“If Mahavishnu, Miles and Broetzmann’s Die Like A Dog quartet had a party in an Istanbul punk /metal club, it would be this.” – overheard post-concert
Searing, atmospheric and hypnotic, Love Unfold The Sun deftly summons free jazz, Middle Eastern and hard rock elements as the canvas for sparkling telepathic interplay and muscular grooves.
Conceived by guitarist/oudist/improvisor Mustafa Stefan Dill , Love Unfold The Sun reconvened in 2018, with most of its original lineup from its original Santa Fe provenance in the 2000s. The band’s first two reunion shows were multitracked and released as Live At Duel in February 2019.
The interplay, energy, range and the much freer take on the usual world/jazz mashup genre made the disc a compelling offering:
“The open improvisations reveal an acute sensitivity ,… ushering the quartet into one bracing and surprising exploration after another.” Mel Minter, Musically Speaking, April 2019
“…[the group members] combine nicely the 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…” Grego Applegate Edwards, https://gapplegateguitar.blogspot.com, May 2019
The band has developed an enthusiastic and increasing following via its live shows, spurring the digital-only Live at Paradiso in 2024, a documentation of the band’s celebratory first appearance following Dill’s bouts with cancer and open heart surgery.
“Explode Yourself”, releasing May 2025, is the group’s first studio release, offering new tracks as well as a more detailed, concise treatment of previous live material, while still maintaining their trademark spontaneity and sensitivity.
who we are:
mustafa stefan dill
Mustafa Stefan Dill is best known for his fiery, virtuosic amalgam of Middle Eastern, jazz, rock and experimental elements on electric guitar, flamenco guitar and oud in such projects as Pray For Brain, Love Unfold The Sun, and others.
His penchant for pushing the edge can be traced back as far as 1988 when Guitar Player magazine heralded his early electric work as “a maniacal tour de force of outside extremism.”
Dill is a product of diverse cross-cultural childhood experiences, including strong memories with Lebanese relatives in Mexico and formative years in the culturally diverse city of Montpellier, France. He earned a Masters degree in composition from the New England Conservatory in Boston, studying with Joe Maneri.
He has performed in solo concerts throughout Europe since 1992 at such venues and festivals as FMP’s Total Music Meeting, Wirral Guitar Festival, Paderborn Guitar Festival, Zuid Nederlands Jazz Festival, Festival HispanoAmericano de la Guitarra, Erlbach, Nickelsdorf, and more.
He has worked with Cecil Talyor, Guus Janssen, J.A. Deane, former students John Dikeman and Ava Mendoza, Brahim Fribgane, Jack Wright, John Jasnoch and others.
Dill’s initial solo music – an intense and unique convergence of traditional flamenco elements and modern free improvisation – won critical praise with recordings such as Warning Clothed in Bright Robes of Dawn (1994) and Sangre Del Rio (1997), establishing his hallmark methodology of combining post-modern and traditional improvising vocabularies from the deep roots of the various musical traditions he grew up in.
That signature approach continues to extend across a wide array of settings and volume levels.
He 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), the first incarnation of Love Unfold The Sun, 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 in 2014 on7D Media to critical acclaim.
In 2018, Dill 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.” He contributed a guest appearance in 2022 on oud for the death metal guitarist Karl Sanders (of Nile) solo album Saurian Apocalypse.
Current projects include Love Unfold The Sun, the free-jazz/ambient/funk collective Present Moment with saxophonist Jim Goetsch, bassist Kim Stone (Rippingtons, Spyrogyra) and Dave Wayne, and a fresh return to the solo acoustic post-flamenco soundscapes that began his career, with a preview EP of solo acoustic work to be released this spring. Dill plans to extend the acoustic work into possible group formations in late 2025.
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), Lalias (a snake oil ambient orphan folk duo project with actor/instrumentalist Rod Harrison), Rhombus Ensemble, and the Zozobra Orchestra.
dave wayne
drums
is a self-taught drummer and composer who’s accompanied 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, Michael Vlatkovich and Catherine Sikora.
In 2009, he composed a clutch of original pieces and formed a band – The Things That Are Heard – to play them. His playing (and composing) has also been documented on several albums, both privately issued and on indie labels such as pfMENTUM, Plutonium, Amirani, and Zerx. Currently,
Dave plays drums for a few local New Mexico jazz and funk bands in addition to his work with Love Unfold The Sun.