Pianist/keyboardist Jason Rubenstein is streaming his brand new heavy instrumental album titled Four Named Narratives, out May 30, 2016 below.
Four new, original songs are included, plus a version of “The Barbarian” by Emerson, Lake, Palmer — as a tribute and farewell to the late Keith Emerson — and a bonus instrumental featuring fusion/flamenco guitarist and composer Daniel van den Berg.
The music is riff-heavy, dark, and relentless. The trio of Jason Rubenstein on piano and keyboards, Chicago professionals Tom Hipskind on drums and Shawn Sommer on bass and bass synths balance the heavy prog sections with contemplative, almost Steely Dan-like sections. Rubenstein borrows ideas from the progressive metal, tech metal, jazz-rock-fusion, classical minimalism, and prog rock genres and mashes them up into new music not commonly heard from keyboard players.
The tracks on the EP are
01: “Three Ounces Into A Two Ounce Whiskey,”
02: “The Conundrum Archive,”
03: “Laboratories In Exile,”
04: “The Hero Leaves The Suburbs, Goes To Hell, And Comes Back,”
05: “The Barbarian (ELP cover)”
06: “Veils in the Serpent Wind, Part II” (with Daniel van den Berg and Mirko Borach).
