Hi everyone, 

We enter fall with a beautiful new record from The Cosmic Tones Research Trio, and the release of Bizimungu Dieudonne’s lost Rwandan masterpiece, Inzovu Y’Imirindi (The Elephant of Great Footsteps). 

These are the kind of projects that keep us going - one is the contemporary extension of the musical traditions we admire, and the other is an archival deep dive into a sound and story that needs to be heard. “Excavating the future,” as Mike Davis put it (RIP). 

The Cosmic Tones will bring their healing music to Portland (tonight!) and NYC (Sunday, Sept 21). These are must-see shows! We’ll also be kicking off the glorious Making Time Festival in Philly this Friday.

Fall means Dead Moon Night in Portland, one of the few holidays truly worth celebrating. Eric puts it best in a dispatch from the Mississippi shop:

When the city of Portland declared October 5th an official holiday to celebrate Dead Moon, for the first time in my life I felt a moment of universal balance. The good guys won. The earth's axis was neither tilted towards or away from the sun. It felt like we might be okay. 

As the world does its best to tilt into authoritarianism and techno dystopianism, local, galvanizing, and extremely human things like DIY rock n roll need to come back to restore the balance. We need DIY culture more than ever. So, let's go! 

Speaking of galvanizing giants of DIY culture who restore the balance, we are very sad to report the passing of the great Johnny Coley, a true artist and friend of the label. We’ve been listening to Johnny nonstop, and thinking of ways to properly celebrate his life. For now, we’ll end with a line from one of his poems, taken from Sweet Wreath’s beautiful tribute newsletter. I can hear his voice reciting it…

just a snowy field beyond a fence,

then the fence is gone but there is moonlight

on the field, on the snow.

All the love, 

mississippi

ps. there are a lot of words here. if the email is cut off at the bottom, click the three dots to see the rest…

MOR-11
Cosmic Tones Research Trio
Release: Oct 24, 2025

LISTEN / PREORDER

The follow-up to last year’s stunning “All Is Sound” sees The Cosmic Tones Research Trio—Roman Norfleet, Harlan Silverman, and Kennedy Verrett—take a massive leap forward. Based in Portland, Oregon, the trio crafts a transcendent listening experience rooted in both meditative stillness and rhythmic propulsion. One of the best bands currently doing it! The play tonight in Portland, and play their NYC debut at Public Records on September 21!

MRI-216
Bizimungu Dieudonne “Inzovu Y'Imirindi”
Release: Nov 14, 2025

LISTEN / PREORDER

Exultant extended jams by Rwandan family band, completely different from anything else released in East Africa. Click the link to listen and read about the painful journey this music has taken to arrive with us, and the current generation keeping the memory alive…

Writer and experimental artist Yaz Lancaster recently chatted with Roman Norfleet, Harlan Silverman, and Kennedy Verrett of The Cosmic Tones Research Trio on the fire that brought the band together and the “essential oil” of their new record.

Yaz: How did you all start making music together?

Roman: We are all musicians doing our thing out here in Portland. And I think we met over the course of a series of concerts and seeing each other play. We are a part of a larger ensemble called Be Present Art Group. And through playing a few concerts together, just recognize the synergy and some of the like-minded ways of thinking about music and connecting. And so we had a benefit concert for Mississippi Records, and wanted to focus on healing music and music that's restorative and regenerative. So we came together for that concert and it proved to be a real dynamic experience not only for us and the environment but for the people who attended and the label themselves and they wanted to continue the journey with us and make an album. And so we've been pushing it from there, continuing to regenerative, restorative music.

Yaz: I'm curious about the name of your trio. Is research a big part of your practice?

Roman: Yeah, that is a big part of our practice. We all are sonic researchers in our own right.

And the cosmic aspect of it just refers to a universality of what music is and what it can be and what it will be. Embracing sort of the divine and spiritual in the word “cosmic.” We did some sonic research in a tribute to Sun Ra on a project called “Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy”. 

