Natural Information Society - Perseverance Flow

A 37-minute supernatural transmission of rhythmic grit and studio alchemy.

Following the monumental success of their recent trilogy—including the #1 underground classic Since Time Is Gravity—Chicago’s Natural Information Society (NIS) returns to its core quartet for their most formally daring project yet. Perseverance Flow is a single, continuous 37-minute composition that finds the ensemble of Lisa Alvarado (harmonium), Mikel Patrick Avery (drums), Jason Stein (bass clarinet), and Joshua Abrams (guimbri) operating with the discipline of an orchestra and the soul of a street-corner drum circle.

While previous outings invited jazz legends like Evan Parker to solo over their grooves, the "guest collaborator" on Perseverance Flow is the recording studio itself. Recorded at Chicago’s legendary Electrical Audio with engineer Greg Norman, the album captures a performance honed over a year on the road, then refracted through the "sonic funhouse of dub." Abrams pushes post-production to the brink, distorting and mutating instruments to create a soundscape he describes as "a Jaylib lost instrumental remixed by Kevin Shields."

Deeply rooted in the rhythmic intricacy of Chicago house and the modal meditations of Coltrane, Perseverance Flow is both a destruction myth and a creation myth in one. As The Wire (October 2025) aptly noted, this is "energetically nutritious" music—a soundfield that grows stronger the deeper you travel into it. Lower the stylus and let the skip-rope-in-slow-motion rhythm rally your spirit.