Trumpeter Adam O’Farrill Introduces New Band Stranger Days, Shares Video For “Monochrome Fantasy”

Adam O’Farrill new project Stranger Days came together at the last minute. Given an open slot at a friend’s show about three years back, he had intended to do something grand—a suite of songs based on the Nathanael West short story “Miss Lonelyhearts”—but when time and his own perceived limitations became a factor, he instead went for something simpler: a four-piece combo made up of players (including bassist Walter Stinson, saxophonist Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, and Adam’s brother Zack on drums) he knew and trusted.

What came out of that night is Stranger Days, a solid, swinging post-bop group that blends funk and hip-hop influences into the mix even as they evoke the minimalist charge of Cannonball Adderley’s Somethin’ Else or the maximalist gush of a Rahsaan Roland Kirk session. That’s the vibe that the quartet has created on their debut release El Maquech, which will be available via Biophilia Records on June 1st.

To help introduce the band, O’Farrill has joined up with director Alice Plati to create a stark, swirling performance clip said to be inspired by Darren Aronofsky’s Pi and the run and gun shooting style of early Godard.