Vertigo by Ivan The Tolerable Quintet

When you can no longer trust your senses, your experience of proprioception, what can you trust? As the smallest sensory organs inside your skull malfunction, microscopic calcium crystals dislodged in your ear canal convince you that the room is spinning. It is this sensation that is captured on the new album Vertigo by the Ivan The Tolerable Quintet, a psychedelic jazz release with a disorienting approach that defies the laws of gravity. Flute and ocarina trills dance together above shimmery droning electronica, creating expansive scintillating soundscapes that feel like floating in space. These celestial sounds are contrasted by familiar field recordings, birds chirping and windy breezes grounding the record in the here and now, this point of orientation anchoring the body in presently lived experience while the Quintet spins further into dizziness. Saxophone solos accompany complex cello cascades, tickling the stereocilia, the microcosm inside your cochlea reflecting the macrocosmic spinning of the Earth. As you're carried deeper into inner space, the Ivan the Tolerable Quintet invites the listener to give in to the sensation of freefall, their experimentation a map deserving of further exploration.