about Tropos

Tropos is a collective ensemble of improviser-composers featuring four distinctive voices in Brooklyn’s creative music scene: Phillip Golub (piano), Ledah Finck (violin), Yuma Uesaka (clarinets), and Aaron Edgcomb (drums/percussion). Their peculiar instrumentation and collaborative approach are defining characteristics of their work as an ensemble. As recipients of Chamber Music America’s 2023 Ensemble Forward grant, Tropos spent a year developing their latest album Switches (Endectomorph Music) under the mentorship of acclaimed saxophonist and composer Darius Jones. Tropos’ members call their aesthetic “outer-space chamber music” for the way their compositions push the boundaries between new music, jazz, noise, and beyond.

Tropos’ debut album, Axioms // 75ab, was released in May 2020 on Biophilia Records. Featuring an earlier iteration of the ensemble — Phillip Golub (piano), Mario Fabrizio (drums/percussion), Raef Sengupta (alto saxophone), Zach Lavine (bass), and Laila Smith (voice) — Axioms // 75ab paired compositions by Golub, Fabrizio, and Sengupta alongside those of Anthony Braxton. Thom Jurek of AllMusic called Axioms // 75ab “an auspicious debut, filled with exhilarating energy, charisma, and a canny ability to transform the complex and even inscrutable into sophisticated yet joyful noise.” Steve Smith selected Axioms as his album of the week in his Night after Night blog and said that “Tropos plays with assurance, charisma, and infectious enthusiasm,” while Phil Freeman wrote “This is their debut, and they’re making a powerful statement” in StereoGum.

collected press

Switches (2025)

Chris Ingalls – POP MATTERS (US): 8/10 – Tropos possess a seemingly boundless energy supply, but it’s delivered smartly and with brilliant flair for instrumental fluidity and a sense of adventure. Switches is them at their very best. (read more)
Kira Grunenberg – DOWNBEAT (US): Switches is an experiential record that embodies Tropos’ duality of fastidious work and cheerful camaraderie, which makes the music a remarkably balanced, enjoyable listen. (read more)
Phil Freeman – STEREOGUM (US): exhilarating and welcome (read more)
Dean Nardi – ALL ABOUT JAZZ (US): remarkable album … It is a thrill ride, listeners​ (read more)
Nate Chinen – WRTI (US): engaging balance of precision and daring (read more)
Bruce Lee Gallanter – DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY (US): Pretty much every week I review a disc which knocks me out although the personnel are mostly lesser known musicians. This week’s buried treasure is this disc, a mind-blowing mystery that is well worth your time and listening abilities. (read more)
TWISTED SOUL (US): It’s a profound yet thought-provoking experience that demands patience and opens the window of thought. (read more)
IF IT’S TOO LOUD… (US): It gets more and more captivating and intriguing the further into the song you get. (read more)

​Axioms // 75ab (2020) & Shadow Music (2023)

Giovanni Russonello – NEW YORK TIMES (US): That feeling — of a writhing text, something almost escaping its own language — became inspiration for Tropos, a quintet of young improvisers and composers who first met as students at New England Conservatory. On their debut album, “Axioms // 75 AB,” they take inspiration from Braxton’s method; half of its tracks are his compositions, and the other half are original pieces inspired by him. One of those, “Of the Trellis,” a smoky piece by the drummer Mario Layne Fabrizio, becomes a fertile meeting ground for Laila Smith’s voice and Raef Sengupta’s alto saxophone. (read more)
Mike Shanley – JAZZ TIMES (US): Profile in September 2020 issue (read more)
Phil Freeman – STEREOGUM (US): Tropos are a new group of young improvising musicians out of the New England Conservatory. This is their debut, and they’re making a powerful statement by juxtaposing five pieces they created themselves against six versions of Anthony Braxton compositions from the 1970s. (read more)
Thom Jurek – ALL MUSIC (US): The album’s most compelling feature lies in how well Tropos integrate Braxton’s influence and intent in the creation of a unique musical identity. With humor, high-powered energy, sudden radical rhythmic and harmonic shifts, and a kinetic range of dynamics, Tropos enthusiastically traverse the murky terrain between the voices of the soloist and the collective. […] Tropos’ Axioms // 75 AB is an auspicious debut, filled with exhilarating energy, charisma, and a canny ability to transform the complex and even inscrutable into sophisticated yet joyful noise. (read more)
Alex Dutilh – FRANCE MUSIQUE (FR): Tropos offers the last iteration of this deep heritage, with striking uniqueness. (read more)
Steve Smith – ON THE RECORD (US): Now, here comes Tropos, a brash young band jointly led by pianist Phillip Golub and drummer Mario Layne Fabrizio. The collective cohesion of this quintet […] extends to its vivacious interpretations of six Braxton compositions from the early ’70s. […] Tropos plays with assurance, charisma, and infectious enthusiasm. (read more)
Tor Hammerø – NETTAVISEN LIVSSTI (NO): There are lots of plants in the jazz-garden. The one presented to us by the American band Tropos is of the extremely rare kind, but without a doubt exciting. (read more)
AVANT MUSIC NEWS (US): Even if Axioms // 75 AB had nothing to do with Anthony Braxton, it would still be a compelling release. But the addition of the Braxton material puts this one over the top. Well done, indeed. (read more)
Ken Waxman – JAZZ WORLD (US): Not only exemplary music, these discs confirm the idea that so-called serious music will be enriched with many more timbral flavors as the 21st Century advances. (read more)
O’S PLACE JAZZ MAGAZINE (US): Their music is dynamic and expressive in both what they play and what they don’t. […] It is too early to suggest it’s the best free jazz recordings of the year but this one is certainly up for consideration! (read more)

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contact for booking or other inquiries:

phillip@phillipgolubmusic.com