Come celebrate the debut record of sound and vision artist Chad Kouri a week before release. While the previous fifteen years saw many accolades for Chicago artist Chad Kouri’s visual art and community work –– the past 5 years have seen a return and an all-consuming devotion to his music practice. Inspired by discussions with polymath composer, improviser, instrument maker and collage artist Douglas R. Ewart (of AACM fame), Kouri began to integrate improvisations on the instrument of his upbringing, the saxophone, with his visual art practice –– which focuses on the healing powers of color and abstraction. The result of this devotion is Mixed, Kouri’s debut full-length.

Some may relate this music to Jon Hassell’s definition of Fourth World Music, or Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) tagline “ancient to the future.” Kouri’s work on Mixed was spurred by mentorship and deep contemplation of concept and intention with elder, and virtuoso drummer Vincent Davis (Roscoe Mitchell, AACM), alongside study of technique and performance approach with young sonic scientist and Grammy-nominated saxophonist Isaiah Collier. The mixed-generational approach has been vital to his growth, pairing time-tested boundary-pushing approaches with new, innovative and thought provoking systems and concepts. Clearly, the rich history and presence of Chicago’s jazz and creative music scenes have helped to shape this music, from the Art Ensemble of Chicago to jaimie branch to Ben Lamar Gay. And Kouri’s work fits, both aesthetically and emotionally, alongside Shabaka Hutchings, Andre 3000’s New Blue Sun, and Surya Botofasina as well as predecessors like Brian Eno, Laraaji and Pauline Oliveros. But Mixed cannot be anything but his own, for it is an ode to Kouri’s own mixed-ness –– not only in ancestry, but also his identity, his art and music practice and his globally-conscious approach to life and living. His unwavering focus on abundance reminds us of one thing: We all contain multitudes and there is no better time to celebrate them than NOW.

On Mixed, Kouri –– whose name means “priest” in Arabic –– explores his mixed approach to spirit work. Utilizing sharply honed improvisational skills and intuition he conjures melodies and rhythms imbued with healing energy, like a prayer or meditation or rebellion, that often feel familiar and brand new, all at once. Mixed is populated by a spectrum of sounds — simple shakers and bells and wood blocks, the chime of a credit card machine, ringtones, voice, room noise, field recordings, and of course melodies on the tenor saxophone as well as a Korg Monologue.