YOWZERS

Description

Yowzers is the new album from Chicago composer, improviser, and musical folklorist Ben LaMar Gay. Ben LaMar Gay first gained wide recognition with *Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun* (2018), a compilation of fifteen diverse tracks drawn from seven previously unreleased albums. This release marked a turning point, highlighting his singular approach to music. He followed up with *Open Arms To Open Us* (2021), a critically acclaimed song cycle, then with *Certain Reveries* (2022), a free and vibrant electronic work. Very active within the International Anthem label, he collaborates with artists such as Makaya McCraven, Jaimie Branch, and Damon Locks, and participates in numerous experimental projects including those of Mike Reed, Joshua Abrams, and Theaster Gates. At the heart of his artistic approach is a strong commitment to revisiting narratives of the past, which he reinterprets through a keen personal awareness, aiming to circulate information in a sensitive and embodied form. This spirit animates *Yowzers*, his new album, featuring a quartet (Tommaso Moretti, Matthew Davis, Will Faber), with guest Rob Frye and a mini-choir comprised of Ayanna Woods, Tramaine Parker, and Ugochi Nwaogwugwu. The album fuses inventive polyrhythms, discreet folk melodies, and multiple references—from the Liberation Music Orchestra to Bukka White—in a freely improvised approach. The result is a work deeply rooted in American heritage, yet transcending it with a universal and poetic vision.