Kennedy: For me a lot of the research is really understanding the mechanism of sound and how it really shapes our perspective of the world around us, and that's both from a scientific standpoint, like how those physical waves are actually affecting our body, and then coupled with the rest of our senses – How does it create this sonic snapshot to help us remember where things are? Basically helping us to figure out our place in this particular cosmos or plane of existence using sound. That goes into psychoacoustics and the art of listening, which modifies our perception of what music actually is. 

Because we have it in this space of listening on headphones, or maybe you go to a concert and it's in a particular structure in a particular format. And yet we have all these different genres and these different ways of receiving music and perceiving music in such a way that it's unique to each individual person that experiences it. And so for me, a lot of the research is coupling that with the spiritual nature of humans and our relationship to the universe, that internal struggle, how we navigate the world around us based on that perception and then how all of those particular vibrations are moving in such a way that we can recognize the spiritual aspect and that physical plane connecting us to each other.

Harlan: A big part of the research for me is the power music has to relax our mind, body and spirit. That's the underlying message of our music and from that first concert we played seeing how we were able to clear space and bring positive energy and let people take a moment to breathe. We were playing the concert because somebody had thrown a brick through Mississippi Records. It was to have the community come together and rest and to recharge. So that was the first research that this trio did. And from there, we've been bringing that research more and more.

Roman: And that brick actually had something going on with it. It caught on fire. So a section of the store caught on fire. 

Yaz: Wow, that's crazy. So in hearing you talk about that first show, I feel like there's a real importance for you in the space that the music happens in. I'm just wondering if you can talk a little bit more about how you set that space or facilitate that openness for people to come in and have these deep listening moments. Is there fragrance involved? Or are people laying down?

Harlan: Most of the concerts are traditional venues, but I think that this music would lend to people lying down. And I would like to have that be more of a space. [To the other ensemble members] Have we played a concert where it's been in a kind of non-traditional concert space?

Kennedy: Not an official concert, but I'm going back to that first offering we did at Mississippi, many of the people were on the ground so they could feel those vibes up close and personal to what we were throwing down. I think people, even in a traditional space, find a way to receive. Before we go on, we come together and do a tone, a collective oneness tone, we do three of them. That way we can center in and offer our intentions for that particular concert. It's this open invitation to experience music not just as, "Oh, here's music," but it's an actual journey and actual practice in breathing in, being present in the moment and trusting the sounds that take you on whatever journey you need to find peace. 

We're all very particular about how things sound and how they're coming across. That's incredibly important because we're using tones in such a way where any one note that sticks out or any frequency that happens to be jarring in a way that it's unintended, it can take people out of the actual experience. So for me a lot of times I know that whenever we're playing it's an awareness in the deep listening where we are able to connect and listen and respond not only to each other but to what the audience is giving us. Even in a traditional space we're able to offer those things through intent and just paying close attention to the details. 

Roman: I think that pretty much hit it in terms of some of the things that we do and the spaces that we have ritualized in that have been organic. Some other things that we do is we try to engage smell as well. I think it's important to try to engage all the senses. With incense and the chanting and then we even ask the people who are present to join us via call and response. These things help set the atmosphere and make it comfortable where people feel like they could join and be a part of an experience versus spectating.

Yaz: Part of why I was asking because I had my own curiosities. I'm also a musician, and I have a duo project called “medium.”. We play much harsher and discomforting music than y'all, but still have these rituals of just resetting the space and setting the room before we play. It’s an offering, you're about to hear something really intense, but here's some incense and some cleansing tones before we assault your ears for an hour. Was there any sort of driving force or influence in creating the album? 

Roman: I don't think there was necessarily a driving topic or a theme per se versus just a driving desire to create more music and to share more music with the world and to balance out the sonic equation of the world stage right now, given all that's going on and trying to insert more peace, more harmony and healing in that, via this record and via our sound. To me, that's a part of why it's a self-titled album. It's called the Cosmic Tones Research Trio, and it's simply just us, you know what I mean? I appreciate that about this album. There wasn't a whole lot of thought into framing it in a certain way. It's our heart music. This is like the essential oil – it's the distilled version of us.

