Composer, cornetist, electronic & acoustic sound specialist and musical director Rob Mazurek leads his largest regular ensemble, the Exploding Star Orchestra through one of his most ambitious recordings. While Galactic Parables: Volume 1 is a self-contained cosmos, marked by colliding melodic lines and startlingly beautiful passages, as the title indicates, it's part of a larger work. Ever since Exploding Star Orchestra's debut recording, Mazurek has been gradually building an epic science fiction opera inspired by the writings of Samuel R. Delany and Stanislaw Lem. With Galactic Parables his vast speculative realm is coming more clearly into focus with an apocalyptic vision of alternate universes, machine reproduction run amuck, and the colonization of distant planets. Galactic Parables "is the first record where we're getting close to hitting on the libretto for this future opera," says Mazurek, who by both inclination and geography is linked to a constellation of Chicago avant-garde pioneers. Ultimately what makes the record so enthralling on both the flight into the cosmos and the return journey is that the Exploding Star Orchestra brings together a creatively charged cast of improvisers: Personnel: Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics); Nicole Mitchell (vocals, flute); Guilherme Granado (vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, sampler); Damon Locks (vocals, electronics); Jeff Parker (guitar); Mauricio Takara (cavaquinho, percussion, electronics); Matthew Bauder (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Angelica Sanchez (piano); Matthew Lux (bass guitar); John Herndon, Chad Taylor (drums). Director: Rob Mazurek. Photographer: Damon Locks.