Break Stuff is to be Vijay Iyer’s latest trio album, the Harvard professor joined by his long running band featuring bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore.

This Manfred Eicher-produced affair recorded at Avatar in June includes a tribute to techno DJ/producer Robert Hood continuing the pianist’s longtime fascination with mathematics derived from academic study in number patterns from Fibonacci on. 

Iyer switched to new label ECM releasing Mutations, his first album for the label, earlier this year, an electro-acoustic chamber work shaped around a 10-part suite first performed in 2005 scored for string quartet, piano, and electronics.

A DVD Radhe Radhe: Rites of Holi has also just been released featuring music by Iyer, the 43-year-old pianist/composer drawing inspiration from the Holi festival and Stravinsky.

Iyer’s trio before moving label recorded Historicity and Accelerando to considerable acclaim for another Munich firm, ACT Records. The title of Break Stuff refers to what Iyer sees in the break as “the basis for breakdowns, break-beats, and break dancing... the moment when everything comes to life.” Some of the material featured on the album was premiered at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and some from Open City, a collaboration with writer Teju Cole. Monk tune ‘Work’ also gets a look-in as well as Coltrane’s ‘Countdown’ recast with a West African outlook inspired by Brice Wassy. There’s also a solo piano version of Strayhorn piece ‘Blood Count’. Expect a release in early-February. SG

Stephan Crump, Vijay Iyer, and Marcus Gilmore, above. Photo: ECM