Two New Releases On Burning Ambulance Music!
Ava Mendoza/gabby fluke-mogul/Carolina Pérez and Cecil Taylor/Tony Oxley
What’s shaping up to be our busiest year ever as a label continues, as we’re extremely excited to announce the impending release of two incredible new albums.
The trio of guitarist Ava Mendoza, violinist gabby fluke-mogul, and drummer Carolina Pérez will release their debut album Mama Killa on July 11, 2025.
Mama Killa, named for the Inca goddess of the moon, offers eight tracks of high-volume, riff-based guitar-violin improvisation bolstered by thunderous drumming. Working together for the first time, these three musicians have created a record that blends country, blues, and psychedelic rock with blast beats and the heaviness of black, death and doom metal, wrapping it all in feedback, distortion and pure whomping power. The sounds range from the black metal assault of “We Will Be Millions” to the Earth-like rumble of “Mama Coca” and the keening harmonies of “Amazing Graces,” from the Fushitsusha-esque washes of guitar noise on “Mama Huaco” to the avalanche of drums that opens “Trichocereus Pachanoi.”
Ava Mendoza (guitar, vocals) has recorded and performed in a stunning variety of contexts over the last two decades. Her style draws from the finger-picked blues of Skip James, the atonal shredding of Morbid Angel’s Trey Azagthoth, and seemingly everything in between. In addition to working solo and as a leader/co-leader of Unnatural Ways and Mendoza Hoff Revels, she is a member of Bill Orcutt’s Guitar Quartet.
gabby fluke-mogul (violin) is an avant-garde composer, performer, and educator who has recorded several albums of solo improvisation and collaborated with artists including saxophonists Zoh Amba and Ivo Perelman, guitarist Fred Frith, bassists William Parker and Luke Stewart, harpist Zeena Parkins, trumpeters Susana Santos Silva and Nate Wooley, cellist Lester St. Louis, and many others. Mendoza and fluke-mogul also perform as AM/FM.
Carolina Pérez (drums) is a founding member of the death metal bands Hypoxia and Castrator, and the secret weapon fueling this trio’s high-volume, high-intensity interactions. Mama Killa marks her entry into the world of improvised music, and her precision, power and groove are extremely welcome, and will remind you of when Mick Harris brought new energy to free jazz with John Zorn’s PainKiller.
Our second July 11 release is Flashing Spirits, a previously unknown archival live performance from pianist Cecil Taylor and drummer Tony Oxley.
Flashing Spirits was recorded September 3, 1988 at the Outside In Festival in Crawley, UK. It consists of a 38-minute piece, followed by two encores.
Taylor and Oxley first played together less than three months before this encounter, on July 17, 1988. That performance was released as Leaf Palm Hand, and included in the legendary In Berlin ’88 boxed set. In 1989, they were joined by bassist William Parker in a group they called the Feel Trio, which lasted into 1990 and released Looking, Celebrated Blazons, and the 10CD box 2 Ts For A Lovely T.
Taylor and Oxley performed together until the end of the pianist’s life. They teamed up with trumpeter Bill Dixon for several concerts in the early 2000s; continued to work as a duo; and reunited the Feel Trio with special guest Anthony Braxton in 2007. When Taylor made his final public appearances at the Whitney Museum in April 2016, Oxley was part of two of the three ensembles that performed. Other Taylor/Oxley duo releases include Ailanthus/Altissima: Bilateral Dimensions of 2 Root Songs (Triple Point, 2010); Conversations With Tony Oxley (Jazzwerkstaat, 2018); and Birdland, Neuburg 2011 (Fundacja Słuchaj, 2020).
Ben Watson of The Wire wrote of the performance heard on Flashing Spirits: “Cecil Taylor’s greatness resides in convincing the listener that any problems encountered in appreciating his music are nothing to do with the pianist...What keeps you listening — trying once more to penetrate the high-energy assaults — is the unique authority, a survivor’s integrity...He interrogates the keyboard as if he cannot believe it will not yield more.”
This album is released in collaboration with Leo Feigin, founder of legendary avant-garde label Leo Records. The music was mastered by Kurt Glück in March 2025.
Each of these titles will be available digitally and as a limited edition of 500 CDs in heavy-duty gatefold mini-LP sleeves printed on textured paper, with artwork by Burning Ambulance Music co-founder I.A. Freeman.
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