Plum Sutra
Portland, Oregon, United States | SELF
Music
Press
Plum Sutra, Portland’s coolest Japanese Zen atmospheric band. Plum Sutra’s ambient, cinematic sound is sweeping and tight, and should prime you perfectly for Animal Eyes’ backwoods throw down - The Source
Plum Sutra creates easy on-the-ears instrumental, ambient rock music with classical influences. It’s quite nice, actually.
Quality Fridge Buzz, Plum Sutra, Helical, 9:30 p.m. Monday, May 24, Ash Street Saloon, 225 S.W. Ash St. $5. Info: 503-226-0430, www.ashstreetsaloon.com. - Portland Tribune
Plum Sutra did a nice score for my new video created by ROAR, HARRP, and Partnership for Safety & Justice - Partnership for Safety & Justice
A new genre of instrumental music has arrived!
PLUM SUTRA, a fusion of jazz and rock soundscapes for the cinematic score aficionado, is hot on the tail of their sophomore album in Portland, OR.
One of the ONLY instrumental piano rock trios in the country, PLUM SUTRA'S music has been hailed by Harvard Radio as "THE new, can't-miss genre of euphoric earthly instrumentals." Crafted out of Connor Wade's "virtuosic violin", mandolin, and trumpet, Linton Wright's "smoking, progressive- post-rock percussion", and Seth Kinzie's "technically powerful, soulfully enriching piano", PLUM SUTRA is about to embark on their 2nd West Coast Tour from San Francisco to British Columbia, and they're ready for their music to hit the airwaves and film scores nationwide!
What now? PLUM SUTRA'S breathtaking sophomore album, "A Natural History of Lemurs" goes public June 15th, recorded at the up and coming Train Whistle Test Records in industrial SE Portland. Featuring the 14 minute tour-de-force for modern ballet, Me and My Mathematician, and the visceral, nature-centric lyrical mandolin ballad, "The Quarry", PLUM SUTRA is celebrating the euphoric spirit of life. Their new album is ready to be a companion for your walk through the woods. Contact them for an advanced copy! - ArtistPR
You don't wanna miss this band. Great Sound! - Ivory Harp
"Mind-blowing...you make me feel like a color by numbers artist. I don't think I can't touch a piano again."
-Marty Marquis of Blitzentrapper - Blitzentrapper
"Plum Sutra is creating a new genre of euphoric instrumentals"
-DJ Afro, live on air - Harvard Radio
The trio known as Plum Sutra is one of those rare groups that dares to find some middle ground between the artistic and commercial bents of most jazz players. It takes a rather tried-and-true instrumental lineup—piano, bass and violin—and creates sounds that are easy to swallow for folks who would rather their jazz be as smooth as silk while still exhibiting some surprisingly dense compositions that should please fans who use expressions like "chasing the ’Trane" without irony. Catch the group now before it takes off on a West Coast tour, and in a more intimate setting than its upcoming Rose Festival performances. - Willamette Week
Discography
Plum Sutra - 2010
A Natural History of Lemurs - 2011
Photos
Bio
Plum Sutra evolved out of a Zen meditation friendship in the spring of 2008. Seth Kinzie (Piano, from the NW) and Linton Wright (Drums, from Crimson Tide Alabama) collaborated to unfold rich instrumentals of novelty and emotion. They formed a musical relationship inspired by the surreal pianist creations of Claude Debussy with the progressive percussion of Carmine Appice. They gelled immediately in their fusion of rock and jazz soundscapes evoking different ideas, feelings, and creatures through lush instrumentation. They were soon joined by Connor Wade, an accomplished classical violinist from Idaho, who also adds mandolin & trumpet to his repertoire. Having already embarked on two West-coast tours spanning British Columbia down to Los Angeles, Plum Sutra is exhibiting the new sound of kick-ass zen jazz to the Pacific. From Portland, Plum Sutra creates cinematic odes celebrating the euphoric spirit of life, like a dove that just threw down its gun.
They just finished their sophomore album A Natural History of Lemurs: an explosive organism of psychedelic jazzish instrumentation featuring accompaniment from djembe, banjo, electric guitar, upright bass, xylophone and live lemur sounds. It was a rare studio experience, as it was recorded entirely without an computer, on an historic Atari 8-track tape machine.
Album Motif: The lemur is a fascinating prosimian monkey that exists solely in Madagascar. 160 million years ago Eastern Africa and Madagascar began to split apart. Lemurs suddenly appeared in the Madagascan fossil record, some fully evolved, around 50 million years ago, at a time when they were already alive on the mainland (soon to be wiped out by competitive species). On the island, without any dominant predators, they conquered every niche of the island, evolving into over 80 fantastic species, ranging from sloth and nocturnal dwarf lemurs to ones the size of an orangutan. Yet the question remains - how did they get there? The most accepted theory is that their small size allowed them to float there on tangled vegetation or fallen logs; quite certainly one of the more epic joy rides in evolutionary history. The song, and album in general, is a detailed instrumental account of their story, and has been our band's theme since 2010.
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