Asai Kastan Duo Releases New Ambient Jazz Album Earth Travelers

Earth Travelers is a new album by Asai Kastan Duo, consisting of Takeshi Asai on piano and Brian Kastan playing fretless bass. Together, they create an atmosphere of space and texture with an ongoing gentle flow of energy. This album is like waves on the ocean; waves are constantly flowing creating tension and release, as a wave gently rises and breaks then forms another wave. Together, the piano and bass are like the wave as the musical tension and release is an ongoing state of flow.

Earth Travelers offers the listener a chance to take a deep emotional journey and tap into an imaginary world. Earth Travelers covers several musical directions, from ballads, jazz blues, open grooves, short abstract moments, to open ambient spaces.

Released April 23^rd, 2026.

The concept behind Earth Travelers is to create dialogue between acoustic piano and fretless bass. At times the bass plays the melody, sometimes it plays the groove, and vice versa with the piano. Earth Travelers offers a unique sensitive listening experience as the piano and fretless bass keep offering each other new musical ideas to interpret and develop into new energy. Often the album is ambient and mellow, sometimes swinging, sometimes grooving, and anything in between.

Earth Travelers was composed and recorded live at Takeshi Asai studio at DCT productions in New York City.

Asai Kastan Duo tour dates will be announced soon.

Takeshi Asai

Traditional yet modern, lyrical yet dramatic, jazz pianist Takeshi Asai has been a one-of-a-kind voice in New York’s jazz scene for more than ten years. His performance combines the melodic lyricism of Bill Evans with the feverish blues of Thelonious Monk, all enriched by the sophisticated improvisational style and the classical piano roots.

What makes Takeshi Asai’s music unique and aesthetic are his multitude sources of inspiration. He sees beauty in 12th-century French troubadours, Gregorian chants, Baroque and Romantic traditions, 20th-century music (i.e. Janáček, Takemitsu), religious music (Faure, Poulenc), the Beatles, Irish and Japanese folk music, as well as modern electronic music.

Besides his constant club engagements in NYC with talented contemporaries and legends, Takeshi Asai has a hugely successful international career; touring in Poland, UK, France, Germany, Egypt, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

He currently lives in New York, where he runs his own production company.

Brian Kastan

Brian Kastan is a prolific composer and improvisor.

Brian has recorded 100 albums under his Space 2 Groove record label and recorded 11 albums with 5 different Grammy-winning jazz artists such as Mino Cinelu, Rachel Z, Scott Petito, Leo Genovese, and Miles Griffith. Brian has completed European tours with the Brian Kastan Freedom Trio and Transatlantic Concept with Urbuli Baba. Plus, Brian toured in China headlining Lincoln Center Shanghai with the Brian Kastan Quartet.

Brian also has composed soundtracks for TV and Film:

Movie: American Criminal, Blue Lives Matter

TV Show: Hospital Arrest with acclaimed movie & TV director Dylan Bank. Starring Robert Loggia, Jimmie Walker, Martin Kove, Gilbert Gottfried, Michael Winslow, Todd Bridges, Jewels McCollough

Side Projects: Played guitar on Rhys Chatham’s A Crimson Grail (Nonesuch Records), played guitar for MTV Rock the Vote, composed songs with Emmy-nominated composer recording engineer Marc Solomon.

To purchase: https://space2grooverecords2.bandcamp.com/album/earth-travelers

For more information:
https://www.space2grooverecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/brian.kastan.9
https://www.facebook.com/TakeshiAsaiJazz

Press inquiries: Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158, glassonyonpr@gmail.com

Multi-Instrumentalist & Chapman Stick Maestro Tom Griesgraber To Release New Soundtrack Album The Split (Music From The Motion Picture Prairie Prophecy) March 6

Tom Griesgraber is releasing a new album called The Split. The album is currently available as CD and multi-format download on tomgriesgraber.com, with a wider release planned for March 6 including Bandcamp. The Split is Tom Griesgraber's soundtrack album from the feature length documentary film Prairie Prophecy. It includes all nineteen tracks from the film, along with two bonus tracks. The music features Tom Griesgraber on Chapman Stick, analog synths and samples. Tom's California Guitar Trio bandmate Bert Lams also makes a guest appearance on acoustic guitar.

