Since forming in 2016, I Hold the Lion’s Paw (IHTLP) have embraced a radical, genre-fluid approach that comes across as “the feeling of having stumbled into someone else’s LSD trip,” as described by The Sydney Morning Herald. Uninterested in adopting any particular idiom or norm, Potentially Interesting Jazz Music is as bold and unpredictable as its title suggests.

“I want the audience to join us in a genre rebellion,” says Lewis. “Our music is about the journey — we’ve never been interested in style or convention. My role as bandleader is simply to keep the door open to possibility.”

The album poses the rhetorical question: what is jazz, or, more pointedly, what might it be? 

Drawing inspiration from forebears like Ornette Coleman, Laurie Anderson, Don Cherry, Miles Davis, and Sun Ra, the record combines slow-burning trumpet, bass grooves, synths, voice, spoken word, percussion, and more – all without losing focus or overplaying its hand. From the electronics and haunting trumpet of ‘Mechanical Ghosts’ to the soaring vocal arrangements of Emily Bennett on ‘When the Earth and Sky Conspired,’ Potentially Interesting Jazz Music offers a futuristic vision from an improvising ensemble dedicated to continuous reinvention.

Unlike their previous lengthy 43-minute epics, this album’s nine collaborative tracks emerged from a seven-hour marathon session. The material was then manipulated, collaged, massaged in post-production, broken into parts, and carefully reassembled in the studio – revealing a newfound delight in brevity and subtle song structures beneath the surface.

When it comes to IHTLP, things are rarely as they appear. Potentially Interesting Jazz Music reflects an improvising ensemble perpetually re-inventing and replenishing itself, pursuing a forward momentum nourished by open ears, boundless curiosity, technical prowess, and the mapping of a shared vision.