Phillip Golub Maps a Sea Voyage Through Microtonal Jazz

Phillip Golub has been moving fast this year. The Brooklyn-based pianist and composer already released one record in 2025, and now comes Partisan Ship, a loosely conceptual album built around the idea of a sea voyage. Golub leads a sizable ensemble here — tenor sax, trumpet, violin, clarinets, flute, bass, drums — and layers the arrangements with synth parts and electronics.

He avoids standard tuning across the set. Golub works mainly with a custom Flexichord keyboard, an instrument that lets him adopt different microtonal scales for each piece. The result is a record that never settles into a single sonic register. Opener “loyalty oath” announces this clearly. Brass and woodwind rushes, droning synths, and precise but understated drums surround Golub’s angular phrasing. The piece moves through multiple phases without shedding its collective feel.

The album rarely sits still. A dark electronic interlude bridges into the title track, where Golub’s off-kilter keyboard lines dance over bass and drums. Sax and trumpet add sharper colors. Midway through, the free-jazz opening gives way to a strange take on post-bop, then electronics seep back in. On “mutiny meeting,” bright brass stabs and electronic squelches ride a surprisingly traditional walking bass and steady percussion, before fuzz and echo take over completely.

Golub’s judgement shows in the pacing. He knows when to push toward maximalist density and when to pull back. The restrained “blue-orange reflections” arrives as a cool-down, with folk-leaning violin lines sitting inside layers of synth and woodwind. The whole thing fits together without feeling overworked. Across Partisan Ship, a pile of ideas that might otherwise clash stays coherent because Golub steers with a clear sense of structure. For anyone following the experimental end of New York jazz, it’s a release worth the attention.