pianist - composer - improviser
about Loops
Phillip Golub’s Loops project is an ongoing exploration of repetition, resonance, and gradual transformation across acoustic and electronic instruments. Developed over two studio albums and counting released on Greyfade, the work uses structured looping forms coupled with the variability of human performance to create immersive sound environments. The music combines the sensibility of chamber composition with the fluidity of electronic production, with a focus on texture and slow development.
In live performance, Loops is realized by a quartet featuring Golub on piano and MIDI controller, Aaron Edgcomb on vibraphone, Ty Citerman on guitar, and Joseph Branciforte on live electronics. The project may be presented either as a traditional seated concert experience or as a live-performed sound installation, inviting listeners to move freely through the space and come and go as they please. In the installation format, audience members can experience shifting spatial perspectives, encountering the music as an evolving environment rather than a fixed performance. This flexible presentation model allows Loops to adapt to concert halls, galleries, or unconventional venues, emphasizing its immersive and long-durational qualities.
| praise for Loops so mesmerizing I only hear new sonic portals opening up. -The Wire yet another in a series of ambitious experimental projects from Phillip Golub and another stunning home run for Joseph Branciforte’s Greyfade label. Both artists – as well as the musicians who join them here — are devoted to creating music that is complex, engaging, and unique. -PopMatters ★★★★. This is a work that, like the works of the first minimalists, demands a spirit of immersion from the listener, and as with those works, such immersion will be rewarded. -All Music Mr. Golub straddles traditions of jazz and contemporary classical music while aligning with no single school of thought. That search has led to fascinating solo works, including 2022’s Filters, for which he composed, performed, and recorded “loops,” and then edited them into a final piece. -Wall Street Journal A cutting edge album that illustrates how the performer can exert the critical creative input from within the confines of a strictly minimalist framework. Phillip Golub has restored creative primacy to the individual musician, even within the heart of a highly process-oriented music. -Sequenza 21 |
listen
loops released via Greyfade
loops to be released via Greyfade fall 2026
technical requirements
(1) grand piano and/or (1) 88 key weighted midi controller with midi sliders and USB out (e.g. Arturia KeyLab 88 MkII) + midi sustain pedal
(1) guitar amplifier (preferably vintage tube amp)
(1) vibraphone (preferably full size)
(2) small tables for compact electronics
(1) high-powered stereo PA (preferably with subwoofer)
N.B. if the performance in the NYC area, we can provide much of these requirements ourselves if necessary
about the artists
piano/keyboard
live electronics
vibraphone
guitar
Phillip Golub, "a musician in fast ascent" (Wall Street Journal) and "[a] brilliant improviser" (JazzTimes), is a pianist, improviser, and composer based in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from Los Angeles, he creates highly original and expressive music, grounded in but not constrained by his engaged practice in jazz, creative music, and new music. Technically audacious, Golub sublates distant sound worlds, negating conventions, yet building on traditions.
Golub was nominated for the "Newcomer of the Year - International" category of the 2025 German Jazz Prize for his debut release as a bandleader, Abiding Memory (Berthold Records/Endectomorph Music). He was a 2025 Jazz artist in residence at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC and the Musician-in-Residence at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC for the fall semester of 2025.
Golub has been described by critics as "a polymath who elides any divide between improvised and composed music, or jazz and contemporary approaches [...] whose practice can't be contained by genre or discipline" (The Wire Magazine) and as an artist with "seemingly boundless creativity" (Downbeat). His recordings have been praised as “cutting edge” (Sequence 21), while containing “a profound concept […] triumphant […] fascinating” (Pop Matters). As a player, he has been noted for bringing “assurance, charisma, and infectious enthusiasm” (Steve Smith) to his performances and manifesting “exhilarating energy, charisma, and a canny ability to transform the complex and even inscrutable into sophisticated yet joyful noise” (Allmusic.com).
Golub is in demand as a pianist on New York’s jazz, creative music, and world music stages, performing and recording with a wide variety of artists such as Layale Chaker, DoYeon Kim, Lesley Mok, Anna Webber, Amir ElSaffar, Brad Shepik, Aynur Doğan, and Seajun Kwon. He has performed across the world at venues and festivals in Europe, North America, and Asia.
In addition to leading his own bands and projects, Golub deeply values collaboratively led projects. Golub co-founded the collective Tropos with his colleagues at the New England Conservatory, which released its debut record Axioms // 75ab in 2020 to mark the 75th birthday of Anthony Braxton. A new formation of the ensemble, featuring Yuma Uesaka (clarinets), Ledah Finck (violin), Aaron Edgcomb (drums/percussion), and Golub, was the 2023 recipient of Chamber Music America's Ensemble Forward grant. Tropos worked with mentor Darius Jones on the music for their album Switches, on Endectomorph Music. Golub also performs in a collective duo with Lesley Mok, under the name dream brigade. Mok and Golub released their debut self-titled album on Infrequent Seams.
