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Release Date: 14 November 2025
Label: Earshift Music
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 9324690421275
Description
Sydney-based saxophonist and composer Sam Gill announces Sensemaker, the sophomore album by his acclaimed quartet Coursed Waters. Featuring Gill alongside Melbourne-based drummer James McLean, pianist Novak Manojlovic from Sydney, and bassist Jacques Emery, the quartet navigates compositions that explore the concept of sense-making: how we understand and engage with the world around us, how we ascribe meaning to our life experiences, and how we co-create the world with those around us.
Through free-flowing improvisation and intense melodic counterpoints, the album portrays a range of emotional and musical worlds, featuring multi-layered rhythmic cycles, shimmering harmonies and sprawling melodic arcs. The album's six tracks demonstrate the high-energy and creativity that has defined Coursed Waters since its formation in 2016, and has been heard previously on their 2019 debut Many Altered Returns (Earshift Music), which received glowing reviews.
Harmonically, the album ventures into what Gill describes as "bright" harmony. "We're pushing beyond traditional harmony, utilising unusual pitch sets and scales that offer a harmonic richness that is bright rather than dissonant, inspired by the likes of Peter Evans and the modes of limited transposition by Messiaen," he notes. This harmonic exploration imbues the music with a sense of expansiveness becoming increasingly prominent in Gill's growing body of work.
Sam Gill is a saxophonist, improviser & composer based in Sydney/Eora, Australia. He leads the groups Coursed Waters & Scattered, is a member of the composer-performer collectives Mind on Fire & Microfiche, and has duo projects with electric bassist Joseph Franklin, drummer Simon Barker and pianist Chris Abrahams. Sam was a recipient of SIMA's Emerging Composers Mentorship in 2022, and was a finalist in the 2023 Freedman Jazz Fellowship, following earlier nominations in 2020 and 2021.
Sam has performed with a number of Australia's most acclaimed improvisers including Chris Hale, Marc Hannaford, Andrea Keller, Matt McMahon, Gian Slater, Tina Stefanou and Scott Tinkler. He has also worked with the Australian Art Orchestra and world-music ensemble Mara!, and is a member of Yutaro Okuda Quintet and Nick Calligeros' Soft Spot.
Tracklisting
The Vampires
Vazesh
Kristin Berardi
The Vampires
Trichotomy
Elysian Fields
Matthew Ottignon
Visions of Nar
Sam Gill's Coursed Waters
Ralf Schnell
The Orchestra Now; Leon Botstein
Concordian Dawn; Christopher Preston Thompson
Quartet ES
Sarah Beth Briggs
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Lorraine Hunt Liberson; Harry Bicket
Manuel Teles & Alexandra Tchernakova
