For nearly three decades, multi-instrumentalists Rob Mazurek (Exploding Star Orchestra, Isotope 217) and Chad Taylor (jaimie branch’s Fly or Die, Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons) have crossed and defied artificial musical boundaries, notably through their various Chicago Underground projects — ranging from duo to orchestra.

De Singer and SiM/Oorstof are proud to present these foundational figures in the Chicago post-rock and avant-jazz movements, who continue to push sonic boundaries while drawing on the sound worlds of artists like Don Cherry, Wadada Leo Smith, Éliane Radigue, and King Tubby.

CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO: ROB MAZUREK – CHAD TAYLOR (US)

In 2025 Chicago Underground Duo, the long-running collaborative project of composer and trumpeter Rob Mazurek and composer and percussionist Chad Taylor, released Hyperglyph, via International Anthem, their first release together in eleven years and their eighth album as a duo. The project highlights a partnership spanning nearly three decades, built on a shared musical evolution and deep personal friendship since they first performed together as teenagers in 1988. Known as foundational figures in the Chicago post-rock and avant-jazz movements, the duo continues to blend jazz, electronic elements, and global rhythmic influences. Their sonic landscape draws directly from jazz visionaries like Don Cherry and Wadada Leo Smith to electronic pioneers such as Éliane Radigue, Bernard Parmegiani, Morton Subotnick, Xenakis, and the dub mastery of King Tubby. Recorded at International Anthem Studios in Chicago with engineer Dave Vettraino, the album transitions from West African polyrhythms and trancelike RMI electric piano grooves to Lee Morgan-esque trumpet cries, free-jazz tributes to Bill Dixon, and Kraftwerk-esque ambient closures—offering a distilled reflection of the duo’s long-standing intuitive symbiosis.

Rob Mazurek is a multidisciplinary artist/abstractivist, with a focus on electro-acoustic composition, improvisation, performance, painting, sculpture, video, film, and installation, who spent much of his creative life in Chicago, and then Brazil.
He currently lives and works in Marfa, Texas with his wife Britt Mazurek.

Chad Taylor is a drummer, percussionist, composer, educator, and scholar known for his focus on jazz, free improvisation, and creative music. Originally from Tempe, Arizona, he grew up in Chicago and has lived and worked in key music hubs such as New York and Philadelphia. He currently serves as Associate Professor and Artistic Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.