In June of 2013, a new label for improvised music was born. After years of working with other labels in the “business,” saxophonist and label founder Dave Rempis saw the writing on the wall that many of those outlets for underground music would soon go belly up. With shifting modes of consumption and distribution due to the wave of digital options drowning out traditional music media, it became clear that artists working outside of the mainstream would have to take over their own production and distribution in the same way that many had already taken over the logistics of booking concerts and tours, and managing their own PR through social media outlets. It was simply no longer viable for most of those labels to continue.
With that, Aerophonic Records took form. And thanks to the guidance and support of so many friends, artists, fellow label owners, recording engineers, designers, retail outlets, writers, publications, and most of all the incredibly supportive audience that’s come together around the label, 13 years later Aerophonic is still blowing strong against the headwinds of the contemporary music “business.”
So we’re especially thrilled to present the 50th (!!!) hard copy release on Aerophonic Records – Clocking The Wheel by Ballister.
A hallmark of Aerophonic since it’s inception has been documenting longtime working bands as they develop across the years. These include projects like The Rempis Percussion Quartet, Rempis/Abrams/Ra + Baker, Kuzu, Dave Rempis/Tomeka Reid/Joshua Abrams, From Wolves to Whales, and Wheelhouse. And at the top of that long-running list is Ballister – Rempis’ freewheeling trio with Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. In fact, even before the first two official Aerophonic releases hit in June 2013, the Ballister release Mi Casa Es En Fuego from earlier that year served as the pilot episode for the label.
So for our 50th, it only made sense to continue continue exploring that throughline, but with one very special twist. For this live recording from Brooklyn’s Roulette on their 2025 US Tour, Ballister is joined by the ubiquitous and inexhaustible bassist Luke Stewart.
There are very few musicians, let alone bass players, who have the stamina to keep up with Ballister – one of the fieriest units of their era. Most folks would get plowed under by the energetic and telepathic rapport the trio has spent years developing. But Stewart doesn’t flinch. From the start he’s deep in the mix, hacking his way through the dense foliage the trio likes to explore, and forming an instantly cohesive unit with Nilssen-Love that launches the higher voices of cello and saxophone upwards into the stratosphere. His propulsive energy is a tightly wound rubber band – elastic, pliable, flexible, but always maintaining enough tensile strength to bounce off like a trampoline.
This was no surprise to the trio. Their first encounter with Stewart happened at the legendary Washington DC home for creative music Rhizome on their last US tour in 2022. That gig blew the roof off the community-oriented and artist-centric organization that Stewart helped to found, a space that’s been ground zero for the DC scene for more than a decade. When they came back to the US in 2025, there was no doubt they needed to recreate that cyclone. Thankfully, their concert at Roulette provided the opportunity.
So, without further ado : AR050 | CLOCKING THE WHEEL. And we send our utmost appreciation to everyone out there who has supported Aerophonic across thirteen years and fifty records! We hope you enjoy it enough to make it to 100 !!!
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Dave Rempis – soprano/alto/tenor /baritone saxophone
Fred Lonberg- Holm – cello
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums
- special guest Luke Stewart – bass
Recorded April 3rd, 2025 at at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY by Eriq Robinson
Mixed by Gordon Comstock, mastered by Lasse Marhaug
Artwork & design by Lasse Marhaug
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Matt Mehlan, and the entire crew at Roulette
