Elkhorn’s Drew Gardner is the kind of musician who instinctively locks into his collaborators’ dynamics and sound, elevating their collective strengths into bold, uncharted musical territory. On his latest solo outing, Wave Field, Gardner is joined by Garcia Peoples’ Tom Malach and Andy Cush and drummer Ryan Jewell, all of whom possess tight improv skills and extremely fluid playing styles, and the results of their collaboration do not disappoint.

Available today through VHF Records, Wave Field finds the NYC-based Gardner leaning deeply into a jammy psychedelic rock direction, weaving vibe-inducing solos around Cush’s snake-like bass and Malach’s own atmospheric guitar work. On tracks like “Space Ray,” Gardner lays out searing fuzzy guitar leads across Jewell’s tense motorik beats, producing a very post-punk New York take on kosmische musik. At other points, like the opening track, “Rhizoid,” the quartet plugs into a groove and lace around each other as they ride the sauntering, driving rhythm, like a fleet of sturdy ships sliding up and down the ocean’s waves.

One of the record’s strongest moments is the dreamy concluding track, “Mayan Bees,” which shimmers with meditative rippling backup guitar, melodic bass lines and Gardner’s reverb-drenched solos, which at times takes on an almost sitar-like quality, really hammering home the record’s subtle psychedelia. The piece slowly builds to a satisfying hazy crescendo, but even at ten minutes, you wish the piece could roll on forever.

This album is a fantastic example of rock being treated as jazz, with lots of room for improvisation and atmosphere to take center stage, with the musicians conversing through their instruments. With this many veterans of the modern East Coast psych-rock improv world playing together, how could it be anything but a marvel to listen to?

If you’re a fan of the vibey nature of Gardner’s past solo releases, the tight interplay of Elkhorn and the acid rock looseness of his other group, Jeffrey Alexander & the Heavy Lidders, then you’ll love how this is the record that best fits in the center of this heady Venn diagram. Get your copy on vinyl or digital today.

-KH