Our Savings

by ZRL

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$10 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Limited to 200 copies

Includes unlimited streaming of Our Savings via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

edition of 200

$12.99 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Our Savings via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

edition of 500

$19.99 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Our Savings via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

edition of 200

$24.99 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Our Savings via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

edition of 7 4 remaining

$49.99 USD or more

1.	Daylight Savings 02:37	buy track
2.	Remarkable Savings 03:43	buy track
3.	Our Savings 05:24	buy track
4.	Hardly Slept 03:59	buy track
5.	ATM 03:04	buy track
6.	Butterish 04:42	buy track
7.	Recent Ornithology 03:46	buy track
8.	Telling The Difference Between Us 03:33	buy track

about

Were you to isolate the je ne sais quoi of Chicago music, you might identify an openness among its musicians to experiment. Chicago trio ZRL (Zachary Good, clarinet, recorder; Ryan Packard, percussion, electronics; Lia Kohl, cello), whose improvised music suggests a striking range of musical idioms, extends this lineage. Individually, their work runs broad and deep, and prioritizes improvisation as a crucial part of their creative practices. The three are highly regarded composers, instrumentalists and arrangers, and have collaborated with artists including International Contemporary Ensemble, Makaya McCraven, Whitney, Circuit des Yeux, and Natural Information Society. Our Savings, their new album and first LP, draws on the spirit of such collaborations, bringing together classical frameworks and sonic explorations, sliding from acoustic ambience to cacophonous clatter to quietly virtuosic displays of musical invention.

ZRL recorded Our Savings during a residency at Edgar Miller’s Glasner Studio in Chicago, and the album draws influence from the space in which it was recorded: a cavernous room, trimmed with stained glass, called the Garden of Paradise. Close considerations reveal Easter eggs throughout: wild creatures living in windows and ceiling beams, scrap tile lining a fireplace. This freespirited blend is characteristic of Miller, who produced hundreds of commercial commissions, many in Chicago and its environs, and was highly regarded in his time as a master of seemingly any medium: printmaking, painting, woodwork, batik, graphic design, cutlery, stained glass. Like Miller, ZRL works without sketches, synthesizing a broad array of creative lineages and approaches. Together, the trio’s instruments wash, crash, sprint, glide and divide, darting around and between each other, like they’re playing hide-and-seek.

Even in a space as generative as the Glasner, the challenges of focused group improvisation remained. “Our solution,” says the trio, “was to treat each take as a performance, interspersing recording with crowding in the tiny kitchen to simulate a greenroom and filing out to the ‘stage.’” The results are playful and textural yet austere, often evoking other sound sources entirely. “Recent Ornithology,” insistent and jarring, evokes bagpipes, sirens, busted windshield wipers. Between "Daylight Savings” and "Remarkable Savings," Good oscillates between soft drones and piercing, frenetic octaval hurdles, recalling ice cream trucks and baseball cards in bicycle spokes. Meanwhile, “Our Savings” conjures Arthur Russell’s Tower of Meaning presented by an outer space ensemble; as Packard’s electronics collide with his bandmates’ chordal drones, Kohl’s bowing quickens and disintegrates, like a rocket on reentry.

The band approached recording with a visual quality: “We were throwing a moment at the wall and seeing what shapes we could make.” On occasion, their instruments trade roles: on “ATM” or “Butterish," Kohl’s bowing takes on a percussive quality, while Packard charts melodic movement and Good's clarinet evokes a cello or synthesized sound wave. ZRL's music incorporates the sounds of their environment into their considerations: someone power washing the building next door, a flock of birds. There’s a clear parallel between their album and Miller’s work, about which, in 1932, Architecture magazine wrote that “the composition emerges full-blown, with superb finish, from the material itself.” No surprise that Our Savings emerged in much the same way. “We were in our own worlds, often totally in sync, often creating spaces unknown to us at the time, conjuring objects and colors and references that we only hear later, now, with you.”

credits

released July 30, 2021

Zachary Good: clarinets, recorders
Lia Kohl: cello
Ryan Packard: percussion

Recorded at Edgar Miller’s Glasner Studio, Chicago IL (May 2019)

Mixed and mastered by Matt Mehlan at the Stuudio

Album design by Sonnenzimmer

Our thanks:

The Edgar Miller Foundation, the ghost of Edgar Miller, Jeff Kruse, Jordan Reyes, Eli Winter, Matt Mehlan, and the birds who sang on the album.

license

about

ZRL Chicago, Illinois

ZRL is Zachary Good, Ryan Packard, and Lia Kohl. Zachary plays clarinets and recorders. Ryan plays percussion and electronics. Lia plays cello and sometimes sings through a megaphone. They make their music in the moment, in a practice not unlike being in a three person canoe. They formed in 2014 out of mutual love, trust, and admiration for one another. ... more

zrlmusic.com

contact / help

Contact ZRL

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like ZRL, you may also like:

a softer focus
by claire rousay

supported by 27 fans who also own “Our Savings”

Evocative and engrossing. burntstick
go to album
Too Small to be a Plain
by Lia Kohl

supported by 25 fans who also own “Our Savings”

Nothing feels hidden in Kohl's music. Sounds may combine, but their individuality remains, along with their strong sense of purpose. Everything feels as if it was meant to exist together, without the need for cheats. Some of it has an explanation, like the audio-to-midi mixtures on 'Join Me, Everybody'. But some of the ways that this music functions goes beyond any attribution, and it is simply glorious. Alex Tripp
go to album
Recipe For a Boiled Egg
by Macie Stewart & Lia Kohl

supported by 19 fans who also own “Our Savings”

There’s room for improvisation in the style of “Perfect (Every Time)” – focused, with broken vocals and bow strokes. But also for a direction in the style of “Open Winded” – a film-like, emotional melody with beautiful harmonies. This is an open, light, and bold album; spontaneous music, full of fantasy and intriguing details. More: http://noweidzieodmorza.com/14428-the-best-of-astral-spirits/ Jakub Knera
go to album
Exit Rumination
by C.Diab

C. Diab describes “Exit Rumination” as “a sonic exorcism,” and its dark, swelling songs are equal parts catharsis and tension. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 26, 2018
go to album
Holographic
by Daniel Wohl

featured on Bandcamp Radio Feb 16, 2016
go to album
Bellowing Sun
by Mind Over Mirrors

Mind Over Mirrors deliver a dizzying psych-synth 2xLP with rich, layered vocals and spiraling constellations of electronics. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 29, 2018
go to album
...and then there's this
by Artifacts

supported by 18 fans who also own “Our Savings”

3 great musicians! Rightly praised in Downbeat magazine January 2022 pschmid1
go to album