Marfa, Texas–based multidisciplinary artist Rob Mazurek is on the latest episode of Kreative Kontrol with Vish Khanna, who says this "tremendously gifted" artist has created "one of the finest and most vivid albums of 2020" in the new Exploding Star Orchestra album, Dimensional Stardust, released in November on International Anthem and Nonesuch Records. You can hear their conversation here:

For Dimensional Stardust, Mazurek arranged his pieces for eleven musicians, including Jeff Parker, and commissioned his long-time lyrics collaborator Damon Locks to draft original texts for the songs. The album recalls an array of Mazurek’s symphonic­ influences, from Béla Bartók to Morton Feldman to Gil Evans to Sun Ra to Pedro Santos to Bill Dixon to The Art Ensemble of Chicago. Opting to focus on tight ensemble orchestration over passages of open improvisation, he distills an orchestra of explosive improvisers into a graceful group exercise in melodic minimalism. You can hear it and pick up a copy here.