Watch the trailer for The Split:
https://fb.watch/ETuAVHBc7O/
https://youtu.be/skNQfhEP0XQ

While Tom Griesgraber is primarily known in progressive rock circles, The Split leans more towards ambient music than much of his other work.

Says Tom, “I tried in writing it to have recurring themes for the subjects being discussed in the movie. The album tracks are in the same order they appear in the movie, with themes and motifs that develop as the album progresses.”

“I tried to also have something thematic with the instrumentation. Generally, when topics being discussed are more about the problems of industrialization the analog synths become more prominent, and when the discussion is more about natural things or the progress scientists are making, the Chapman Stick and orchestral strings are more prominent.”

The film Prairie Prophecy is an engaging exploration of natural systems agriculture and its potential to address some of today’s most urgent environmental challenges. Anchored in the work of The Land Institute, the film traces how perennial farming systems—modeled after native ecosystems—could help restore soil, conserve water, and build resilience in a changing climate. Both educational and hopeful, the program offers a forward-looking perspective on the future of food and land stewardship.

The movie is currently playing at screenings and festivals across the US and will be available to all Public Television stations starting in April 2026.

For more information about Prairie Prophecy: www.prairieprophecy.com

The Split Track list:
01 - At A Moment
02 - The Split
03 - Paradox
04 - Cassettes
05 - A Species Out Of Context
06 - Prairie Suite
07 - Planting Prairie
08 - A New Worldview
09 - I Just Wanted Kansas
10 - A Big Idea
11 - Land Institute
12 - Perennial Plants
13 - Junkyard
14 - Geologic Time
15 - Perennial Pantry
16 - Seeds
17 - Partners
18 - Love In Action
19 - The Tree Of Life
20 - Asked Of Us
21 - This Land

About Tom Griesgraber:
Tom Griesgraber picked up the Chapman Stick in 1997 after graduating Summa Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music as a guitarist in 1995. In late 1998 he began performing around San Diego County as a Stick player doing both solo shows and performances with his group Agent 22. In 2000, the group won a year-long local battle of the bands at the Belly Up Tavern, beating about 230 other groups. From there venues started having Tom or the group open for nationals. In 2001, he opened for the California Guitar Trio (CGT) at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. The next year Tom attended a Guitar Craft course taught by Robert Fripp with CGT members Bert Lams and Paul Richards assisting. Afterwards, CGT asked him to go on the road as their opener for about 100 shows over the next few years. Bert Lams from the group and Tom started doing duo tours as well and eventually two albums. In 2021, Bert and Paul Richards asked Tom to join CGT as a regular member.

To date, Tom Griesgraber has also released two other solo albums, one with CGT recorded while opening for King Crimson, two with Agent 22, and a duo album with drummer Jerry Marotta (Peter Gabriel) with whom he also toured internationally for several years. He has performed four times for Grammy events, toured as an opener for The Tony Levin Band, opened multiple times for Carl Palmer, Adrian Belew, Steve Morse and the Dixie Dregs, Al Dimeola and Stick Men and opened shows for Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, Andy Summers, Alan Holdsworth, Stanley Jordan, Steve Hackett, Larry Carlton, Steve Lukather, Paul Stanley, Paula Cole, Tuck and Patti, Asia and dozens of others. Tom has also performed on, produced and/or engineered dozens of albums for other artists including two with RyMo (of Slightly Stoopid), CGT, guitarist Peter Pupping and Dübh.

The Chapman Stick, Tom’s primary instrument is a combination of twelve guitar and bass strings, played in both hands with a technique closer to playing piano than guitar. Multiple outputs allow for simultaneous guitar, bass and keyboard-like sounds but with a unique timbre and unusual musical structures.

For more information:
https://tomgriesgraber.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TomGmusic/
https://www.youtube.com/user/thossounds
https://cgtrio.com/
https://tomgriesgraber.bandcamp.com/

Press inquiries: Keith James, Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158 (USA), glassonyonpr@gmail.com