NYC-based saxophonist Alden Hellmuth is set to release her new album Tether on June 26, 2026 via Nils Frahm’s LEITER imprint. The song “Face the Wall” includes percussion from Justin Brown who some may know from playing with Thundercat. The song has a syncopated rhythm that sometimes also feels like it could go off the edge in any moment. Hellmuth accents the percussion line at first and then plays over while the bass maintains a tonal presence before it seems to come apart in time for Hellmuth to come back in with more insistent saxophone tracing a scale with extended technique. All the instruments indulge in passages that in another piece of music might be a solo but here they all contribute to a sense of heading into musical entropy yet reeling it in for something coherent if building toward a conclusion that maximizes the intensity of pace. The net effect is punk energy channeled into what often sounds like hard bob free jazz expert technical chops allowed to roam freer than musicians with such skillsets often do. Listen to “Face the Wall” on YouTube and follow Alden Hellmuth at the links below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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