Article Contributed by Twnty Three
Published on October 30, 2025
Photo by Alejandro Ayala
On Friday, October 3rd, 2025, London based drummer/composer Tom Skinner performed in the auditorium of The Land School, marking the first event organized by International Anthem at their new Southside Chicago HQ inside artist Theaster Gates‘ and Rebuild’s latest space-based project.
It was one week after the release of Skinner’s new album Kaleidoscopic Visions and two days after he performed at Thalia Hall with a first-time ensemble featuring Chicago-based musicians Joshua Abrams (bass), Ishmael Ali (cello), and Mai Sugimoto (woodwinds), in addition to his regular bandmate and fellow London traveler Chelsea Carmichael (woodwinds). Performing the music for just the second time at The Land School, the five musicians played Skinner’s compositions beautifully, imbuing the tunes with a nice bit of Windy City steez.
This live EP, International Anthem @ The Land School (Volume 1), is a standard-setter for a new series of documents and contains two pieces from the performance. It’s available to listen exclusively via Qobuz for hi-res stream or download, today. Listen here.
Today’s live EP is released alongside an abstract film by Alan Medina, who shot Skinner and the ensemble’s engagement at The Land School on 16mm, and beautifully set his footage to the recording of “MHA.”
International Anthem @ The Land School (Volume 1) follows and features live renditions of music from Skinner’s latest album Kaleidoscopic Visions, which was released in September to wide acclaim. Listen to and purchase Kaleidoscopic Visions here.
Skinner is also returning to his hometown of London for a landmark performance at Queen Elizabeth Hall on November 21 as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival. His regular working band with Tom Herbert (bass), Kareem Dayes (cello), Chelsea Carmichael and Robert Stillman (woodwinds) will be joined by special guests Adrian Utley of Portishead (guitar) and Yaffra (vocals), with Hinako Omori as support. Find tickets and more info here.
“Volume 1” of International Anthem @ The Land School represents the expansion of partnership between the label and Qobuz, a collaboration that began in 2022 at Public Records in New York, where together they’ve co-presented twelve shows in three-and-a-half years (yielding nine live recordings, thus far).
Their next co-presentation at The Land School takes place on the occasion of International Anthem’s (actual) eleventh anniversary, the IA11 Closing Celebration.
The evening will feature a performance by Rob Mazurek with Matthew Lux and Mikel Patrick Avery (the ensemble behind Alternate Moon Cycles, the first IARC album, originally released December 2nd, 2014); as well as a performance by trombonist/composer Kalia Vandever (who has new music coming via IARC in 2026).