Yaz: I love that, “essential oil.” Can you speak a bit about the process and how you guys collaborate. 

Roman: The process is pretty simple. We often recorded in Harlan's studio. Harlan's been producing for years, and he's a very successful producer and engineer. So he's well-trusted with our music. We outsource the mastering, but that's on the label. In terms of how we incubate and stew and create our music, the soup of it is at Harlan's house. We come together there and we talk about our week and our goals, how we wanna come together in music, how we want to affect and touch people. We're really intentional about what we're trying to do together. We’ll start our sessions with a talk and then we'll chant and tone and then we'll get right back into it. I don't want it to come off as so simple to where it sounds intentionless because it's not, but it's just the synergy in the organicness of the brotherhood really, it's really easy and it flows. 

Yaz: Is it completely improvised or are there some times where you fine tune and plan? 

Roman: No, it's not. On the first album, there was maybe one improvised track and even still the improv tracks kind of have a root, it's not like we just press record and go. But on this next album, most of the songs have structure and they have a compositional route where we all came together and presented different pieces to the puzzle. For example, there'll be a track, Harlan may start off with the cello, and that has maybe two parts, and Kennedy will come through with the piano and add his two parts to that two parts, and then I'll come and add my sax, and now we got six parts, but they all come from a root. "Sankofa," for example, starts off with the drums, which is a crucial part of healing music. A lot of times in the meditative world of music, drums get left out. But in African culture, in Black culture, drums are crucial to healing. So, “Sankofa” started off with drums and then built with cello and piano and came through very nicely.

Kennedy: And even in the parts that are improvised, having some parameters, creates a loose container to work within and that allows for an incredible amount of freedom. The three of us are sensitive enough to the sentiments and the elements to really kind of balance, then you would normally find in a situation where there's three people trying to create the music. But there's an interesting balance that occurs with the triangle of three. There's all kinds of triangles, you can have it all equal, or it can fluctuate, but either way, it provides a really neat structure and stability for, for what we got going on. And I wanted to just “yes and” what Roman was saying about the process and how it is additive and its parts are molded and shaped in such a way to provide an intentional experience. But with this particular album, it feels a lot more free in the expression of possibilities. It also has this unique flow that takes the listener along the journey – it's like this is undulating orb. 

Yaz: When I was listening to the record, I was thinking about how deep listening is a challenge to this late-stage capitalist escapism thing that is really present in how people engage with music, especially with music on platforms like TikTok and Spotify. I’m wondering if you were thinking about that at all when you are making this music?

Roman: I don't like none of them cats in terms of the industry. So I would say that's embedded in me and in my work too. There was a song that I listened to yesterday by this artist who I won't name. It's a really wonderful song. And it's a popular artist too. The song was like two minutes. I've noticed that a lot of songs, even by popular artists, are getting shorter and shorter, and everyone's kind of catering to that new attention span. Not to say that those one-minute or two-minute songs aren't creative, but there is something intentional being done there. I do see a lack of creativity in intentionally holding back in order to serve a machine or to serve a particular system. So I'm always secretly inserting things to try to disrupt and try to break down the existing structure to move more into one that is communal and supportive and regenerative in a way that if an artist doesn't even want to be on Spotify period, that doesn't mean that their career is over. That doesn't mean that they can't tour or make money or be successful. If the artist doesn't wanna be online at all, that doesn't mean that they can't thrive in music. We've kind of become dependent on these systems that are kind of extracting. 

I think collectively when we say words like healing and like words like spirituality and all these things, they're not just like kind of buzzwords, but those healing means repair, you know. Healing means going through the dark stuff, you know, healing means picking up the pieces sometimes, healing means disruption in time. So I think we all have shared some of that in our intentions when it comes to music. But the album wasn't necessarily like, "Yeah, let's destroy the system with our self-titled album." But it's baked into it.

