The Outskirts (Rempis/Flaten/Rosaly)

ABOUT

This collaborative trio kicked off in 2006, during bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s three-year tenure as a resident of Chicago. During that time the trio was a force on the Chicago scene, workshopping ideas through regular performances at the panoply of legendary clubs and spaces presenting improvised music from the Velvet Lounge to the Hungry Brain, Hideout, and Elastic. Although a relatively undocumented group until the stellar 2020 release “You Deserve To Dance” on Rempis’ Aerophonic Records imprint, the trio served as the backbone of several notable Chicago bands over the next decades including The Rempis Percussion Quartet and The Ingebrigt Håker Flaten Chicago Sextet. Musically, these three share an intimacy that can only be described as singular, having formed their shared understanding of improvisational music through decades of work together. All three have continued forth on separate paths over the years. Rosaly is now a longtime resident of Amsterdam pursuing a plethora of wide-ranging projects from performance-art based work, to cumbia bands, to his recent International Anthem release Mestizx with his life and musical partner Ibelisse Guardia Ferraguti.  Flaten continued as the fearless road warrior whose home-base shifted from Chicago to Texas, and later back to Norway, working with now legendary groups like The Thing, Atomic, and his own Young Mothers. And Rempis continued to hold things down in Chicago as a stalwart musician and organizer of that scene, while also maintaining an active touring and release schedule. But despite their disparate paths, this trio still holds a fundamental key to each of their musical identities.

For Rempis’ 50th birthday in March 2025, the three decided to strip back their work together once again to the intimacy of the trio. A significant moment in time that begs for both a renewed vigor, as well as some sense of reflection. As three of the most ravenous musical minds of their generation, they will no doubt be hashing out the same intellectual tug-of-war that made them such a formative ensemble in the first place.

LISTEN

PHOTOS

RECORDINGS