Chicago Waves

In late November of 2018, long-time collaborators (& life-long Los Angelenos) Carlos Niño &

Miguel Atwood-Ferguson flew to Chicago to participate in the album release performance of

Makaya McCraven's Universal Beings. Just 11 months prior, Carlos & Miguel were part of

recording the 'Los Angeles Side' of Universal Beings at Jeff Parker's house in Altadena,

California, and this performance in Chicago would be the first time that all of the musicians

reunited to re-learn and perform the music they'd collectively composed during those sessions.

The Universal Beings performance and preceding days of rehearsal took place at the iconic

South Shore Cultural Center - a historic gilded-era urban club-turned-public facility deep on

Chicago's Southside and right along the reedy shore of Lake Michigan, giving the building's

backdrop an infinitely blue Northern expanse.

The night after the performance at South Shore Cultural Center, friend of International Anthem

Jeremy Cunningham was scheduled to debut new music (The Weather Up There, which has since

been released on Northern Spy Records) at our HQ, Co-Prosperity Sphere. Since Carlos &

Miguel were still in Chicago (before they'd head to NYC for a second Universal Beings performance

at Le Poisson Rouge), we invited them to do a Special Guest duo set to open the show.

At the conclusion of their 44-minute improvised set that night, Carlos spontaneously dubbed the

piece "Chicago Waves." His proclamation gave us the distinct impression that the previous days

spent in South Shore (and the many commutes to-and-from, along Lake Shore Drive) had

imprinted the deep blue vastness of early-Winter Lake Michigan into Carlos & Miguel's respective

& collective consciousness, and thus, into the spirit of the luminous music they created that night

at Co-Prosperity Sphere. We at IARC are happy to share Chicago Waves with the world in a time

when peace-bringing sound and a sweet memory of live music, sparkling inside the collective breath

of community in community space, has potential to provide the utmost nourishment.