Trumpet Player's Ethereal Soundscape Captivates Listeners

In October 2025, trumpet player and electroacoustic composer Chris Williams released his latest album "Odu: Vibration II," a captivating 39-minute suite that defies easy genre classification. Recorded live at New York's Roulette Intermedium with saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi and trombonist Kalia Vandever, the album blends ambient atmospheres, otherworldly soundscaping, and some of the cleanest, purest tones that brass and reeds can produce.

Depending on where the listener finds themselves in the album's sprawling expanse, "Odu: Vibration II" might resemble a drone piece, an improvisation, or a group meditation. Williams has described the work as a metaphorical descent into a cave, with the vastness and mythic dimensions of the experience captured in the music.

Despite its live origins, the album doesn't particularly sound like a concert recording, perhaps due to the extensive effects processing used by the three musicians. The airy, ethereal quality of the music feels more in keeping with the album's expansive, enveloping fusion of genres, evoking a sense of ritual, seance, or even ego death as the boundaries between instruments and players dissolve.