The Cellar and Point is an American "garage-chamber'" septet from New York City. Formed by drummer/producer/composer

Joseph Branciforte Joseph Branciforte (born 1985) is an American musician, composer, record producer, and Grammy-winning recording engineer. He is the founder of the greyfade record label. Biography Branciforte grew up in a suburb of New York City studying drums ...

and guitarist/composer Christopher Botta in 2010, the group's music draws from

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

, and

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...

. Their debut record, ''Ambit'', was released in 2014 on Cuneiform Records. The album was awarded 9/10 stars by

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

who called it "one of 2014's finest albums of challenging, engaging, and genre-defying contemporary music” and was included among

Soundcheck A sound check is the preparation that takes place before a concert, speech, or similar performance to adjust the sound on the venue's sound reinforcement or public address system. The performer and the audio engineers run through a small port ...

host John Schaefer's Top 10 Albums of 2014.

Music

The band has referred to its music as "garage-chamber," although it has alternatively been called "chamber-prog," "contemporary chamber jazz," and "post-everything." The group's core instrumentation consists of two guitars, bass, drums, vibraphone, violin, and cello, but is often extended to include banjo, piano, viola, glockenspiel, keyboards, and electronics. In addition to original compositions by co-leaders Branciforte and Botta, the group has performed and recorded arrangements of

20th century The 20th (twentieth) century began on January 1, 1901 ( MCMI), and ended on December 31, 2000 ( MM). The 20th century was dominated by significant events that defined the modern era: Spanish flu pandemic, World War I and World War II, nuclear ...

composers such as Anton Webern and

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" ...

. Past and present members currently perform with

JACK Quartet The JACK Quartet is an American string quartet dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. It was founded in 2005 and is based in New York City. The four founding members are violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, viol ...

The Claudia Quintet The Claudia Quintet are an American jazz ensemble formed in 1997 by drummer and composer John Hollenbeck. The ensemble was formed as successor to an ensemble called "the Refuseniks" with Hollenbeck and Quintet member Ted Reichman, and the quintet ...

, and Bing & Ruth.

Members

*Joe Bergen — vibraphone *Christopher Botta — acoustic guitar, banjo, composition *Joseph Branciforte — drums, piano, composition *Greg Chudzik — electric bass *Kevin McFarland — cello *Terrence McManus — electric guitar *Christopher Otto — violin, viola

Discography

* ''Ambit'' (2014) Cuneiform Records

Notes

External links

* Jazz ensembles from New York City American musical septets Musical groups established in 2010 Cuneiform Records artists 2010 establishments in New York City {{US-band-stub