST EMPIRE, an iconoclast offering of multi-directional movements .... avant-jazz, rock, dub, experimental, ambient, sub-bass and on and on .... a dream colonization, a bizarre image of paradise, an imagined quality of elsewhere, constucts of the imagination, essense of difference.

Nothing is True, Everything Is Permitted

AGAINST the EMPIRE of LIES

AGAINST the ANTI-MUSIC of MEDIOCRITY

AGAINST COMPLACENCY and COMPROMISE

AGAINST SHAMELESS and UNINFORMED PRIVILEGE

AGAINST INHERENT RACISM DIRECT or INDIRECT, KNOWN or UNKNOWN

AGAINST EMPIRE

Bill Laswell
Hell’s Kitchen, NYC

Bill Laswell: bass, effects
Pharoah Sanders: saxophone
Peter Apfelbaum: saxophone, flute, keyboards
Herbie Hancock: electric piano
Jerry Marotta: drums
Chad Smith: drums
Hideo Yamaki: drums
Satoyasu Shomura: drums
Adam Rudolph: percussion