Sick Gazelle Issues Haunting, Improvisational LP, ‘Odum’ (album stream) (premiere)

Sick Gazelle issues its debut album, Odum, on 3 May via War Criminal Records. The trio is a collaboration between Chicago underground masterminds Eric Block (Veloce) and Bruce Lamont (Yakuza, Corrections House). A strictly improvisational duo at first with Block on guitar and Lamont on saxophone and vocals, the pair quickly began gigging around their hometown. Eventually the friends encountered Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and invited him to add drums to the mix.

In the Windy City to work on another project at Sempahore Recording Studios (where block worked as engineer and manager), Shelley had a day off and, at the invitation of Block and Lamont, joined in on an hour-long improvisation. The result is a four-track release of ghostly, experimental jazz that sets a new standard for music of its kind. A deeply tasteful and meditative recording, Odum seems destined to become a touchstone in improvisational music in the future and is a singular and imaginative statement from three masters in the form.