*Announcing* Three IA11 Edition vinyl LPs out June 27th // Jeff Parker's The New Breed, Irreversible Entanglements' s/t debut, and Chicago Waves
*announcing*
IA11 Editions
Drop #2
As 2025 rolls on, we continue to celebrate our eleventh year (under the #IA11 chrysanthemum banner) by revisiting some of the most celebrated entries in our decade of releases.
These IA11 Edition LP packages are presented with new liner notes, new insert booklets, and the fresh 2025 redesign of our obi (c/o designer Aaron Lowell Denton). They are also set at a price point intended to make the albums more accessible than ever before. Today, we are happy to announce the second drop of three titles in that series:
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Jeff Parker - The New Breed (IA11 Edition)
preview/preorder here
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Irreversible Entanglements - Irreversible Entanglements (IA11 Edition)
preview/preorder here
IARC0033LP11 Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson - Chicago Waves (IA11 Edition)
preview/preorder here
The three records are also available as a bundle with discounted price for purchasing all three together!
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Jeff Parker
The New Breed (IA11 Edition)
Jeff Parker’s 2016 album The New Breed was a turning point for both Parker and International Anthem, changing the trajectory of his solo career as well as drawing an abundance of attention to our fresh imprint despite our then very limited catalog. Most importantly though, the album is the first to give voice to Parker’s wholly unique take on sample-based beat construction augmented by improvisation and live instrumentation (performed in this case by the high-level crew of Paul Bryan on bass, Josh Johnson on alto saxophone and keys, Jamire Williams and Jay Bellerose on drums, Parker's daughter Ruby on vocals, and Parker himself on guitar, synths, and other instruments).
What began as Jeff’s interest in understanding his own idea of hip-hop processes (and how they related to his work in jazz) expanded into a blueprint for much of his work since then. (Hear also: The New Breed’s expansive followup Suite For Max Brown, the gentle deconstructionist solo guitar of Forfolks, and the long-form slow bloom improvisation of The Way Out of Easy.)
The IA11 Edition LP features our IARC 2025 obi strip, plus a new 16-page 11x11" insert booklet with unpublished session photos, new liner notes by album co-producer Paul Bryan, and an in-depth conversation between Jeff Parker and IARC co-founder Scott McNiece.
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Irreversible Entanglements
Irreversible Entanglements (IA11 Edition)
Irreversible Entanglements’s self-titled debut album was originally released in September 2017, and features the first music ever played together by the freshly assembled Philly/NY/DC-based quintet of poet Camae Ayewa (aka Moor Mother), bassist Luke Stewart, saxophonist Keir Neuringer, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, and drummer Tcheser Holmes. The explosive collection of improvised free-jazz with spoken word accompaniment was born after the group's initial meeting at a Musicians Against Police Brutality event (organized by musicians/comrades Amirtha Kidambi and Peter Evans following the state-sponsored killing of Akai Gurley).
As the original press release puts it: “the spirit and subject the band channels and explores represent a return to a central tenet of the free jazz sound as it was founded—to be a vehicle for Black liberation. As creative and adventurous as any recording of contemporary avant-garde jazz but offering listeners no abstractions to hide behind, this is music that both honors and defies tradition, speaking to the present while insisting on the future.”
It’s that balance of honor and defiance that is so palpable in this early music of Irreversible Entanglements which, despite its system-shocking effect, sits squarely in the lineage of East Coast free jazz (often echoing the mid-1960s work of The New York Art Quartet and Amiri Baraka, among others). That line can be traced through all of the band’s recordings, including two other albums released by International Anthem (2020's Who Sent You? and 2021's Open The Gates), and their 2023 album Protect Your Light (released by Impulse! Records). Now ten years on from their first collective sound captured in the recording session for this self-titled debut, it’s clear that Irreversible Entanglements's intensity of spirit and purity of purpose influenced our label as much as it did its own community.
The IA11 Edition LP features our IARC 2025 obi strip, plus a new 8-page 11x11" insert booklet with unpublished session photos and new liner notes by Irreversible Entanglements bassist Luke Stewart.
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Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
Chicago Waves (IA11 Edition)
The 2018 live performance captured on Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s Chicago Waves marked a beautiful turning point for International Anthem. The moment was recorded at our then-HQ in Chicago, Co-Prosperity, the day after Niño and Atwood-Ferguson performed as part of Makaya McCraven’s ensemble to celebrate the release of Universal Beings and recreate their contributions to that album's “Los Angeles Side."
The two musicians were keen to use their time in Chicago to not only support Makaya's music but also create and present fresh sounds of their own to a receptive new community. In many ways this set of improvisational, exploratory conversation between Atwood-Ferguson’s violin/effects and Niño’s percussion/soundscapes cemented the growing interchange between International Anthem's bases in LA and the Windy City.
The 2020 release of this recording as Chicago Waves magnified the unmistakable sound of togetherness audible in its grooves in a way that was uniquely cathartic given the difficulties, restrictions, and widespread social isolation of those times. But as that era fades further into the rearview mirror, Chicago Waves maintains its power. It’s not a mystery—this is what togetherness sounds like.
The IA11 Edition LP features our IARC 2025 obi strip, plus a new 16-page 11x11" insert booklet with additional photos and extensive new liner notes by IARC co-founder Scott McNiece.
*ICYMI*
IA11 Editions
Drop #1
In case you missed it... our first batch of IA11 Edition vinyl LPs was released on March 28th. Copies of each are still available via your local record shop and/or our Bandcamp page! Links below.
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Rob Mazurek - Alternate Moon Cycles (IA11 Edition)
order here
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Makaya McCraven - In The Moment (IA11 Edition)
order here
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Ben LaMar Gay - Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun (IA11 Edition)
order here
...about IA11...
On December 2nd, 2024, we marked the ten-year anniversary of our first release. With a full decade under our belt – ten years of commitment to a growing community of artists, and our original mission statement ("to vitalize demand for boundary defying music," among other things) – we've spent a lot of time thinking about how we'd like to celebrate this milestone. What we keep coming back to is: desire to use this opportunity to revisit and revivify music and memories from our first decade; but keeping true to our ethos of always looking forward, all the way.
In that spirit, across 2025, we'll be rolling out a series of releases and events under the #IA11 banner. Celebrating our eleventh year. Doing our best to retell essential, foundational stories from our past, while keeping our hearts and minds fixed on the present. Trying to establish new standards that can help carry our mission through another decade of work – and hopefully more.
We created an emblem for IA11 with a vibrating interpretation of a chrysanthemum as the central symbol. Aside from just loving the delicious golden nectar that comes from the leaves of this flower, for us, the image of the chrysanthemum resonates as a symbol of longevity and rejuvenation. Two of the driving intentions behind this IA11 effort.
Please stay tuned for more announcements about more special IA11 events and releases across 2025.
11 of 11
@ Hungry Brain
Chicago
As part of the #IA11 celebration, we have been proud to present this special event series in Chicago, focusing on a different album from our catalog on the last Monday of every month across 2025 at the Hungry Brain. Each 11 of 11 event features deep listening of an album, followed by a small group of musicians performing an interpretation of that album.
The next 11 of 11 event, Monday May 26th, will feature a full listening to Jeff Parker's International Anthem debut The New Breed (originally released June 2016), followed by a performance by Chet Zenor (electric guitar), Brian Seyler (saxophone, electronics), Gus Martini (electric bass), and Andy Danstrom (drums), as the musicians respond to and reinterpret the music of the album.
Get tickets for May 26th here; and stay tuned for details and lineups for future 11 of 11 events.