Golub has an unwavering commitment to honoring the genealogy of jazz. He has played numerous times in bands led by jazz legend Cecil McBee and worked extensively with Wayne Shorter and esperanza spalding on their opera … (Iphigenia). He continues to play a crucial role in the Shorter estate, digitizing and preparing manuscripts for publication. Golub holds masters degrees from The New England Conservatory (Jazz Performance) and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (Composition).
Golub was nominated for the "Newcomer of the Year - International" category of the 2025 German Jazz Prize for his debut release as a bandleader, Abiding Memory (Berthold Records/Endectomorph Music). He was a 2025 Jazz artist in residence at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC and the Musician-in-Residence at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC for the fall semester of 2025.
Golub has been described by critics as "a polymath who elides any divide between improvised and composed music, or jazz and contemporary approaches [...] whose practice can't be contained by genre or discipline" (The Wire Magazine) and as an artist with "seemingly boundless creativity" (Downbeat). His recordings have been praised as “cutting edge” (Sequence 21), while containing “a profound concept […] triumphant […] fascinating” (Pop Matters). As a player, he has been noted for bringing “assurance, charisma, and infectious enthusiasm” (Steve Smith) to his performances and manifesting “exhilarating energy, charisma, and a canny ability to transform the complex and even inscrutable into sophisticated yet joyful noise” (Allmusic.com).
Golub is in demand as a pianist on New York’s jazz, creative music, and world music stages, performing and recording with a wide variety of artists such as Layale Chaker, DoYeon Kim, Lesley Mok, Anna Webber, Amir ElSaffar, Brad Shepik, Aynur Doğan, and Seajun Kwon. He has performed across the world at venues and festivals in Europe, North America, and Asia.
In addition to leading his own bands and projects, Golub deeply values collaboratively led projects. Golub co-founded the collective Tropos with his colleagues at the New England Conservatory, which released its debut record Axioms // 75ab in 2020 to mark the 75th birthday of Anthony Braxton. A new formation of the ensemble, featuring Yuma Uesaka (clarinets), Ledah Finck (violin), Aaron Edgcomb (drums/percussion), and Golub, was the 2023 recipient of Chamber Music America's Ensemble Forward grant. Tropos worked with mentor Darius Jones on the music for their album Switches, on Endectomorph Music. Golub also performs in a collective duo with Lesley Mok, under the name dream brigade. Mok and Golub released their debut self-titled album on Infrequent Seams.
Golub has an unwavering commitment to honoring the genealogy of jazz. He has played numerous times in bands led by jazz legend Cecil McBee and worked extensively with Wayne Shorter and esperanza spalding on their opera … (Iphigenia). He continues to play a crucial role in the Shorter estate, digitizing and preparing manuscripts for publication. Golub holds masters degrees from The New England Conservatory (Jazz Performance) and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (Composition).
Joseph Branciforte (b. 1985) is a musician, composer, designer, Grammy award-winning recording engineer and producer, and founder of the Greyfade record label. Described by Pitchfork as a “mastermind behind the scenes,” Branciforte has shaped the sound of countless recordings since 2010, blending artistic vision with technical expertise to become one of the most sought-after figures working in creative and experimental music today.
Since 2019, Branciforte has emerged as an influential artist in his own right, working fluidly across acoustic and electronic mediums. His music is marked by a dynamic interplay between meticulous structure and expressive immediacy, using process-driven techniques and technology to blur the line between composed and emergent sound.
His notable projects include LP1 and LP2, two duo recordings with vocalist Theo Bleckmann featuring Branciforte on Fender Rhodes and electronics. LP1 received widespread praise for its seamless merger of voice and machine, The New Yorker calling it a “beguiling” debut and All Music Guide recognizing it as one of 2019’s best albums. LP2 pushed their sonic language further, combining improvisation and post-production into a richly textured work, described by PopMatters as “a stunning experimental soundscape” and The Irish Times as “ear-opening and mind-altering.”
In 2023, at the invitation of Taylor Deupree, Branciforte set out to reimagine one of Deupree’s early microsound works for an all-acoustic ensemble. The result, 2024’s Sti.ll, highlighted his talents as an arranger, earning recognition for its balance of fidelity and transformation. Pitchfork hailed the album as “a contemporary classical composition of arresting beauty,” with Branciforte’s vibraphone, tactile production, and intricate arrangements bringing new depth to the minimalist work.
