Jan. 1, 2023 Balance’s Conjure makes the “Best Jazz Albums of 2022” list on sick sad motherslug
Dec. 16, 2022 Ann Arbor librarians must be pretty hip - here’s a review of Conjure in their district newsletter!
Dec. 2022 Conjure by Balance makes the “Pick of the Week” list on tomhull.com
Oct 12, 2022 Two Rooms announces the album release performance for Conjure, by Balance. The show happens December 10 at Trinosophes in Detroit. Opening the show is Kaleigh Wilder/Nova Zaii Duo
May 25 - June 7 Skeeter Shelton’s Spectrum 3 on tour in the Eastern US.
May 18,2022 Another review of Ben Miller’s In the Moment in The Answer is in the Beat
May 2, 2022 Checkout this review of Ben Miller’s In the Moment (accompanied by an interview) on Bookbeat’s site.
April 29, 2022 Nice review of In the Moment in Foxy Digitalis
April 3, 2022 Two Rooms announces the May 6 record release show for Ben Miller's In the Moment
February 2, 2022 A preview copy of Ben Miller’s In the Moment is a pick of the week at Avant Music News!
February, 2022 Two Rooms announces it’s seventh release, In the Moment, by guitarist Benjamin MIller. It drops on March 6, 2022 as an LP, CD and digital download.
In the Moment is a retrospective of the solo guitar work of underground rock and experimental musician Benjamin Miller. Utilizing extended techniques, prepared objects and implements, and an array of processing, his approach to the electric guitar on In the Moment is almost like a polyphonic sound generator, fully apart from the tradition of Chuck Berry and company. Alien tongues, ambient soundscapes, the sounds of mechanization and technology breaking down—it all emerges in the masterful manipulation of sound by Miller. Still, there are plenty of moments for traditional fans of electric guitar. From the wild technique and complex strand of sounds in the opener, “Statue of Digression,” to the almost pop hook of the record’s only vocal performance, “In the Skies and the Stars,” In the Moment is a perfect gateway record into experimental guitar music.
December 2021 Sclupperbep makes a year-end, best jazz release critics list on Hull Works.
November 23, 2021 Skeeter Shelton and Hamid Drake’s Sclupperbep gets some insightful ink in Jazzword. Courtesy of Ken Waxman.
October 30, 2021 Just found this review of Sclupperbep on The Answer is in the Beat.
September 2021 Nice, brief review of Skeeter and Hamid’s Sclupperbep on The Free Jazz Collective. Too bad they identified Skeeter as a Chicagoan instead of a Detroiter!
August 15, 2021 Two Rooms is proud to anoounce our sixth release, Sclupperbep, a new recording by Detroit saxophone great Skeeter Shelton (Detroit) and master percussionist Hamid Drake (Chicago).
“Detroit saxophonist Skeeter Shelton and Chicago percussionist Hamid Drake didn’t know each other before Skeeter was subbed into a duo gig at Trinosophes in 2019, after Hamid’s partner fell ill. Shortly before the performance, it was discovered that Skeeter’s father, Ajaramu Shelton, was Hamid’s drum teacher and mentor at Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. There was an instant bond.” — from the album notes
February 20, 2021 Two Rooms recording artists Alex Harding (Quartet NOW!) and Joel Peterson (Viands) join together with percussionist Dave Hurley for a live stream concert at Trinosophes.
October 2, 2020 New digital release series debuts with Live at Trinosophes by Tatsuya Nakatani, Matthew Smith and Joel Peterson Two Rooms announces a new digital download series, created to accelerate the pace of our releases and generate income for artists during this time of financial crisis. Kicking off the series is percussion dynamo Tatsuya Nakatani with Joel Peterson (double-bass, fretless guitar) and Matthew Smith (Moog synth). Recorded live in Detroit during 2019, this first-meeting of the trio straddles multiple worlds of sound, resulting in a fresh take on the intersections of free improvisation, ambient/minimalism and spontaneous thematic material. Although we remain committed to producing physical media, there's is no denying the low overhead and global accessibility of digital releases. We look forward to expanding this series on a regular basis, with live and studio recordings of amazing, unheard music.
Read new reviews of SCALE in:
The Wire
Chicago Reader
Southeastern Michigan Jazz Association journal
August 7, 2020 Two Rooms announces its fifth release, SCALE, a new recording by experimental harpist Zeena Parkins and electronic artist Jeff Kola Co-authored by Parkins and Kolar, SCALE addresses issues of observation, embodied transferences, telepathy and duration by employing swipes, knocks, resonators and hypnotic patterning on the acoustic harp with the less- controllable sounds of radio waves, homemade synths and feedback. The work is inspired by the timing and sensations of natural phenomena—daylight’s slow emergence at dawn, the pulsing ambiance of ocean currents—depicting nature as both utopic and disruptive. Attention is situated in an often luscious, contemplative sonic environment that shifts at varying rates, from the imperceptible to sudden, unexpected bursts. SCALE was originally commissioned by choreographer Jennifer Monson for her work bend the even and performed live in its entirety at the famed Chocolate Factory Theater in Queens, New York.
