Fourth Atlas

“Fourth Atlas” documents the deep and instinctive rapport between saxophonist‑clarinetist Ken Vandermark and drummer‑percussionist Tim Daisy, a partnership shaped by decades of shared work across Chicago’s free‑jazz and improvised‑music scenes. Recorded at Electrical Audio in January 2023, the album captures the duo in a state of heightened clarity, where structure and spontaneity merge into a single, continuous current. Vandermark’s lines move with a sculptural sense of form, shifting from muscular tenor declarations to chamber‑like clarinet meditations, always suggesting an underlying architecture even at their most open. Daisy responds with a multidimensional approach to percussion, orchestrating his kit with a composer’s ear for contrast, color, and momentum. Together they create music that feels both deliberate and alive, as if each piece were discovering its own shape in real time. “Fourth Atlas” stands as a testament to their long‑standing creative dialogue—an album where every exchange feels inevitable, earned, and sharpened by years of collaboration. It is a powerful addition to the Not Two Records catalog, reaffirming the duo’s place at the center of contemporary improvised music.