secular music group: volume 1
Francisco Espregueira
Originally released by Chicago's Love All Day in 2024 and now reissued by 2 Headed Deer Records, Volume 1 by Secular Music Group emerged from the creative nucleus of Christian Ruggiero and Yannis Panos. These two, veterans of film and television composition, sought to create music in the tradition of old: a group of musicians – completed by guitarist Ted Morcaldi, reedist Greg Lapine, and percussionist Tim Walsh – playing live to the magnetic embrace of tape. This collaborative endeavor channels their shared passions for free-jazz's liberation, the evocative soundscapes of library music, and the hypnotic repetitions of American minimalism. Each musician brought sketches to the table, serving as springboards for improvisational journeys captured on a vintage tape machine, a poignant tribute from Ruggiero to a departed friend who bequeathed it to him.
The resulting sound on Volume 1 resonates with the pastoral beauty of UK jazz, the stark intensity of the European avant-garde, and the inspiring instrumental ensembles of the 60s and 70s, finding kinship with contemporary artists like Hampshire & Foat and Matthew Halsall's Gondwana Orchestra. The creative process, as described by Ruggiero, was driven by a desire to explore new sonic territories, a convergence of individual musical interests sparked by Morcaldi's suggestion to record with Ruggiero's live tape-loop setup. With minimal pre-production, the musicians embraced improvisation, guided by the simple yet profound instruction to create gestures that simultaneously evoked the sensual, the spiritual, and the psychedelic. The contributions of each member, from Lapine's sensitive woodwinds to Morcaldi's textural guitars and Panos's evocative brass and keys, coalesce into a record that exists in its own idiosyncratic, genre-bending space. Available on vinyl - supreme record.