The Cime Interdisciplinary Music Ensemble by Cime

Some art collectives are completely decentralized, an informal gathering of creatives working loosely in tandem. But in other groups, a singular muse leads the rest, with a crystalized vision inspiring those around her to partake in the act of creation. The Cime Interdisciplinary Music Ensemble, with vocalist, writer, and composer Monty Cime at the center of the experimental project, exemplifies the latter. Her band features a number of talented friends and musicians, their collaborative effort posing an invitation that welcomes the listener into their flourishing and vibrant community. Following up 2023’s lo-fi noise punk record Laurels of the End of History, the new The Cime Interdisciplinary Music Ensemble is bigger, louder, angrier, more vulnerable, and more joyous, bursting at the seams with emotionally volatile arrangements that straddle the line between exuberant chaos and careful composition.

Pulling influences from Honduran folk traditions, jazz, psychedelia, and math rock, this record is a unique take on progressive music that goes beyond surface-level virtuosity. At the core of The Cime Interdisciplinary Music Ensemble is an overwhelming sense of urgency and desperation. Dynamic saxophone solos and Monty’s frantic vocal performances highlight the tension and anxiety inherent to existence as a marginalized person. But it isn't only the band’s commentary on our current state of Culture War-driven political strife that creates this dynamic; it's also the artists’ awareness of mortality. Death colors every song on The Cime Interdisciplinary Music Ensemble. From Monty’s own demise in “A Tranny’s Appeal to Heaven”, to the violent death of refugees crossing the Rio Grande in “The North”, the album is enriched with personal significance and political passion. Self-destructive urges are flipped on their head to become directed at authority, teeth bared and snapping back at the oppressive hand that feeds. With a firey will to power celebrating confrontational approaches to controversy, Cime pushes past the allure of defeatism to laugh and spit in the face of injustice.

- Kalen