Kennedy: You know what I dig about the realness in the album is that each one has a particular charm that's like, "Oh, let me keep listening to this. Let me go on this journey." And I think that in itself is a lot of what is necessary to aid in that disruption. It's to your point, we know how people scroll through. We also know how people largely consume their music is largely background and put in a place where it becomes wallpaper. If you in this experience are just passively moving through it as a creator, just dialing it in, these things are felt, these things are understood. But I think what's beautiful about this particular album and the process is those beautiful places of grace and charm that keeps this allure of "We got you." And should you happen to go and decide you're gonna wash the dishes, there's still something that's gonna change in that cycle. I feel like it's an intentional soundscape where we ultimately can't necessarily control how people engage, but we can give them Easter eggs. We can give them little things to find along the way and to continue. Its not an intentional “listen, listen, listen, listen, listen!”  because the realness is our attention spans are intentionally messed up. And we are intentionally put in a space where we are trapped and are in the cycle before we actually realize it. 

If you put a 90-second reel up, if you look at the analytics on it, most people have made it only three seconds in before they onto the next thing, but they liked your realness. They haven't really gone on that full 90-second journey. But every once in a while, you'll get that one person that does and that does spread. So we can't necessarily control all of that, but we can continue to put out intentional music and intentional gems that aid in the process. We know that frequencies, when they align, have absolute healing properties. We also know that if it's too sustained in a particular way, exposure can correlate to some other reactions. but in general, we know that what we're providing is a space where if you find rhythm healing, you got it. And if you find long tones healing, you got it. All it's all setting up an overtone series for which we can all vibe up. 

Harlan: For me, there's a through line on the whole album that is peaceful. The album never dynamically gets loud from the beginning to the end. It's peaceful. Different people will use it in different ways. I think that some people will use it as a blanket, some people will use it as an active listening album. In making it this dynamically peaceful experience, it leaves it to the listener to use and to experience the album in the way that will hopefully give them a reprise from all the noise and all the loudness and all the aggression outside right now in the world.

Community Links

Mississippi Records Website
Visit the site to get our label's records and tapes direct from us - we are constantly rotating our selection of mixtapes, new records from labels we distribute, and discounted out-of-print records, so be sure to check in often!
www.mississippirecords.net

Mississippi Records Portland Store
We are open EVERY DAY from 12 to 7 PM!
(our stereo repair and retail shop is open Friday - Sunday, 1 to 6 PM).
WE ARE EXCITED TO BUY YOUR RECORD COLLECTIONS!
Please drop by anytime to sell stuff. We always have a buyer on duty and you do not need an appointment. Paying out 50 - 60% of our retail price (NOT - dumb internet prices though...Mississippi store prices) Email mississippierici@gmail.com if you have any questions about the shop.

Mississippi Records CSR
Our Community Supported Records program directly supports the label. Get each Mississippi LP at a discount as it's released, no matter how limited, plus special schwag and gifts on occasion. Limited to 300 spots. The CSR contributions help us pay for record pressings and generally stay afloat.
More details here:
https://www.mississippirecords.net/csr-page

Mississippi Records Bandcamp
There are hours and hours worth of albums available for free listening, and a whole lot of the releases are "pay what you want" if you want to download ‘em. Check it out -
https://mississippirecords.bandcamp.com/

Toody Cole/Junkstore Cowboy
Toody Cole has shuttered her Junkstore Cowboy Shop in our basement, but that does not mean you can't get your Dead Moon / Pierced Arrows / Rats / Range Rats / Tombstone schwag and records still from her badass online store.
https://www.deadmoonusa.com/

Humboldt Neighborhood Association
The neighborhood association for the zone the Mississippi shop rests in recently got taken over by some social activists who are working on mutual aid projects, youth programs, anti-gentrification/tenants rights activities, and a community child care circle. If you are in the neighborhood and want to get involved, our first general membership meeting takes place on November 23rd. Check-in with the website for a link! We got some work to do...
https://humboldtneighborhood.org/

Red Hook Mutual Aid
We’re proud to have a studio in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, which hosts one of the most active mutual aid groups in the city. Learn more about the organizing activity here.