Kranky gets Physicalist

Brooklyn trio Forma will release their third album via the famed Chicago label.

By Kranky’s standards it’s been a relatively quiet 2016 with the single release coming from New Orleans’ MJ Guider. In recent years, however, Kranky has released music from Tara Jane O’Neil, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Grouper and Loscil’s Sea Island LP, while 2015 saw the label entrust its output from Kranky faithfuls Christina Vantzou, Valet, Christopher Bissonnette and Steve Hauschildt of Emeralds fame. The label now welcomes aboard Forma, a Brooklyn trio with a line-up change of John Also Bennett replacing Sophie Lam. Previously the group released two LPs on Spectrum Spools in 2011 and 2012, and this new title, Physicalist, is the first Forma album to include any acoustic or non-electric instrumentation.

The album was recorded during “marathon sessions” at Brooklyn’s Gary’s Electric studio and Kranky explain Physicalist contains two distinct halves: “the first consisting of rhythmic compositions derived from the trio’s formidable array of modular and vintage synthesizers, and the second breaking from the grid with ambient, free-flowing experiments on piano, flute and acoustic percussion.” It’s an album that’s been further explained as “American kosmische” which provides Forma with their first record after debuting on The Bunker New York in 2014 with the two-track Cool Haptics LP. Preview the closing track from the record below.

Kranky will release Physicalist by Forma on September 23.

Tracklisting:

1. Collapse Of Materialists
2. Sane Man
3. Spin Glass
4. Ghosts
5. Maxwell’s Demon
6. Descent
7. Wanderer Imitates A Cloud
8. As If Pianos Grew On Trees
9. Collapse Of Materialists
10. Physicalist
11. Improvisation For Flute And Piano

Kranky on Juno