Great Architect celebrates LP release Monday

Charlotte-based experimental, avant garde outfit Great Architect celebrates its album release Monday at Snug Harbor (1228 Gordon St.). "Cultural Games" (its third release including a split 7" with Moenda) is available on vinyl on Kinnikinnik Records.

Saxophone/clarinet player Brent Bagwell (who is behind the avant garde jazz series at Dialect Design) says the Snug Harbor show will feature songs from the album, newer material, and the debut of a long form ("for us") piece.

Great Architect (pictured above) was formed in 2009 as an improvisational outfit and that sort of chaotic improvisational freedom threads through its latest album. There's trippy clashes of sound, expansive expositions, rippling and skipping horn work, and other weirdness. For me it's interesting to see what kind of images these tracks trigger in my mind. The clicking drums and horns of "Ocean," for instance, transport me to a train or subway stop as if I'm waiting for my own transport, which leads me to the next track "Pageturner." It sends my brain to a late `70s mystery movie that I'd watch on HBO as a kid. Others have even more of a soundtrack feel.

Human Pippi Armstrong shares the bill Monday. The 9 p.m. concert is free. You can also purchase the vinyl or download of the album at the band' Bandcamp site. www.great-architect.com or http://greatarchitect.bandcamp.com/

The band is also embarking on a mid-May Midwest tour that'll send it through Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Kentucky. Great Architect features members of Yardwork, Blossoms, Joint Damage, Black Congo NC, US Wildlife and the Eastern Seaboard.