Following their underappreciated 2023 self-titled debut, Chicago-based trio, Alta Vista, return with something even more expansive with Won’t Believe in Dust.
Consisting of bassist Jakob Heinemann (Dave Rempis, Roscoe Mitchell), guitarist Chet Zenor (Whitney, Hannah Frances, Squirrel Flower) and drummer Andy Danstrom (You Are the Garden, Groppler Zorn, Folkus), Alta Vista are a band steeped in tradition.
Framing the history of experimentalism with an acumen akin to the world’s finest house band, despite Alta Vista being a sonic communication between Los Angeles and Chicago (Heinemann residing in the former; Zenor and Danstrom in the latter) in many ways, Won’t Believe in Dust is the sound of the Windy City.
Since their inception in 2020, history has been the catalyst for Alta Vista. Following Heinemann finding a book of century-old, mostly unrecorded country tunes on the scrapheap of his neighbour’s driveway, he then knocked heads together with Zenor and Danstrom; the ensuing years seeing the trio reshape these sounds with their own style and nuance that resulted in their debut self-titled LP.
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And while they don’t leave the past behind on Won’t Believe in Dust, (the reimagination of Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Prelude No. 15 on closing cut, Scriabin Prelude Op.11 #15), for the most part, Alta Vista stamp their mark with the kind of gunslinger post-rock that should be reaching far more ears. Each composition, conveying its own language as Zenor, Heinemann and Danstrom cover every blade of grass across the experimental music landscape.
Beginning with the warbled soundscape of Let’s Make Earth Our Home. Like being welcomed into a circus fairground, it’s apt considering Won’t Believe in Dust is a celebration in itself.
Alta Vista - Don't Believe In DustOn Interstate 80, the trio dispense a humid brand of rust-belt post-rock that evokes the sound of industry. The grainy textures of Ryley Walker or even the echoes of Douglas McCombs, whether it be through the seam of Eleventh Dream Day or Tortoise. Where the latter is concerned, Silhouette and The Last Time see Alta Vista matching the majestic noodling of the Chicago legends, but here the trio thrive with a more cinematic, Jarmuschian verve.
Holly and Ask Around find Alta Vista casting the net further afield. With spaghetti western, fractured jazz militancy, the trio orchestrate something that sounds like a resumption of the street brawl between Bill Orcutt and Chris Corsano. A volley of Danstrom’s skittish percussion, Heinemann’s bass stabs and Zenor’s guitar plinks that simply bends the mind.
And it doesn’t stop on Planta, where the trio take us to the exotic corners. Smashing surf-rock into calypso, it’s post-rock for cruise ships that sees Alata Vista having fun. Elsewhere, I Promise to Never Smile Again sees them continue to search, this time snaking through the paths where jazz and blues entwine.
Tying it all up is Hometown. A countrified rumble that defines Alta Vista as true experimental champions. Kicking up the dust as only they know how, this beautiful amalgamation of soft and loud passages is like electricity running through the veins as the trio capture the rawness of life.
It underlines the organic nature of Won’t Believe in Dust. Real music made by real people. The synergy between each member, something where you can sense the energy in the room, and as Zenor, Heinemann and Danstrom distribute that energy to the listener, the results are something that feel completely alive, gorgeously untethered and supremely open-sourced.
Won’t Believe in Dust is out now. Purchase from Bandcamp.
