Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features two doses of ambient trumpet from Mark Kirschenmann and Justin Walter, a wintry country-folk song from Mark Jewett, hip-hop from Isaac Castor & Foul Mouth, and metallic hardcore grunge via Tension Splash.

Mark Kirschenmann, Tonics: 7 Melodies for Trumpet
U-M professor Mark Kirschenmann is a trumpeter who does his best to make it not sound like a trumpet. Whether it's running his horn through a bazillion effects pedals or jamming a bamboo mouthpiece into his instrument to evoke bansuri and shakuhachi flutes as he does on Tonics: 7 Melodies for Trumpet, Kirschenmann is intent on expanding the expressive range of his gear. The album cover shows Kirschenmann playing a four-valve piccolo trumpet, and while I'm not sure if he plays that throughout the record, that instrument's higher pitch seems more in line with what I hear on Tonics than a standard b-flat trumpet. (Side note: Ypsi's Dustin Krcatovich of Golden Feelings designed the cover.)

Kirschenmann performs everything here, which includes strings, percussion, prepared piano, and voices, but the modal trumpet meditations are at the heart of every track. Tonics is filled with minimalist, beautiful music—sometimes hauntingly so—that evokes sounds from the Far East without sounding like pastiche. You will also totally forget that you're listening to a brass instrument; in Kirschenmann's hands, the horn becomes a mythical magical flute that will transport you to the other side of the world.

Justin Walter, Bird Higher Than Cloud
Justin Walter made Bird Higher Than Cloud between 2009-2012 when he was living in Brooklyn, and the album came out in 2012 on Fred Thomas' Life Like label in a double-cassette edition of 50. The trumpeter and electronic valve instrument artist has long been back in Ann Arbor, and he has slowly but surely continued to release music via the kranky label, but this reissue was a nice surprise. Bird Higher Than Cloud feels like a rescued lost album, which Walter self-released on vinyl and streaming, giving a newer audience—and maybe his older one, too—a chance to hear this beauty. The record features 14 originals and two covers—"Young Blood" by His Name is Alive and "The Theme" by Angelo Badalamenti—and generally works with the same sonic space as Walters' kranky releases: drifty alien soundscapes with a hint of lyrical jazz.

Mark Jewett, "That Snow Song"
This song is not for me. Not because there's anything wrong with this whimsical honky-tonk folk number by Ann Arbor's Mark Jewett. In fact, it's quite catchy, charming, and tuneful, especially with the addition of Annie Capps' harmony vocals and Rod Capps' viola. But this song praises winter, and I can't abide by that as I sit here dressed in three layers while ensconced in my drafty home. Jewett does acknowledge in "That Snow Song" that "Some hate the cold, I know, I get it," but it does nothing to impede this large icicle forming on my nose. (I should have probably wiped my nostrils sooner.) But if you're the hearty type who thinks we're in the middle of a winter wonderland, "That Snow Song" is for you. Me? This weekend I'll be crooning the song's lyrics "The rhythm and clatter of skates on ice / Bring back memories, oh so nice" as I lace up my Bauers, shovel my pond, and curse the cold.

Isaac Castor & Foul Mouth, "Why Should I Die"
"White and tasty as hell / like the man from Michelin" raps former Ann Arborite and current Ferndale resident Isaac Castor on his new single, "Why Should I Die," the first song off his forthcoming album, Rabbit Hole 3. The artist formerly known as Gameboi honed his craft at The Neutral Zone, but he'll celebrate the release of Rabbit Hole 3 at The Marble Bar in Detroit on January 24. 

Tension Splash, "So What"
Ann Arbor's Tension Splash formed in 1992 in the thick of the Seattle wave, made a few recordings, broke up for about 30 years, and made a surprising return around 2023. "So What" is a harbinger for a four-song EP arriving in May. This heavy-duty jam has almost metallic hardcore verses, which is a nice contrast to the group's previous grunge-oriented sound, and singer-guitarist Gray Motsinger evokes Motörhead Lemmy's guttural growl throughout. (Mental aside: I was secretly hoping Tension Splash was doing a drop-D exploration of the Miles Davis' classic "So What," but alas.)

I'm not sure if Tension Splash recorded their new music at Saline's The Loft studio, but I know the group has worked there before and has spoken highly of the venue and the owners, Andy and Tim Patalan. I just found out The Loft caught fire in November, and the Patalans are rebuilding; you can help out here. The studio was inside an over 150-year-old oat barn, but the brothers turned it into a recording studio in 1988 and have worked there with everyone from Sponge and Electric Six to Taproot and Cheap Trick. (Tim also recorded one of my bands about 30 years ago and it was a great experience. Sincere best wishes to the Patalans and The Loft to get things up and running again.)

Christopher Porter is a library technician and the editor of Pulp.