Branciforte founded the Greyfade record label in 2019 as a platform for artists exploring process-based composition, alternative tuning systems, and digitally mediated forms of improvisation. Combining curatorial vision, a refined design ethos, and exacting recording and production, the label has become a prominent outpost in the world of experimental music. As curator and designer, Branciforte brings careful attention to sound, concept, and form, crafting a cohesive identity that bridges music and visual art. In 2024, Greyfade launched the FOLIO format: a hardcover book that serves as an album release, critical text, study score, and collectible art object.
He maintains a busy production schedule mixing and mastering records at Greyfade Studio, located just north of New York City.
Since 2019, Branciforte has emerged as an influential artist in his own right, working fluidly across acoustic and electronic mediums. His music is marked by a dynamic interplay between meticulous structure and expressive immediacy, using process-driven techniques and technology to blur the line between composed and emergent sound.
His notable projects include LP1 and LP2, two duo recordings with vocalist Theo Bleckmann featuring Branciforte on Fender Rhodes and electronics. LP1 received widespread praise for its seamless merger of voice and machine, The New Yorker calling it a “beguiling” debut and All Music Guide recognizing it as one of 2019’s best albums. LP2 pushed their sonic language further, combining improvisation and post-production into a richly textured work, described by PopMatters as “a stunning experimental soundscape” and The Irish Times as “ear-opening and mind-altering.”
In 2023, at the invitation of Taylor Deupree, Branciforte set out to reimagine one of Deupree’s early microsound works for an all-acoustic ensemble. The result, 2024’s Sti.ll, highlighted his talents as an arranger, earning recognition for its balance of fidelity and transformation. Pitchfork hailed the album as “a contemporary classical composition of arresting beauty,” with Branciforte’s vibraphone, tactile production, and intricate arrangements bringing new depth to the minimalist work.
Branciforte founded the Greyfade record label in 2019 as a platform for artists exploring process-based composition, alternative tuning systems, and digitally mediated forms of improvisation. Combining curatorial vision, a refined design ethos, and exacting recording and production, the label has become a prominent outpost in the world of experimental music. As curator and designer, Branciforte brings careful attention to sound, concept, and form, crafting a cohesive identity that bridges music and visual art. In 2024, Greyfade launched the FOLIO format: a hardcover book that serves as an album release, critical text, study score, and collectible art object.
He maintains a busy production schedule mixing and mastering records at Greyfade Studio, located just north of New York City.
Aaron Edgcomb (he/they) is a composer, percussionist, and multi-disciplinary artist from Reno, NV, currently living in Brooklyn, NY whose work appears in such contexts as improvisational music, jazz, “new music”, noise, and song.
Aaron has performed in and composed for ensembles including: the avant-rock band Clak; the improvising chamber ensemble Tropos; and their solo percussion and electronics project REA, where they explore visual art via live video manipulation.
They have presented work around the world at places and events including: MATA festival, MoMA PS1, National Sawdust, Roulette, moers Festival, Big Ears, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Sarajevo Jazz Festival, and the Jazz Em Agosto Festival in Lisbon; not to mention the countless and invaluable living rooms, garages, basements, and DIY venues that are the soul of creative music.
Closely tied to their work as an improviser and composer is Aaron’s background in concert percussion. Aaron performs solo marimba, vibraphone, and multi-percussion works.
Aaron holds a B.M. in Jazz and Percussion from the University of Nevada, Reno, where his studies ranged from music to gender and identity, as well as a M.M. in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory.
Aaron has performed in and composed for ensembles including: the avant-rock band Clak; the improvising chamber ensemble Tropos; and their solo percussion and electronics project REA, where they explore visual art via live video manipulation.
They have presented work around the world at places and events including: MATA festival, MoMA PS1, National Sawdust, Roulette, moers Festival, Big Ears, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Sarajevo Jazz Festival, and the Jazz Em Agosto Festival in Lisbon; not to mention the countless and invaluable living rooms, garages, basements, and DIY venues that are the soul of creative music.
Closely tied to their work as an improviser and composer is Aaron’s background in concert percussion. Aaron performs solo marimba, vibraphone, and multi-percussion works.
Aaron holds a B.M. in Jazz and Percussion from the University of Nevada, Reno, where his studies ranged from music to gender and identity, as well as a M.M. in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory.
Ty Citerman is a Brooklyn, NY-based guitarist and composer who writes, performs and teaches music across the spectrum of jazz, rock and contemporary classical music. He holds a Master in Music (M.M.) degree in music composition from Brooklyn College (CUNY).
