10th March 2022: Announcing ‘We’re All Improvisers Now’ by Tommy Crane – dropping June 24, 2022

It gives us great pleasure to welcome New York/Montreal-based performer Tommy Crane to Whirlwind Recordings with his debut solo album We’re All Improvisers Now, dropping 24 June.

We’re All Improvisers Now is a tranquil, introspective journey through boundary- traversing ambient jazz, buoyed by the creative elan of an artist in full experimentation mode. Using sensory percussion and a battery of synthesizers, Crane creates a sequence of lucid sonic environments, where the real and synthetic meet, overlap and reappear disguised and opaque.

The title’s double meaning is immediately apparent; the album is an uncommon take on improvising from a performer incorporating ambient sensibilities and the title also accurately describes the situation many artists found themselves in amidst the pandemic. For Crane, the pandemic provided a rare gift of time that allowed him to explore his love for electronic and analogue production. “I don’t think I will ever make a record like this again – this was one big experiment,” he says of a project with DIY trappings. After eventually returning from Italy where he was teaching drums and improv classes as Siena Jazz Institute, Crane settled in Montreal with his Canadian partner. At the beginning of the lockdown, he created a spaceship-like rig in his spare room comprised of assorted synths and ‘sensory’ percussion (which assigns new sounds to drums). The album features welcome contributions from colleagues phoned in from afar.

‘Before We Sail Away’ introduces the album’s distinct sonic language; it’s a prelude to both the album and the life events that inspired it, taking shape whilst annexed on an eerily calm cruise ship as the whole world collapsed around him. Crane’s album blurs synthetic and real; ‘Curated Reality’s whirring synths and lop-sided guitar riffs (all of which stem from Crane’s programming) begin that unifying trope. Shimo (short for Tokyo suburb Shimokitazawa) showcases Crane’s attention of detail amid the tranquillity of the track’s horizontal washes, before ‘Keys to the Darkroom’ ends the album’s first half in a darker mood, with emotive contributions from saxophonist Charlotte Greve.

Then, ‘Once I Was A Cohen’ enters: bright, hymnal and vaguely reminiscent of Brian Eno, the title references his family name, that was lost sometime during World War II, and represents Crane’s newfound time to reflect on the past. ‘Nordique Americana’ continues that mellow spirit, capturing the icy white winters Crane spent in lockdown familiarizing himself with Montreal. ‘In Memoriam’ is an homage to Crane’s late father and provides an emotional reprise to the album, before a return to crystalline sounds in the title track, that features LA bassist Jordan Brooks who brings a deep grove to the song. The second half of ‘Nordique Americana’ concludes the album with a key titular addition – part 2, ‘joie de vivres’, which is a nod to a new mentality. “When I came to Montreal, people took a bit more time to enjoy life, and that’s a phrase that cropped up a lot.” Crane takes that spirit into a collaborative release that lives and breathes in the spaces in between.

We’re All Improvisers Now drops June 24 and will be available in CD, DL and 180 gram special gatefold artwork with transparent vinyl with a pop out poster and extensive inner sleeve design.