Derek Rogers - Immersions

Listening to Immersions - and some disclosure is warranted: I am a sometimes collaborator of Rogers' and also his engineer - I am struck by the evolution of his work, less in terms of maturation and more in admiration of it's arc from the late aughts to the present. And I believe that most listeners will relate: there is a sincerity in the narratives he constructs, whether in the studio or improvising in a live setting. It's a sincerity that compares with that of storytellers, and singer-songwriter types. This has been the case with his last several records, each more powerful than the last, and Immersions is a brilliant set of music taken through this lens.The record finds equal kinship with the slow burn of a Southern gothic short story, as much as the music of Junk Genius, the small West Coast ensemble comprised equally of jazz musicians and plunderphonics practitioners. These are musicians that retroactively redraw the boundaries of Americana, allowing for an evaluation of what we understand of genres, and Rogers' music is among those that challenge definitions.The crossover that is organically taking shape among today's avant musics and more traditional forms is exciting, to say the least. Some would rightly argue that such currents have been underway for some time, but perhaps only recently so openly. Listening to Rogers' latest as 'an album,' Immersions in so many ways represents that openness, and I suspect will coincidentally invite more of it. - A.F. Jones