Today, Natural Information Society (NIS) — the ensemble led by Joshua Abrams that’s established itself as “a driving force in Chicago’s vibrant jazz, post-rock, indie, and creative music scene” (NPR Music) — release Perseverance Flow, their “energetically nutritious” (The Wire) new album out now via eremite Records (North America), Aguirre Records (EU), and New Soil Music (streaming), along with a new edit, “Perseverance Flow (Slo-Mo Edit),” listen here.

Perseverance Flow: Order physical here // Stream here.

After a trilogy of double LPs by expanded manifestations of the band — including 2018’s Mandatory Reality, 2021’s Descension (Out Of Our Constrictions), and 2023’s Since Time Is Gravity (a Pitchfork Best Jazz & Experimental Album of the Year selection and MOJO’s  #1 Underground Album of 2023), Perseverance Flow finds NIS returning to its core formation: Lisa Alvarado on harmonium, Mikel Patrick Avery on drums, Jason Stein on bass clarinet, and composer/multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams on guimbri.

This ensemble takes on Abrams’ writing with the discipline of orchestra musicians and the creativity of improvisers. For one continuous 37-minute composition across a single LP, NIS refract mesmerizing chains of overlapping rhythmic patterns through the sonic funhouse of dub — resulting in the most formally experimental NIS album to date. It’s a perpetual motion machine, an apocalyptic reckoning and creation myth rolled into a singular soundworld. “Perseverance Flow is skipping rope in slo-mo,” explains Abrams. “A dance of co-operation to rally guts & humors & keep marching through pouring tears.”

Situated at the board with engineer Greg Norman, Abrams pushed post-production techniques found only sporadically on earlier NIS records deep into the heart of the music, distorting and reshaping instruments to subtly and, at times, aggressively mutate timbre and texture, color and time.

As Abrams shares: “We played the piece for a year in concert before the recording. At Electrical, we went in at 11am and were done in time to pick our kids up from school…In a reference world, I imagine Perseverance Flow like a live extended realization of a Jaylib lost instrumental as remixed by Kevin Shields. Or vice-versa. I also think it has sympathies to some of the more rhythmically intricate dance musics out of Chicago and Lisbon.”

Ahead of the album’s release, NIS shared “Perseverance Flow (Rally Guts & Humor Mix),” an edit that refracts their hypnotic sound through the prism of dub. Inputs from modal jazz to minimalism, krautrock to Chicago house, are deconstructed and brought into new sonic spaces.

Since 2010, Natural Information Society has released seven albums on eremite to great critical acclaim, as well as two collaborative album with Bitchin’ Bajas released on Drag City. Working the seams between minimalism, jazz, and experimental practice, the group has become a reference for contemporary non-idiomatic creative music —and one of the defining projects in 21st century underground music.

Since returning to bandstands in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Natural Information Society has performed at Big Ears, Pitchfork Music, Guelph Jazz, & Jazztopad Festivals (2022), the Vision Festival, Jazz em Agosto, Le Guess Who, & Jazzfest Berlin (2023), FIMAV, Hyde Park Jazz, and Jardin Sonoro Festivals at Instituo Inhotim (2024). The band has performed in conjunction with exhibitions of Lisa Alvarado’s visual work at venues including REDCAT (Disney CalArts), Wadsworth Atheneum, Moody Center, and The Kitchen.

Joshua Abrams is a composer, bassist, and improviser.  His early formative musical experiences include performing in a chamber group conducted by Earle Brown, and busking on the streets of Philadelphia as an original member of The Roots. Abrams has worked extensively with artists including Fred Anderson, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Ari Brown, Hamid Drake, Theaster Gates, Sam Prekop, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Mike Reed, Matana Roberts & Simon Starling. Other collaborations include work with Dave Burrell, Bill Callahan, Neil Michael Hagerty, Kidd Jordan, Rob Mazurek, Roscoe Mitchell, William Parker, Phew, and RP Boo. He was a founding member of the bands Town & Country and Sticks & Stones.

Abrams has scored ten feature films including Life Itself, the Oscar-nominated Abacus: Small Enough To Jail, and The Trials of Muhammad Ali.  He currently collaborates with Chad Taylor in the duo Mind Maintenance, serves as the musical director of The Harvest Time Experiment and is a member of Hamid Drake’s ensemble Turiya: Honoring Alice Coltrane. Abrams was a 2018 Grants for Artist recipient from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

Perseverance Flow is out now via the following channels: audiophile-quality vinyl format Americas & Bandcamp eremite records, vinyl EU & CD Aguirre/eremite records, streaming platforms New Soil Music. Meditation, Momentum, & Manifestation, New Soil Music’s mood & energy based journeys through Natural Information Society’s historical eremite recordings, are on streaming platforms now.