A Better Ghost is a collaboration between drummer Jeremy Cunningham, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi, and producer and bassist Paul Bryan. The album evolved out of improvisations shared between Jeremy and Dustin, with Paul being invited on board to give the project a little more definition once the bones had been set in place. The result is a rather sturdy, firmly demarcated and thriving germination of sound. Paul's bass playing adds compelling depth to the tracks, which lends a needed third dimension to the concentric nature of the work. The tracks are often comprised of structures that begin with a bebop groove and curve outward from this core, gaining dimension as they rotate and bloom in motion while retaining the rythem of their central pivot. This staged and progressive orientation lends to A Better Ghost a dramatic kind of gravitas and an epicness in scope reminiscent of filmic representations of the antiquity from the Mid 20th Century- rising in a hallowed grandeur without giving over to pomp or vainglory. It's not often that a bop groove or sax wail reminds me of tall stone pillars and expansive, detailed mate paintings of ancient lands, but I believe that it is the ever-growing and expansive nature of these compositions that invokes in me these associations with romantic epics. The tracks are somewhat humbled by the insistent coloring of warm-toned synths that Dustin has interspersed throughout these tracks, providing for forward-leaning veneers and margins of overlap with post-rock in the vein of Tortoise or a more subdued Trans Am. The most impressive part of A Better Ghost is the manner in which it is able to absorb energy and inspiration and grow sustainably and gradually from cleanly defined loci in a way that doesn't push against the incredulousness of the listener's ego, but rather anticipates and providers room for one to lose themselves in an arena of transfixing depth and ever-broadening horizons without losing the anchoring sensation of feeling one's soles planted on the ground.