Ty was awarded a 2018 Brooklyn Arts Council grant to support the creation of his newest project Bop Kabbalah+Voices, a trio with Judith Berkson and Sara Serpa, who perform his original settings of radical Yiddish labor poetry. He is a founding member/composer for the irreverent chamber jazz ensemble Gutbucket, and he leads the Tzadik Records-recording quartet Bop Kabbalah. Ty has collaborated and shared stages with the American Composers Orchestra, John Zorn, JACK Quartet, Kaoru Watanabe, Dana Lyn, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Jill Sobule, Ethel, the composer collective Anti-Social Music, and many more. He recently composed original theme music for the podcast “Tradeoffs” and for the 2019 St. Anne’s Warehouse Labapalooza! puppetry festival show “To Love What Death Has Touched” by Kevin White.
Ty has recorded for Cuneiform, Cantaloupe Music, Enja, Knitting Factory, NRW, and Tzadik Records. His music has been featured on National Public Radio’s Soundcheck and World Café Live, Radio Free Europe and numerous stations across the world. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, London Jazz Festival, Paris Jazz Festival, Belgrade Jazz Festival, Jazz a Vienne, the Bang on a Can Marathon, Jazz Saalfelden and other prestigious venues.
Guitar Player called Ty’s music for Gutbucket “kinetic punk jazz opuses” that reveal “an explosive concoction containing lethal doses of Ornette Coleman, King Crimson, John Zorn, Black Sabbath, Stravinsky, and Fugazi.” The Guardian (UK) wrote that Ty’s composition “Throsp% boasts a hypnotically creeping guitar riff and an atmosphere of sustained menace” which “is not standard jazz territory.” Downbeat and The Sydney Morning Herald gave Bop Kabbalah’s CD 4/5 stars; JazzTimes called it “…one of the year’s most arresting recordings…wailing with enough majesty to bring down the walls of Jericho.”
Ty has a vibrant private teaching studio and is also on faculty at Brooklyn College and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. He has taught composition and improvisation as a guest artist at the Eastman School of Music, California Institute of the Arts, University of Minnesota, University of Missouri and Dartmouth College. Ty’s music is published by Bop Kabbalah (SESAC), and he endorses Tom Anderson Guitars, Pedaltrain pedal boards, Spectraflex guitar cables and Reunion Blues gig bags.
Ty was awarded a 2018 Brooklyn Arts Council grant to support the creation of his newest project Bop Kabbalah+Voices, a trio with Judith Berkson and Sara Serpa, who perform his original settings of radical Yiddish labor poetry. He is a founding member/composer for the irreverent chamber jazz ensemble Gutbucket, and he leads the Tzadik Records-recording quartet Bop Kabbalah. Ty has collaborated and shared stages with the American Composers Orchestra, John Zorn, JACK Quartet, Kaoru Watanabe, Dana Lyn, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Jill Sobule, Ethel, the composer collective Anti-Social Music, and many more. He recently composed original theme music for the podcast “Tradeoffs” and for the 2019 St. Anne’s Warehouse Labapalooza! puppetry festival show “To Love What Death Has Touched” by Kevin White.
Ty has recorded for Cuneiform, Cantaloupe Music, Enja, Knitting Factory, NRW, and Tzadik Records. His music has been featured on National Public Radio’s Soundcheck and World Café Live, Radio Free Europe and numerous stations across the world. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, London Jazz Festival, Paris Jazz Festival, Belgrade Jazz Festival, Jazz a Vienne, the Bang on a Can Marathon, Jazz Saalfelden and other prestigious venues.
Guitar Player called Ty’s music for Gutbucket “kinetic punk jazz opuses” that reveal “an explosive concoction containing lethal doses of Ornette Coleman, King Crimson, John Zorn, Black Sabbath, Stravinsky, and Fugazi.” The Guardian (UK) wrote that Ty’s composition “Throsp% boasts a hypnotically creeping guitar riff and an atmosphere of sustained menace” which “is not standard jazz territory.” Downbeat and The Sydney Morning Herald gave Bop Kabbalah’s CD 4/5 stars; JazzTimes called it “…one of the year’s most arresting recordings…wailing with enough majesty to bring down the walls of Jericho.”
Ty has a vibrant private teaching studio and is also on faculty at Brooklyn College and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. He has taught composition and improvisation as a guest artist at the Eastman School of Music, California Institute of the Arts, University of Minnesota, University of Missouri and Dartmouth College. Ty’s music is published by Bop Kabbalah (SESAC), and he endorses Tom Anderson Guitars, Pedaltrain pedal boards, Spectraflex guitar cables and Reunion Blues gig bags.
Contact for booking or other inquiries
phillip@phillipgolubmusic.com