Wherever Thollem travels during an Astral Traveling Sessions jaunt like the ones he made with Alex Cline and Susan Alcorn, it’s a journey into the vast unknown areas of music that few dare to venture. But Thollem, he lives there.

We’ve known for a long time that Susan Alcorn is an amazing pedal steel guitarist. With ‘Pedernal,’ we now know that she is an amazing all-around artist, too.

Nate Wooley finds insight for his music from a glacial landscape and, like its namesake, his own ‘Columbia Icefield’ is far out and expansive.

Inspired by Susan Alcorn’s pedal steel guitar, ‘Away With You’ keeps Mary Halvorson’s idiosyncratic ideas fresh and pushes forward her boundless conception of jazz on the frontier.