(photo by Ashley Mia)
CHICAGO-BASED MULTI-MEDIUM ARTIST DAMON LOCKS & BLACK CHAMBER MUSIC COLLECTIVE D-COMPOSED SHARE “REFLECTING (ON US)”
FROM DEBUT COLLABORATIVE ALBUM DAWNING OUT LP/CD/DD DECEMBER 4
*** buy here ***
ALBUM RELEASE SHOW DECEMBER 11 AT THE LAND SCHOOL, CHICAGO (RSVP)
Today, November 3, 2026, Chicago based visual artist, educator, vocalist, musician, and deejay Damon Locks and Black chamber music collective D-Composed share “Reflecting (On Us)”, the second single from their forthcoming collaborative debut album Dawning (out on LP, CD, and digitally Friday December 4, 2026).
Listen to “Reflecting (On Us)” and preorder/presave Dawning here.
(Dawning album cover art by Damon Locks)
Dawning was recorded in the auditorium of The Land School, Rebuild Foundation’s headquarters in a reconstituted former elementary school on Chicago’s south side, where D-Composed and International Anthem have been creative partners-in-residence since its opening in 2025. The album’s sonic palette pairs Locks’ live sampling, beat knowledge, and spoken word swagger with D-Composed’s uniquely improvisational take on the string quartet. D-Composed’s quartet in this instance features: violinists Khelsey Zarraga and Anya Brumfield, violist Seth Pae, and cellist Lindsey Sharpe.
What we hear on Dawning is what Locks and D-Composed brought to the auditorium on April 11, 2026. It is a performance that Locks and Zarraga say was meant to be “a sound experience that pulls you in and wrings you out.” The recorded document is hard to argue with. From sublime and consonant downbeat grooves to genuinely frightening, dissonant and anxious meltdowns, the six pieces that make up the album cover so much musical ground with such an expert touch that it can be difficult to remember that we’re listening to something that occurred all at once in the same room.
Today’s single “Reflecting (On Us)” is a powerful showcase of the strings of D-Composed, and undoubtedly the centerpiece of the album. A dark and ennui-filled solo cello starts this ominous piece, followed by an ascendant droning intensity building as the remaining members of the ensemble enter. The surface noise crackles from Locks’ rig feel like actual flames atop a repeating heartbeat pulse. Loopers are playing and players are looping—it’s difficult to tell what is a live moment and what is a sample. Except that it’s all a live moment: even the samples are being blasted through the PA, gently reverberating in the early spring air on Dorchester Avenue, just outside of the building walls. The apex of dissonance hits as the lone human voice echoes in a repeating sampled phrase: “It was though I stepped into a strange city — a city from which all people had fled.”
Listen to “Reflecting (On Us)” and preorder/presave Dawning here.
On Friday, December 11, 2026, Locks and D-Composed gather for an album release celebration and performance, co-presented by International Anthem in the auditorium of The Land School in Chicago, the same location where Dawning was recorded earlier this year.
Entry is free with a suggested donation of $20, RSVP here.
DELUXE VINYL PACKAGE
Dawning is available as a 140 gram vinyl LP (pressed by Pallas in Germany, with lacquers cut by Daniel K at SST) inside a heavyweight matte jacket, with IARC obi strip, insert sheet, and poly-lined inner-sleeve.
Limited edition manual press Dawning color vinyl LP - $32
Classic black vinyl LP - $27
Compact Disc - $16
