ABOUT
Tropos is a collective ensemble of improviser-composers featuring four distinctive voices in Brooklyn’s creative music scene: Phillip Golub (piano), Ledah Finck (violin), Yuma Uesaka (clarinets), and Aaron Edgcomb (drums/percussion). Their peculiar instrumentation and collaborative approach are defining characteristics of their work as an ensemble. As recipients of Chamber Music America’s 2023 Ensemble Forward grant, Tropos spent a year developing their forthcoming album Switches (Endectomorph Music) under the mentorship of acclaimed saxophonist and composer Darius Jones. Tropos’ members call their aesthetic “outer-space chamber music” for the way their compositions push the boundaries between new music, jazz, noise, and beyond.
Tropos’ debut album, Axioms // 75ab, was released in May 2020 on Biophilia Records. Featuring an earlier iteration of the ensemble — Phillip Golub (piano), Mario Fabrizio (drums/percussion), Raef Sengupta (alto saxophone), Zach Lavine (bass), and Laila Smith (voice) — Axioms // 75ab paired compositions by Golub, Fabrizio, and Sengupta alongside those of Anthony Braxton. Thom Jurek of AllMusic called Axioms // 75ab “an auspicious debut, filled with exhilarating energy, charisma, and a canny ability to transform the complex and even inscrutable into sophisticated yet joyful noise.” Steve Smith selected Axioms as his album of the week in his Night after Night blog and said that “Tropos plays with assurance, charisma, and infectious enthusiasm,” while Phil Freeman wrote “This is their debut, and they’re making a powerful statement” in StereoGum.
Tropos’ debut album, Axioms // 75ab, was released in May 2020 on Biophilia Records. Featuring an earlier iteration of the ensemble — Phillip Golub (piano), Mario Fabrizio (drums/percussion), Raef Sengupta (alto saxophone), Zach Lavine (bass), and Laila Smith (voice) — Axioms // 75ab paired compositions by Golub, Fabrizio, and Sengupta alongside those of Anthony Braxton. Thom Jurek of AllMusic called Axioms // 75ab “an auspicious debut, filled with exhilarating energy, charisma, and a canny ability to transform the complex and even inscrutable into sophisticated yet joyful noise.” Steve Smith selected Axioms as his album of the week in his Night after Night blog and said that “Tropos plays with assurance, charisma, and infectious enthusiasm,” while Phil Freeman wrote “This is their debut, and they’re making a powerful statement” in StereoGum.
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Giovanni Russonello – NEW YORK TIMES (US): The compositions of Anthony Braxton tend to be fastidious and wily works: They are carefully, almost obsessively built, but with room to move around; the performer also becomes a composer. That feeling — of a writhing text, something almost escaping its own language — became inspiration for Tropos, a quintet of young improvisers and composers who first met as students at New England Conservatory. On their debut album, “Axioms // 75 AB,” they take inspiration from Braxton’s method; half of its tracks are his compositions, and the other half are original pieces inspired by him. One of those, “Of the Trellis,” a smoky piece by the drummer Mario Layne Fabrizio, becomes a fertile meeting ground for Laila Smith’s voice and Raef Sengupta’s alto saxophone. (read more)
Mike Shanley - JAZZ TIMES (US): Profile in September 2020 issue (read more)
Phil Freeman - STEREOGUM (US): Tropos are a new group of young improvising musicians out of the New England Conservatory. This is their debut, and they’re making a powerful statement by juxtaposing five pieces they created themselves against six versions of Anthony Braxton compositions from the 1970s. (read more)
Thom Jurek - ALL MUSIC (US): The album's most compelling feature lies in how well Tropos integrate Braxton's influence and intent in the creation of a unique musical identity. With humor, high-powered energy, sudden radical rhythmic and harmonic shifts, and a kinetic range of dynamics, Tropos enthusiastically traverse the murky terrain between the voices of the soloist and the collective. [...] Tropos' Axioms // 75 AB is an auspicious debut, filled with exhilarating energy, charisma, and a canny ability to transform the complex and even inscrutable into sophisticated yet joyful noise. Braxton turns 75 in 2020, and one can think of few better gifts than this tribute to his influence. (read more)
Alex Dutilh - FRANCE MUSIQUE (FR): Tropos offers the last iteration of this deep heritage, with striking uniqueness. (read more)
