Express Rising

Express Rising is a dreamy instrumental project founded by Chicago producer/crate-digger Dante Carfagna. He began using the moniker for a solo project, which emerged with a series of mystery-shrouded singles and a 2003 full-length, and sounded somewhere in between downtempo organic breaks and ambient post-rock. A follow-up arrived a decade later, and by the third album, Express Rising had evolved into a trio, performing improvised pieces which evoked a wintry countryside. Initially billed as the Rising Express on two singles released around the turn of the millennium, Express Rising's self-titled debut album appeared in 2003. Its blurry cover photo and minimal liner notes spoke to the cloudy feel of the instrumental tracks contained within. Carfagna played most of the instruments and found a washed-out sound blending airy guitars, programmed beats, and sounds that were possibly sampled but far too vague to make their actual origins a certainty. The album was said to have been culled from four years' worth of recordings, and did not duplicate any material from the equally obscure 7" releases which appeared in the years surrounding its release. A far cry from the classic soul and deep funk compilations Carfagna was known for curating, Express Rising dwelled in relative obscurity and mystery for years until the release of a second self-titled album in 2013. The second full-length also had minimal information and didn't even appear on a label, but was distributed in part by the Numero Group. A third Express Rising album, Fixed Rope, appeared two years later. The album consisted of a dozen improvised instrumentals recorded in rural Arkansas by a trio lineup comprising Carfagna, Kevin Blagg, and William Suran. The same lineup recorded Fixed Rope 2, a sparser, more ambient effort which followed in 2018.
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