
ben zucker
composition/improvisation/sound
design/instruments/etc.
Albums as leader/soloist/producer/etc.

After Along The Way
A Red Thread, May 2023
"After Along The Way" is a refraction of musical travels, combining sounds from Poschiavo (CH), Buffalo (NY), and Chicago (IL) into a new gentle epic through unreal places. The album threads together field recordings, acoustic percussion, pianos, brass, and ambient production.

Semiterritory
ears&eyes records, September 2022.
"Exploration and energy define this record, Semiterritory–even in moments of space and quiet, there is an omnipresent sense of flow and momentum, across compositional sections previously more didactically separated. If one listened to the albums Fifth Season and Semiterritory side by side, the source material would be apparent, yet all the more remarkable for how much further the band takes it in a live setting."

Aeroliths (countermonumental)
Slow Tone Collages, July 2022
"Aeroliths (countermonumental) is an early 2022 snapshot of ongoing work with electro-acoustic trumpet performance in real and unreal spaces—a series of live improvisations, paced for slow thinking, assembled into sound objects that loom, fade, burn; imposing at the boundaries of thingly tangibility."

having becames
Whitelabelrecs eRecords, April 2022
"It’s another solo vibraphone record, in the vein of last year’s Uncommonplacing, but also an exploration of what lo-fi recording means for an instrument like this, coupled with preparations and subtle electronic warmth. I like to think it brings you in close before unsealing and unsettling you."

Demiurgent
Fallen Moon Recordings, August 2021
This isn’t meant to be a philosophy lesson, just some context, some light provocation. The goal has been to fold several reels of real together: live improvised performances, field recordings, studio manipulations, analog and digital instruments, over and over, in order to make something that felt more dwellable, with more capacity for vitality at times, more space to reflect, to make trouble and stay with it in a contained way, than some recent reality. It is, of course, also highly imperfect.
Video accompaniments can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEFSK-Pq-wOYaqyWokvTJU7R8gkQr-Q6a

A War Of The Worlds
Self-released, November 2020
"No one would have believed in the first years of the 21st century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than our own...”
Electronic soundtrack for "A War Of The Worlds", an audio drama production by Theater In The Dark bringing the classic story of alien terror into 21-st century Illinois...

Fifth Season
Amalgam Records, June 2020 - With Mabel Kwan, Eli Namay, Adam Shead
"The music of Fifth Season, in particular, enables active collaboration and creativity through setting up improvised contexts via narrative text. By using long-form prose descriptions of gestures and textures, the forms of the music are guided yet open-ended, and content is constantly made anew in the moment."