Today, Resavoir — Chicago producer and composer Will Miller’s long-running, shapeshifting jazz project whose sound “deftly draws upon spontaneous improvisation and methodical studio wizardry alike” (Pitchfork) — release the new album Above the Clouds, via Miller’s l’univers label. It’s Resavoir at its most plugged in and switched on, crafting dreamy atmospheres almost entirely with electronic instruments. Listen to and purchase Above the Clouds here.

Resavoir will also be on a headline tour throughout North America this fall, with shows in NYC, LA, DC, and more; find all tour dates below and here. Tonight in Chicago, Resavoir and Mike Reed are splitting the bill for a double album release show at Constellation, find tickets and more info here.

The work of futuristic sound sculptors like Jon Hassell and Flying Lotus was an initial touchstone for the record, but Above The Clouds also shares a foundation with cloud rap — the genre’s mixture of heavy, booming drums with dreamy synth tones and smeared samples. It’s a natural progression: since its inception, Resavoir has been a way for Miller to push his developed musical vocabulary into new territories, warping them just enough to be recognizable but wholly new.

Here, Resavoir takes a different shape. The trio of Miller and two of his longtime collaborators, bassist Lane Beckstrom and drummer Jeremy Cunningham, got together a couple of times a week in Miller’s Little Village studio for loose jams to protect against seasonal doldrums this past winter. After so many different configurations — whether a solo endeavor, a full band, a 17-piece orchestra, or an email chain of remote contributors — Miller wanted to get Resavoir back to a core unit, relinquishing duties as composer in favor of being more of a bandleader, learning how his ensemble could wring something natural from circuitry.

Miller swapped his trumpet for the Steiner Crumar EVI (a wind controlled synthesizer); Beckstrom worked with a Digitakt sampler and played baritone guitar; and Cunningham restricted himself to the Roland SPD drum pad. The three would improvise for hours during these sessions, occasionally joined by Kenneth Leftridge, Jr. on woodwinds and Roland Aerophone (another wind synth). Once he isolated the moments where the stars aligned best, he brought Leftridge back in, overdubbing several improvised takes as he reacted to the drafts. Miller also sent the songs to guitarist Gregory Uhlmann to build on with the instructions “have fun and jam on these, and don’t be too precious.”

The result is gorgeous, every element circling around each other in a delicate dance. Miller’s EVI curls like smoke in a light breeze, while Cunningham’s drums waft into a groove more than they lock. Beckstrom, Leftridge, and Uhlmann all add billowing textures, expertly blending and dissipating. Above The Clouds is about remembering the endlessness beyond, the excitement of not knowing, and the joy of exploration.

Each incarnation of Resavoir — whether a solo endeavor, a full band, a 17-piece orchestra, or an email chain of remote contributors — plays in the space where the organic and digital meet. Take the spiritual soundscapes of the 2019 self-titled record, for instance, where deep keyboard tones underpin hypnotic vamps or squiggle around reverberant horn solos; consider the more beat-oriented 2023 self-titled LP, whose lush sounds seem beamed in from a not-too-distant, somehow familiar future. Miller added EVI, to his arsenal for the 2023 LP and carried it through to 2025’s Horizon, a collaboration with Matt Gold. He wove it more directly into the fabric of the more ambient-leaning Themes For Dreams, playing EVI on eight of its 13 tracks.

TOUR DATES – TICKETS

West Coast (Full Band)
10.20 Vancouver, BC – The Fox Cabaret*
10.22 Seattle, WA – Barboza*
10.23 Portland, OR- Show Bar*
10.25 San Francisco, CA- 4 Star Theather
10.26 Ojai, CA- Deer Lodge
10.27 Los Angeles, CA- Lodge Room*

East Coast (Full Band)
11.13 Grand Rapids, MI- The Pyramid Scheme
11.14 Toronto, CAN- Sound Garage
11.15 Montreal, CAN- Bar le Ritz PDB
11.17 Brattleboro, VT- Epsilon Spires
11.18 Catskill, NY- The Avalon Lounge
11.19 Somerville, MA- Arts at the Armory
11.20 Philadelphia, PA- Solar Myth
11.21 Brookyln, NY- Baby’s All Right
11.22 Washington, DC- DC9

* with special guest Gregory Uhlmann