RJ Miller

RJ Miller is a drummer, composer and keyboard player originally from Maine. Known for his beautiful sound and his great and unique beat he's currently working in the bands of Jorge Rossy, Bill McHenry, Kira Skov, Nicolai Munch-Hansen, Richard Andersson, Aaron Parks, Jeremy Udden, and Albert Sanz to name a few. In 2013 RJ released his debut solo album on Loyal Label.

RJ Miller - RONALD'S RHYTHM

RJ also appears on:
Opsvik & Jennings - A DREAM I USED TO REMEMBER

Michelle Arcila & Eivind Opsvik

Michelle Arcila has been described as “ a storyteller who uses very few words ”. Arcila was born in New York and has a BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts. Her images have been exhibited at international venues, including Maison d’Art Bernard Anthonioz in Paris, the National Arts Club, and Jen Bekman Gallery in New York City. She has also photographed and served as art director for several album covers. Publications featuring Arcila’s work include Vogue Korea, Time Out NY, Metro Pop, Les Inrockuptibles and DownBeat. Her work appears in a number of private collections. She currently works in Brooklyn, Norway, and Costa Rica.

Eivind Opsvik is a Norwegian bassist/musician living in New York. His main projects are his band Overseas, the instrumental chamber-pop duo Opsvik & Jennings, and his solo music, which appears on ‘A Thousand Ancestors’. Opsvik also mixes, composes and produces music, and runs the Loyal Label record label. He played his first solo show at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival in 2008 and has also performed solo at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC .

Opsvik has performed internationally in the bands of Paul Motian, Anthony Braxton, Tony Malaby, David Binney, and Nate Wooley, and collaborated with Bill Frisell, Brian Blade, Martha Wainwright, Daedelus, Paal Nilssen-Love, and Craig Taborn, among others. Downbeat magazine had this to say about his previous release, Overseas IV; "Eivind Opsvik's new opus belongs to a unique musical universe...”

Michelle Arcila & Eivind Opsvik - A THOUSAND ANCESTORS

Eliot Cardinaux

Pianist, composer, poet, improviser Eliot Cardinaux has worked in the free-music and avant-garde world for over 10 years. His piano sound is characterized by a light-handed touch and tone. His attention to detail in his work is exhibited in the editing process he has developed for his poetry, much like his process for composing, or mixing an album in the studio. His love and study of many musics as well as poetries, but specifically those which innovate, has helped him grow both lyrically and imagistically in his writing and his music.

He is known among the younger musicians on the East Coast and in parts of Europe for his personal approach as an improviser, poet and composer. He has served as poetry editor for the Boston Hassle, an online publication and community organization, and performs with groups and musicians such as American Thicket, the Mat Maneri quartet, the Mudbath Orchestra, Gestures, Osgood/Morgan/Cardinaux, Sandbox, In Example, Allen Lowe, Matthew Shipp, and Joe Morris.

He has penned seven poetry chapbooks to date, including Leaning Against the Mystery, The Virgin Clock, Guide to Torment, Treebones and Riddlepieces, time’schange (Studies in Mist: Abstracts from the Midnight Era), The Gown of Entry, and 21 Leaves. His poems have also been published in Caliban Online, and Big Big Wednesday, and he was recently asked to have his chapbook time’schange released through the Bloodroot Literary Journal as a full collection.

His first album as a leader, American Thicket, including both his piano playing and his poetry, released on July 8th 2016 on Loyal Label, features Mat Maneri (viola), Thomas Morgan (bass), and Flin van Hemmen (drums and percussion).

Eliot Cardinaux - AMERICAN THICKET

Seabrook Power Plant

From the Minutemen’s jazz-centric econo-punk to the bristling twang-rock of the Meat Puppets, Seabrook Power Plant joins a wide array of musical references without ever slipping into the grips of replication. In part due to their unique instrumentation, the band’s unyielding vision and superb ability as a musical unit sets them apart from their contemporaries. Alongside Sun City Girls, Frank Zappa, and Henry Flynt, Seabrook Power Plant is crafting a sonic universe of its own through daringly unusual and adventurous music

Brandon Seabrook on guitar and banjo. Jared Seabrook is on drums and Tom Blancarte plays bass.

