Chris Lawyer

Prominent Michigan folk musician Chris Bathgate—who you may be familiar with from a number of his previous projects such as folk trip Ambitious Brothers or his 2007 debut album A Cork Tale Wake—is releasing his first full-length album since 2011 on Friday. Dizzy Seas is an eclectic collection of ambient folk rock like that of Sufjan Stevens or Justin Vernon.

For his third ECM release as a leader, Chris Potter presents a new acoustic quartet that naturally blends melodic rhapsody with rhythmic muscle. The group includes superlative musicians well known to followers of ECM’s many recordings from New York over the past decade: keyboardist David Virelles, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Marcus Gilmore, who each shine in addition to the leader on multiple horns. The Dreamer Is the Dream features Potter on tenor saxophone the instrument that has made him one of the most admired players of his generation in the striking opener “Heart in Hand” and such album highlights as “Yasodhara,” as well as on soprano sax (“Memory and Desire”) and bass clarinet (the title track).