Anagrams - Fly Away

Out Friday, January 22, 2027 · LP and digital · Southern Crescent

Anagrams, the “jazz / not jazz” project of Jeff Crompton and JD Walsh, return with Fly Away, the follow-up to their Balmat debut Blue Voices.

PRESS RELEASE

Anagrams, the “jazz / not jazz” project of Jeff Crompton (saxophones, clarinet, keyboards) and JD Walsh (guitars, keyboards, electronics), will release their second full-length album, Fly Away, on January 22, 2027. It follows their 2023 debut Blue Voices on Philip Sherburne and Albert Salinas's Balmat label.

Recorded in Atlanta between January 2024 and August 2025, Fly Away finds the duo honing their idiosyncratic palette of crisp horns, ambient textures, cyclical guitar lines, windswept synths, and left-of-center compositions, further refining a voice that resists easy labels. The result sits comfortably between ambient listening and adventurous jazz without fully belonging to either.

The album's first single, “Daufuskie,” arrives December 4. As a mid-tempo, expansive landscape on an asymmetrical foundation, fans of Tortoise (or, somehow, Neu!) will feel right at home. The second single, “Little Birds,” follows on January 8 with a video. In a departure for the duo, the track features vocalist and improvisor Monique Osorio bringing Crompton's lyrics to life over Walsh's and Crompton's soundscapes.

Other highlights include “Atawa,” whose melody Crompton scrawled on a napkin while watching a Gagaku performance in Kyoto; and “Prescription,” an expanded mix of the track that first appeared on Moon Glyph's Emerald compilation. “Bernice,” just guitar and saxophone, closes out the album with something akin to the duo's live sound.

RIYL: Sam Gendel, Patrick Shiroishi, SML, ECM, Tortoise

TRACKLIST

01. Prescription

02. Green Space

03. Viewmaster

04. Daufuskie

05. Little Birds

06. Kalimba Song

07. Atawa

08. May, 1975

09. Candle Clock

10. Bernice

BIO

Short:

Anagrams is the “jazz / not jazz” duo of Jeff Crompton (saxophones, clarinet, keyboards) and JD Walsh (guitars, keyboards, electronics). Their 2023 debut Blue Voices came out on Balmat. The follow-up, Fly Away, arrives January 22, 2027 on Southern Crescent.

Long:

Anagrams, the “jazz / not jazz” project of Jeff Crompton (saxophones, clarinet, keyboards) and JD Walsh (guitars, keyboards, electronics), blends crisp horns, ambient textures, cyclical guitar lines and windswept synths into music that sits between ambient listening and adventurous jazz without fully belonging to either.

Jeff Crompton is a veteran, credentialed jazz player with deep roots in Georgia's improvised and experimental music scenes, whose credits include shows with Eugene Chadbourne, a guest appearance with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and a collaboration with Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel's 12-hour drone performance at Big Ears.

JD Walsh has released music as Shy Layers since 2015, on labels including Growing Bin and Beats in Space, and also records as Natural Palace. The two met as neighbors in Atlanta and released their first record together, the 7-inch “Roll Call” / “Springs,” in 2020. Their 2023 debut album, Blue Voices, was released on Balmat, and Fly Away follows on Southern Crescent.