“I think we’re in the midst of a mass awakening,” says Max ZT, “a kind of collective reprioritization. It feels like we’ve been forging our way through the darkness, and now the light is finally about to break through.” With Daybreak, Max’s mesmerizing new album of hammered dulcimer music, the light has arrived. Recorded at home in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fully-improvised instrumental collection channels all of the hope and fear of these past few years into a captivating sonic journey that’s equal parts medicine and meditation. The songs here are spare and deliberate, calling on Indian, African, and Celtic traditions as they move with grace and wonder, and the performances are entrancing, at once evoking Eno’s ambient works and Mary Lattimore’s harp compositions. A national champion performer who built the instrument he plays on the album, Max has been called the Jimi Hendrix of the hammered dulcimer by NPR, but Daybreak isn’t about fireworks or flash. Instead, the collection is an offering, an ego-sublimating invitation to let go and find peace and comfort in reflection.

A Chicago native who now calls Brooklyn home, Max developed his unique sound through years of study as far afield as Senegal and India. With his band, House of Waters, he’s shared stages with the likes of Ravi Shankar, Tinariwen, Jimmy Cliff, Bela Fleck, and Victor Wooten, scored an Emmy-winning documentary, and released two critically acclaimed albums on Snarky Puppy’s GroundUP Music label.

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Photo credit: Shervin Lainez