what we do
Atmospheric, searing and hypnotic, the Middle Eastern-tinged free-jazz/funk quartet Love Unfold The Sun reunited in 2018, reconvening a well-known area lineup from the early 2000s. They released “Live At Duel” in 2019, a live album full of sparkling interplay and hypnotic grooves and are impressing audiences in the desert southwest.
The interplay, energy, range and the much freer take on the usual world/jazz mashup genre make this a unique and standout offering.
who we are:
mustafa stefan dill
Dill has performed in solo concerts throughout Europe since 1992 in both improvised music and guitar circles at such venues and festivals as FMP’s Total Music Meeting, Nickelsdorf, Wirral Guitar Festival, Paderborn Guitar Festival, Zuid Nederlands Jazz Festival, Festival HispanoAmericano de la Guitarra, Erlbach, and others.
His initial music – an intense and unique convergence of traditional flamenco and Middle Eastern elements and modern free improvisation – won critical praise with recordings such as Warning Clothed in Bright Robes of Dawn, Sangre Del Rio and Six Peaces (his debut on the oud), paving the way for his hallmark approach of combining modern and traditional improvising techniques within a deep immersion of various cultural musical traditions.
He has worked with Cecil Talyor, Brahim Fribgane, Ramon Lopez, Guus Janssen, J.A. Deane, former students John Dikeman and Ava Mendoza, Jack Wright, John Jasnoch, hip hop duo K.Benally/Letsjustsb and others.
He also maintained the adventurous energy of classic progressive rock and free jazz in such projects as the Stefan Dill Trio’s release Run For Heaven (2002), Sama Duo (with whom he scored the soundtrack for the independent Bengali film Birth Of A Pillow), and the prog/word/funk trio Pray For Brain, which released its debut CD None Of the Above early spring of 2014 on7D Media to critical acclaim.
In 2018, he licensed solo oud tracks for the documentary “Facing History and Ourselves” and in 2019 composed and recorded the score for the Santa Fe Playhouse production of “The Happiest Song Plays Last.”
Current projects include the Middle Eastern jazz funk quartet Love Unfold The Sun, a new Taos-based formation, and a return to acoustic solo work.
dan pearlman
cornet
Studied trumpet and composition at the Oberlin Conservatory in the mid 1960’s. After spending a number of years in New York and Washington D.C., Dan moved to New Mexico in 1983.
He has played with many different bands and musicians throughout New Mexico in the years since then, including various ensembles with the members of Love Unfold the Sun.
He and Dave Wayne perform frequently with their jazz quintet, OrnEtc.
Dan plays a custom made instrument called the Cornette, built by Dave Monette in Portland, Oregon, which has a very warm and distinctive sound.
ross hamlin
bass
is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from Minneapolis who’s called Santa Fe home since 2004.
In addition to playing bass with LUTS, he also leads Dovetail Orchestra (a silent film/live music accompaniment project), the newly-formed Rhombus Ensemble, Stella Trois and Mushi Project.
dave wayne
drums
is a self-taught drummer and composer who hails from the Philadelphia area. Before landing in Santa Fe, NM in the early 1990s, he lived in South Florida, South Carolina, New Orleans, Virginia, England, and Reno, NV, playing drums in various bands in each location. The past few years have seen Dave accompany a number of innovative and accomplished New Mexico-based jazz and rock artists.
He’s also performed with touring musicians such as Brian Haas, Thollem McDonas, Dan Clucas, Jeff Platz, Andrew Lamb, Rob Brown, Jack Wright, Alan Lechusza, Joshua Smith, Michael Vlatkovich and Clyde Reed. In 2009, he composed a clutch of original pieces and formed a band – The Things That Are Heard – to play them.
Dave continues to compose and play jazz, funk, and jazz-rock with OrnEtc., Shake Alert, Shatner Powerslide, and Love Unfold The Sun. Dave’s playing has also been documented on a fistful of albums, both privately issued and on labels such as pfMENTUM, Plutonium, Snowdonia, and Zerx. He’s especially proud of the last 2 albums: “These Times” by OrnEtc. (2016, self-released), and “Hotend: Do Tell Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill” (2015, Amirani Records).
reviews
“The open improvisations reveal an acute sensitivity ,…, ushering the quartet into one bracing and surprising exploration after another.” Mel Minter, Musically Speaking, April 2019
“[a] kind of post-Milesian electricity of the Davis ’70s bands with a Mid-Eastern sensibility and plenty of freedom. Dill has his own way around the guitar and it has been influenced quite naturally by his own oud work. Everybody gets with it here. It is a good go of things, I would say!” Grego Applegate Edwards, https://gapplegateguitar.blogspot.com, May 2019