Open Thread - Waiting Music
Released 22 May 2026, via CD and digital
Julien Wilson - tenor saxophone, electronics
Peggy Lee - cello
Theo Carbo - guitars
Dylan van der Schyff - drums, percussion
Formed in 2023 during a series of improvised performances at Melbourne's Bar 303, Open Thread unites four singular voices. Each artist brings deep roots in creative music, moving fluidly across genres and contexts, united by a shared ethos of listening, trust, and transformation -- music conceived as an open process rather than a fixed destination.
Open Thread return with Waiting Music, a richly textured new album that documents the continuing evolution of this Australia-Canada collaboration.
Waiting Music was recorded in a single day in June 2025 at The Warehouse, a world-renowned studio in downtown Vancouver. In advance of the recording, the band completed a major Canadian tour, with performances in Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, and Vancouver. During the tour, the ensemble explored and refined new material, advancing the collaborative approach that has guided Open Thread's music since its inception. Compositional duties are shared across the ensemble, with each member bringing distinct ideas that are reshaped through collaboration and improvisation. The result is music that feels alive and in motion: angular unison lines dissolve into psychedelic solos, delicate miniatures nod to Erik Satie, and extended pieces like Sumud -- the Palestinian word for perseverance -- use odd-meter rhythms and electro-acoustic textures to propel the listener through shifting musical terrains.
Across eleven tracks, Waiting Music unfolds as a series of evolving environments. The opening title track establishes the album's tone with a haunting two-chord guitar ostinato that gradually mutates before returning like a ghost at the end. Elsewhere, the anarchic punk energy of God's Little Prefect sits alongside the gentle, sunlit circularity of From the Deck, while pieces such as Pocket Rocket, Travelling Home, and Prince of Spoons move fluidly between folk-like lyricism, driving grooves and dreamlike abstraction. Other tracks, like Egg on the Escalator, explore the use of rhythmic unison and polytonality inspired by the music and musings of Captain Beefheart.
In all, Waiting Music captures the group's shared fascination with melody, rhythm, and atmosphere, blending anthemic themes with exploratory sound worlds that feel both expansive and intimate. The album balances immediacy with depth, inviting repeated listening as details slowly reveal themselves. With Waiting Music, Open Thread presents a work that reflects our current moment: restless, searching, and quietly resilient, offering space to pause, attend, and move forward together.
Recorded on June 30th, 2025, at the Warehouse Studio, Vancouver. Tracking by Sheldon Zaharko. Mixed by Theo Carbo and Dylan van der Schyff. Mastered by Joe Talia. Design by Brodie Mcallister.