Will Miller is not hanging about. The Chicago trumpeter dropped a full Resavoir album in March — the sparse, dreamy Themes For Dreams — and he's already back with another one. That kind of output either means the music is half-baked, or the man is in a serious creative moment. From what we've heard so far, it's the latter.

Who Resavoir Are, and Why It Matters

Miller has spent years embedded in Chicago's music scene, turning up on records from Chance The Rapper, Whitney, and Twin Peaks before taking his trumpet further afield for work with SZA and Mavis Staples. That's a CV that earns serious attention, and Resavoir — the jazz ensemble he's been steering through various shapes and configurations — is where he does his most personal work.

For Above The Clouds, the lineup features longtime collaborators Lane Beckstrom on bass and Jeremy Cunningham on drums, plus a new face in Kenneth Leftridge Jr. on woodwinds. The key twist, though, is that almost everyone stepped away from their usual instruments. Miller himself put down the trumpet entirely and picked up a Steiner Crumar EVI — an electronic wind analog synthesiser from the 1970s. That's a bold call, and the kind of deliberate left turn that either signals genuine artistic curiosity or a gimmick dressed up as one. The lead single suggests the former.

What "4th Cloud" Actually Sounds Like

"4th Cloud" features guitarist Gregory Uhlmann of SML, and what you get is something soothing but restless — exploratory without being fidgety. The electronic instrumentation gives it an untethered, slightly weightless quality that fits the cloud-themed concept without leaning too hard on the metaphor. It doesn't sound like a jazz record cosplaying as ambient music, nor does it sound like a man who picked up a synthesiser last Tuesday. There's genuine command here.

Given that Themes For Dreams was described as a "sleepytime record" — sparse and floaty — this new album apparently carries a bit more rhythmic momentum. Still operating in that same ephemeral register, but with more pulse underneath. It's a meaningful distinction rather than a total reinvention, which feels right. You don't blow up what's working; you push at its edges.

The tracklist runs thirteen songs, with titles like "Cirrus," "Altostratus," "Cumulonimbus," and "Stratosphere" painting an obvious atmospheric picture. The closing track shares its name with the album. There's also a feature from Knox Fortune on "In Motion," alongside the Uhlmann collaboration on "4th Cloud." It reads like a properly considered record rather than a loosely thrown-together mood piece. Whether it delivers in full remains to be seen.

Above The Clouds is out 9 October on L'Univers. It's already one of the more genuinely interesting releases on our radar for the autumn — not because of hype, but because the creative decisions behind it are worth paying attention to. An artist deliberately trading a trumpet for a '70s electronic wind synth and making it sound this considered is the kind of thing we'd always rather be talking about than whatever's dominating the algorithm this week. If you're not across [artists taking real creative risks with their sound](/getohedz/music/jonas-blue-rebranded-learned-an-instrument-called-ai-absolutely-horrendous), this is a good moment to start paying attention.

Pre-order it, put the date in your calendar, and actually listen when it lands.