Seabrook Power Plant - SEABROOK POWER PLANT II
Seabrook Power Plant - SEABROOK POWER PLANT

Brandon Seabrook also appears on:
Vinnie Sperrazza Apocryphal - HIDE YE IDOLS
Vinnie Sperrazza - APOCRYPHAL
Eivind Opsvik - OVERSEAS V
Eivind Opsvik - OVERSEAS IV

Landline

Landline is a quartet based in New York City with an innovative approach to composition, performance and pedagogy. Their method of composing can be viewed as a metaphor to their overall relationship with music; one that celebrates inclusiveness and the joy of artistic collaboration. The group is made up of some of New York City’s most creative composers and improvisers: Chet Doxas on tenor saxophone, Jacob Sacks on piano, Zack Lober on bass, and Vinnie Sperrazza on drums.
The concept of the group is based on an original composition game that is constantly ongoing within the band. The process is similar to the children’s game “broken-telephone” but in Landline’s case, the group uses musical ideas instead of spoken phrases. Each band member composes a musical idea then passes it down the line to the next group member. By the time the process is completed, each member of the group has edited or added to the original idea as they saw fit, thus making each piece of music and its interpretation highly collaborative.
At their live performances bound copies of the sheet music are made available to the audience so that they may observe the compositions in each stage of its development as the group performs live.
Landline has been active since 2014, performing at many of New York City’s premier listening rooms including, Smalls, Korzo, the Drawing Room and NuBlu. The combined musical experience that each member brings to this group includes past and present associations with such luminaries as: Carla Bley, Paul Motian, Butch Morris, Ethan Iverson, Dave Douglas, and many more.

Landline - LANDLINE

Vinnie Sperrazza

Vinnie Sperrazza is a Brooklyn-based jazz drummer. His first album as a bandleader and composer, Apocryphal, was released by Loyal Label on September 9, 2014, the follow up came out in 2017 and was titled “Hide Ye Idols”.
Originally from a small town south of Utica, New York, Vin moved to NYC a million years ago, just after the glaciers melted but before Tower Records closed.
He's played lots and lots of good music with many amazing musicians, but he feels really self-conscious about dropping names and all that so he's just not going to do it, save mentioning the late great Mr. James Williams, pianist, with whom Vin played many memorable concerts.
He's in lots of bands, spent a recent summer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as an actor (he played a drummer- not much of a stretch- and was definitely NOT in a Shakespeare play, groatsworthy though he feels himself to be), is on some cool records that have just come out (Dana Lyn/Vincent D'Onofrio Slim Bone Head Volt, Jacob Garchik Ye Olde), and as of this writing, is preparing for the third recording of this Apocryphal band.

Vinnie Sperrazza - APOCRYPHAL
Vinnie Sperrazza Apocryphal - HIDE YE IDOLS

Vinnie also appears on:
Landline - LANDLINE

Jeff Davis

Drummer Jeff Davis hails from Greeley, Colorado, but has been living and making music in New York for the past 15 years. A powerful improviser and compelling composer, Davis has contributed as a sideman to a great number of important music projects, in addition to successfully leading his own bands. Jeff Davis showcases his command of a deeply focused and distinctly improvisational style. Troy Collins (All About Jazz) says that “like many of his generation, his writing encompasses a number of genres, yet Davis understands the importance of creating a context for such diversity.”
He has been described by critics both as a force of nature and as a textural accompanist. His Loyal Label debut record as a leader; We Sleep Outside, is both maximalist and minimalist, go figure.

