Columbia Deluxe imbues Fuubutsushi’s music with the electricity of playing for a crowd. Borne of the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, the group prepared countless releases remotely from around the country. Columbia Deluxe expands compositions collected from across the band’s body of work, from their earliest releases to their 2024 LP Meridians, translating their careful arrangements into live performance. All four time zones of the continental US are represented in the group's membership: Patrick Shiroishi (Los Angeles), Chris Jusell (Raleigh), Matthew Sage (Colorado Front Range), and Chaz Prymek (Salt Lake City). It’s fitting given the musical landscapes that it surveys, which are dynamic, warm, and both energetic and rewarding of patience. The band has heightened these qualities on Columbia Deluxe.

“The music of Fuubutsushi,” Prymek says, “started as a recording project that turned into deep friendships.” After composing music remotely for their acclaimed cycle of four albums for each of the four seasons, the quartet transformed the music in concert at the Columbia Experimental Music Festival (to this day Fuubutsushi’s only live appearance): Shiroishi on saxophones and field recordings, Jusell on violin, Sage on piano and synthesizer, and Prymek on guitar...  more