Steve Smith - ON THE RECORD (US): Now, here comes Tropos, a brash young band jointly led by pianist Phillip Golub and drummer Mario Layne Fabrizio. The collective cohesion of this quintet – completed by vocalist Laila Smith, saxophonist Raef Sengupta, and bassist Zachary Lavine – extends to its vivacious interpretations of six Braxton compositions from the early ’70s. Whether navigating the rarefied chamber-music decorum of “23E” and “23H,” the mercurial gestures of “6I,” or the infectious swagger and glide of “40B,” Tropos plays with assurance, charisma, and infectious enthusiasm. (read more)
Tor Hammerø - NETTAVISEN LIVSSTI (NO): There are lots of plants in the jazz-garden. The one presented to us by the American band Tropos is of the extremely rare kind, but without a doubt exciting. (read more)
AVANT MUSIC NEWS (US): Even if Axioms // 75 AB had nothing to do with Anthony Braxton, it would still be a compelling release. But the addition of the Braxton material puts this one over the top. Well done, indeed. (read more)
Ken Waxman - JAZZ WORLD (US): Not only exemplary music, these discs confirm the idea that so-called serious music will be enriched with many more timbral flavors as the 21st Century advances. (read more)
O'S PLACE JAZZ MAGAZINE (US): Shadow Music is the sophomore release from this band of New England Conservatory graduates. [...] Their music is dynamic and expressive in both what they play and what they don’t. They draw inspiration from Braxton, Coleman and Taylor but explore their own imaginations for five appreciably different compositions. It is too early to suggest it’s the best free jazz recordings of the year but this one is certainly up for consideration! (read more)
Mike Shanley - JAZZ TIMES (US): Profile in September 2020 issue (read more)
Phil Freeman - STEREOGUM (US): Tropos are a new group of young improvising musicians out of the New England Conservatory. This is their debut, and they’re making a powerful statement by juxtaposing five pieces they created themselves against six versions of Anthony Braxton compositions from the 1970s. (read more)
Thom Jurek - ALL MUSIC (US): The album's most compelling feature lies in how well Tropos integrate Braxton's influence and intent in the creation of a unique musical identity. With humor, high-powered energy, sudden radical rhythmic and harmonic shifts, and a kinetic range of dynamics, Tropos enthusiastically traverse the murky terrain between the voices of the soloist and the collective. [...] Tropos' Axioms // 75 AB is an auspicious debut, filled with exhilarating energy, charisma, and a canny ability to transform the complex and even inscrutable into sophisticated yet joyful noise. Braxton turns 75 in 2020, and one can think of few better gifts than this tribute to his influence. (read more)
Alex Dutilh - FRANCE MUSIQUE (FR): Tropos offers the last iteration of this deep heritage, with striking uniqueness. (read more)
Steve Smith - ON THE RECORD (US): Now, here comes Tropos, a brash young band jointly led by pianist Phillip Golub and drummer Mario Layne Fabrizio. The collective cohesion of this quintet – completed by vocalist Laila Smith, saxophonist Raef Sengupta, and bassist Zachary Lavine – extends to its vivacious interpretations of six Braxton compositions from the early ’70s. Whether navigating the rarefied chamber-music decorum of “23E” and “23H,” the mercurial gestures of “6I,” or the infectious swagger and glide of “40B,” Tropos plays with assurance, charisma, and infectious enthusiasm. (read more)
Tor Hammerø - NETTAVISEN LIVSSTI (NO): There are lots of plants in the jazz-garden. The one presented to us by the American band Tropos is of the extremely rare kind, but without a doubt exciting. (read more)
AVANT MUSIC NEWS (US): Even if Axioms // 75 AB had nothing to do with Anthony Braxton, it would still be a compelling release. But the addition of the Braxton material puts this one over the top. Well done, indeed. (read more)
Ken Waxman - JAZZ WORLD (US): Not only exemplary music, these discs confirm the idea that so-called serious music will be enriched with many more timbral flavors as the 21st Century advances. (read more)
O'S PLACE JAZZ MAGAZINE (US): Shadow Music is the sophomore release from this band of New England Conservatory graduates. [...] Their music is dynamic and expressive in both what they play and what they don’t. They draw inspiration from Braxton, Coleman and Taylor but explore their own imaginations for five appreciably different compositions. It is too early to suggest it’s the best free jazz recordings of the year but this one is certainly up for consideration! (read more)