Ryan Jewell Quintet’s album Vibration! gets another review, this time from the hometown. Read online in Jazz Columbus
We missed this review of our first three releases on Two Rooms
One year later, Two Rooms' recordings are still charting on Montreal airwaves
Vibration! gets some airplay on WFMU!
First review of Ryan Jewell Quintet's Vibration!
June 28, 2019 Two Rooms Records is proud to announce the release of Vibration!, the debut record by the Ryan Jewell Quintet Percussion extraordinaire Jewell has released numerous recordings some under his own name, but Vibration! marks his first as a bandleader with a group solely dedicated to performing his music. The detailed and varied compositions on Vibration! reflect the wide range of his musical experiences and interests, including work in improvised music, sound art, electronic music, free jazz, experimental music and the creative end of indie rock. However, Vibration! Is a set of tightly composed music for jazz instrumentation that often opens up into swinging, fiery improvisations or luxuriates in textured minimalist atmospheres. The Quintet features Columbus, Ohio musicians John Philip Allen (doublebass), Alex Burgoyne (alto sax), Abhilasha Jayanthi (guitar), and Caleb Miller (piano/keys), whose intense dedication to the music gives this debut recording the snapping confidence of a long-established group.
How about a little label love from Germany? Man, these guys really got the inside scoop on how we put these releases together—and not from us! Take a look here.
New review of Quartet NOW! in the journal of the Southeastern Michigan Jazz Association
Two Rooms showcase at Satellite Records in Kalamazoo. Joel and Sam play records, iincluding upcoming releases and rare tracks from the archives. Performances by Sam Hooker, Spectrum 2 (Skeeter Shelton and Joel Peterson) and K-Zoo's Spirits Rejoice. 6pm, Saturday January 19, 2018
Special Holiday gift offer: Get all three initial Two Rooms' releases on LP for just $50! That includes Viands, Quartet Now! and Thollem with Clem Fortuna! Perfect for any adventurous music fan.
New review of Thollem and Clem Fortuna's You're Letter Must Have Followed Must Have Followed Me All Over the World in Touching Extremes
Tune in to WCBN (88.3 Ann Arbor) on Wednesday, September 12, for a one hour live performance by Viands on The Local Music Show, hosted by Shelley Salant. Music starts around 10 pm.
Another great review from The Pulse (Chattanooga/Knoxville) of our Quartet NOW! release
Festival appearance! Viands performs at the Traverse City Film Festival August 3-5 with special guest Skeeter Shelton on flute.
Viands' Seven Thousand Year Plan hits #1 for airplay on WCBN (88.3 Ann Arbor); Thollem and Clem Fortuna and Quartet NOW! are #12 and #13 respectively.
The first review is in! Check-out Chattanooga's The Pulse newspaper leading the way with a review of Viands' Seven Thousand Year Plan
First airplay: Quartet NOW! on WHFR (89.3 Dearborn) during "Spirits Rejoice," hosted by Pat Frisco. One of the coolest radio programs in America.
For Immediate Release June 21, 2018 Join us for the debut of Detroit’s newest vanguard record label, Two Rooms Records, at 8 pm on Saturday, July 14 at Trinosophes (1464 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit). Two Rooms is a collaboration between Joel Peterson (Trinosophes and Bohemian National Home) and Sam Hooker (Michigan Underground Group a.k.a. MUG, Peoples Records). This new label specializes in contemporary and historic recordings from a genre-free but largely Detroit-centric perspective. Fittingly, each LP features cover art by noted Detroit visual artists. To celebrate Two Rooms’ debut, the launch party features performances representing the first three LPs released on the label:
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Quartet NOW! is a new group co-lead by drummer Dr. Prof. Leonard King (of the legendary Strata Records and Lyman Woodard Organization) and baritone saxophonist Alex Harding (alum of Lester Bowie, David Murray, Julius Hemphill, Sun Ra Arkestra, etc.). With a focus on material by such Detroit composers as Kenn Cox and Charles Moore, Quartet NOW!’s self-titled release harkens back to the era of soul-inflected creative jazz that Detroit musicians innovated in the late 1960s and ’70s.
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Seven Thousand Year Plan is the second LP from Viands, an electronic music duo that creates a new sonic universe for each performance. Drawing on spontaneous thematic material, ambient settings and aleatory elements, Viands constructs long-form epics that seem to have structure and development but are the product of the intuitive interplay between members David Shettler and Joel Peterson, each of whom have established histories in music-making of all kinds.
- The multi-year collaboration between virtuoso pianist Thollem and Detroit piano tuner, composer/musician and instrument-builder Clem Fortuna has resulted in Your Letter Must Have Followed Me All Over the World, a live recording of microtonal piano music. Performed by Thollem on four of Trinosophes’ in-house pianos—each tuned to a unique microtonal system devised by Fortuna—this LP is undoubtably one of the most unusual and intriguing recordings of the year.