The Cairn Project, a group of professional jazz musicians who are all current UNC students or recent UNC alumni, have released their debut self-titled album, The Cairn Project. The record is a studio album recorded on May 25 and 26, 2015, at Mighty Fine Productions in Denver, CO.
The Cairn Project was developed by drummer Brian Claxton and saxophonist Joel Harris out of the desire to form a band with good friends and develop personal, meaningful music. A cairn is a formation of carefully stacked stones used to mark a hiking trail, and the Project created the album to serve as a marker in their own musical journey. Combine this with the group’s passion for the outdoors, and the title is a perfect fit. Every track on the album is an original composition from a band member, which yields a deeply personal result.
Joel Harris states,
“It has been a pleasure for us to work through an album of original music as a band. The real joy is hearing the music develop as each musician has the freedom to add elements of their own sound into each tune.”
Although the musicians separately hail from across the country, they have all spent several years along the Front Range and continue contributing to the local music scene. The album utilized multiple talented people in the area, including pianist, educator and graphic designer Annie Booth, recording engineer Xandy Whitesel (Mighty Fine Productions), and mastering engineer Colin Bricker (Mighty Fine Productions).
The Cairn Project is a six-piece band that includes Briana Harris on alto saxophone and flute, Joel Harris on tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet, Ben Parrish on guitar, Tom Amend on piano and keyboards, Patrick Atwater on bass, and Brian Claxton on drums.
The Cairn Project is available physically and digitally on Bandcamp, CdBaby, Amazon and iTunes.
For more information or to request promotional copies of the album, please contact The Cairn Project at TheCairnProjectBand@gmail.com.