Jeff Davis - WE SLEEP OUTSIDE

Jeff also appears on:
Eivind Opsvik - OVERSEAS III
Rocket Engine - WHAT IS THIS THAT STANDS BEFORE ME?

Rocket Engine

A bunch of friends and a who's who from the experimental, indie rock and jazz scenes in New York City interpret the songs of the originators of heavy metal ; Black Sabbath.

A marriage of sorts of metal and free improv.

Rocket Engine’s members has been creating music with such other bands as Dynamite Club, TV on the Radio, Antibalas, Opsvik & Jennings, The Monkees, Fat Mama, Beyondo and The UP.

Rocket Engine - WHAT IS THIS THAT STANDS BEFORE ME?

Rich Johnson

A trumpeter by trade, Johnson also works with acoustic guitars, pedal steel guitar and pianos which he blends in with electronics and samples. With influences stretching from Bob Dylan to Low and Fugazi, the scope of his work could only be wide. His Loyal Label record, Up The Turret Mill, was described by themilkfactory.co.uk as “a vastly eclectic and thrilling collection”

Beyond his solo work with Up the Turret Mil, Johnson has contributed as a sideman to a number of projects.  He also curates a music series at the Brooklyn performance space IBeam and is heavily involved in the Font Festival. Mr. Johnson grew up in Knife River in Minnesota.

Rich Johnson - UP THE TURRET MIL

Rich also appears on:
Opsvik & Jennings - A DREAM I USED TO REMEMBER

Eivind Opsvik

is a Norwegian musician who’s been living in New York for over 20 years. His main instrument is the bass, but he also thoroughly enjoys experiments with recording and mixing, playing lap steel guitar, old organs, drums and composing music..
His main projects are Overseas, Opsvik & Jennings and his solo project.
He has released five records with his band; Overseas (the fifth in the series came out in 2017) where he writes all the music. The chamber-pop duo Opsvik & Jennings released their fourth album; Lune, in 2015 as a one-song-monthly digital release.
In November 2014 Eivind released a box set featuring his solo music; A Thousand Ancestors, it's an audio/visual release in collaboration with photographer Michelle Arcila: A ten-track vinyl LP, ten photographic prints, each of which correspond to a track on the record, and a poster.

Eivind Opsvik - OVERSEAS V
Eivind Opsvik & Michelle Arcila - A THOUSAND ANCESTORS
Eivind Opsvik - OVERSEAS IV
Eivind Opsvik - OVERSEAS III

Eivind also appears on:
Opsvik & Jennings - LUNE
Vinnie Sperrazza – APOCRYPHAL
Vinnie Sperrazza Apocryphal - HIDE YE IDOLS
Jeff Davis - WE SLEEP OUTSIDE
Opsvik & Jennings - A DREAM I USED TO REMEMBER
Rocket Engine - WHAT IS THIS THAT STANDS BEFORE ME?
Sacks/Opsvik/Maneri/Motian - TWO MILES A DAY

Jacob Sacks

plays the piano and on occasion also organs, harpsichord and old electric pianos. He grew up in Monroe, Michigan, but moved to New York City right out of high school in the late 90's, since then he's made music with, among others, Clark Terry, Paul Motian, Joe Maneri, Charles Gayle, Eddie Henderson, Brian Blade, Tony Malaby, David Binney, Craig Taborn, Dan Weiss, Ben Monder, Kenny Wollesen, and Matt Wilson.

Current projects include the quartet “Two Miles A Day” co-led with bassist Eivind Opsvik, featuring violist Mat Maneri and drummer Paul Motian; and a trio with drummer Dan Weiss and bassist Thomas Morgan.

Jacob is also a magnificent teacher of music and bakes a mean cake.

Sacks/Opsvik/Maneri/Motian - TWO MILES A DAY
Landline – LANDLINE

Jacob also appears on:
Eivind Opsvik - OVERSEAS V
Eivind Opsvik - OVERSEAS IV
Eivind Opsvik - OVERSEAS III