On their debut album together, post-punk trio the Messthetics and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis arrived at the same point by following two different paths. Lewis, a player grounded in gospel and post-bop, grew increasingly adventurous in the years after delivering Divine Travels to Sony’s revived OKeh imprint in 2014.
He became a crucial part of New York’s jazz and new-music community, where he met Anthony Pirog, an improvising guitarist who had teamed up with drummer Brendan Canty and bassist Joe Lally in their post-Fugazi project, the Messthetics. Pirog extended an invitation to Lewis to join the trio onstage in 2019, setting in motion a series of events that led the group to sign to storied jazz label Impulse! Records for its 2024 LP.