Footwork meets a percussion quartet: Jlin and Third Coast Percussion have made a record together

Jlin and the Chicago percussion quartet Third Coast Percussion have announced a joint album, “Vernacular”. It is their first recorded work together.

The release was reported by Resident Advisor.

The record comes out on 23 October on Rockwell Records, and the programme premieres live on 15 October at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

What is on it

The record consists of original compositions by Jlin and Sonnen Zimmer, set alongside two interpretations of other people’s material. The first is expected: Philip Glass’s “Mishima”. The second is less obvious — “Butterfly Dancing Over a Barrel” by David Longstreth, founder of Dirty Projectors.

Third Coast Percussion had already performed works by Jlin, among them “Soulfood” and “Derivative”. So this is not a first encounter: the quartet had played her music before, and the joint album grew out of those performances. For Jlin, whose language is footwork from Gary, Indiana, working with a concert ensemble is not a departure: her rhythms were built from the start as percussion scores, only played by a machine.

Europe next

After the Chicago premiere the programme travels to Europe. Dates and venues have not yet been announced.

Rockwell Records is not the label Jlin released on before: her earlier records, “Black Origami” among them, appeared on Planet Mu. The change of address says more about the format of this particular work than about any break — a joint album with a classical ensemble makes more sense where that music already has a shelf.

As ONE//FM reported, the debut double album by Eris Drew and Octo Octa was recorded in the woods of New Hampshire — another example of electronic producers looking for new acoustics outside the club.