Zack Clarke - Piano
Alex Louloudis - Drums & Composition

'What We Are' is the flower that came out of the years-long collaboration between Zack Clarke and Alex Louloudis.

The two met in New York City, became friends, and started collaborating in a variety of musical situations. Countless sessions, exploring the freer side of the Jazz idiom, gigs, and Louloudis' graduation recital from the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music are some of the occasions that tighten their musical and personal connection.

In the summer of 2018, Clarke and Louloudis went to their mutual friend Leonid Galaganov to record this album, thus creating a milestone in their relationship. They decided to play some of Louloudis' compositions that he had written during the five year-period preceding this recording. Music that was birthed from all crevices and horizons experienced by him as he navigated life in New York City, being a Greek native, and the diversity of situations that this life brings.

As may be apparent from listening to the album, both Clarke and Louloudis find their aesthetic preferences closer to the free jazz approaches. At the same time, one can understand that the two are heavily rooted in the jazz tradition as well as other important traditions that come from different places in the world. High on their list of influences, both in the composition and improvisation fronts, two have Ornette Coleman and his innovation of the harmolodic approach.

Oliver Lake is another very important artist for Louloudis. Lake was Louloudis' composition teacher and one of his favorite artists, both as an improviser, composer, poet, and painter. Lake is the one that influenced Louloudis to take up some of these non-musical roles as well, like the role of a painter, which Louloudis provides for this album. A painting that was completed recently, when Louloudis started working with recyclable and construction materials, was chosen for the album.

This original cover art seems to represent the music well; they both have some structure but also a lot of freedom. They both can be read as a bit minimal at times and a bit expressionist at other times.

This turn towards a multi-disciplinary direction comes from an artist's need to self-express in ways that are not confined by education and formal training. Art-making transcends all these things and goes back to its original workings of creation that simply ask for an impulse that needs to be acted upon and an aesthetic being shaped constantly as long as one lives and observes.

Clarke and Louloudis put into use these original works of art-making in order to create an album that is uniquely theirs and ready for the world to enjoy.