Kin by Andy Akiho, Ian Rosenbaum

This collection is about a friendship that was born in fall 2009. Andy and I were in a class together in graduate school, and afterwards, he walked up to me and said, “I play the steel pan. I’m playing a gig at Miso’s tonight, and you should come.” I did go - and my jaw hit the floor after hearing Andy play for 5 minutes. He redefined my definition of what the steel pan could do. After the performance, I went up to him, and asked what music he had that I could play. He didn’t have anything for steel pan and percussion, so we started to arrange some of his existing music for the two of us. We’ve worked on many projects together over the years, but we always find our way back to this duo. This collection contains pieces old and new - many originally written for different instrumental combinations than ours. Our arrangements are a re-imagining of these pieces.

This album is also about one other person - Sean Dixon. Sean and Andy have worked together for more than 20 years. I first got to know him as a drummer, and then as an engineer and producer when he joined us to create Seven Pillars. In 2018, our good friend Jakob Bokulich invited the three of us to play an impromptu performance at the Foley Gallery in NYC. We had all played together in all kinds of contexts, but never as a trio. We didn’t rehearse, we just sketched out a structure and dove in. It was a magical set - and even if we didn’t realize it then, that evening was the starting place for this album.

- Ian Rosenbaum

andyakiho.com