Crying Laughing details debut album ‘Talking’
Baltimore quintet Crying Laughing will release its debut album “Talking” on Tape, CD and digital via Hausu Mountain on September 10, 2026.
Baltimore-based quintet Crying Laughing will release its debut album, Talking, on Tape, CD and digital formats on September 10, 2026, through Hausu Mountain. The band fuses saxophone-led minimalism in the Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Philip Glass tradition with post-punk energy and the rhythmic sensibility of Moondog’s street recordings.
“Talking” runs eight tracks: “Toppled Column,” “Bass Alarm,” “Tato,” “When They Come to Town You Must Exile,” “Ricemeat,” “Inner Life,” “Crocodopolis Theme” and “Geese Six.” Crying Laughing recorded the album in one day in a basement studio outside Baltimore, tracking each song as a live performance through a network of microphones and isolation booths set up by engineer Chris Freeland.
Crying Laughing’s line-up and Baltimore connections
Crying Laughing formed in 2024 around saxophonists Christian Best and Rose Hammer Burt, drummer Jen Kirby and bassist Marc Miller, joined by keyboardist Steve Strohmeier. Kirby and Best’s prior work together in the duo Smoke Bellow, which released albums on Trouble in Mind and Moon Glyph before ending in 2024, formed the group’s starting point. Miller founded the math-punk band OXES in 1998 and the experimental ensemble Microkingdom in 2006, while Strohmeier has recorded or toured with Beach House, Dan Deacon, Daniel Higgs and Lower Dens. Hammer Burt participates in Baltimore collectives connected to the venue The Red Room and its High Zero improvised-music festival. Hausu Mountain first became aware of the band through mutual friends in Horse Lords, whose line-up includes label artist Andrew Bernstein.
Hausu Mountain describes “Talking” as a fusion of polymetric saxophone composition with the energy of post-punk and the rhythmic sensibilities of Moondog, calling it “head music as much as body music.” Saxophonist Christian Best described the band’s writing process: “Each song begins its life as a seed of an idea: a whole arrangement, specific rhythms, melodies, or sometimes just a theory of interaction. The band then collaboratively expands and later condenses those ideas down into their most concise form. Compositionally we aim to not encroach on each instrument’s space. All of us contribute to the overall rhythm and melody of each piece, trading roles and interweaving with each other.”
Drummer Jen Kirby, who plays a modified kit with a small snare and tuned rototoms, described her own approach: “a response to the people I’m playing with and my natural technical limitations due to total hackery of technique.”
About Crying Laughing
Crying Laughing is a quintet based in Baltimore, Maryland, formed in 2024 by musicians who had already spent years in the city’s experimental music scene. Saxophonists Christian Best and Rose Hammer Burt lead the group’s dual-sax arrangements, with drummer Jen Kirby and bassist Marc Miller forming the rhythm section and Steve Strohmeier adding keyboards, harmonium, piano and marimba. Kirby and Best previously played together in Smoke Bellow, which released records on Trouble in Mind and Moon Glyph before the band ended in 2024. Miller’s other projects include the math-punk band OXES, formed in 1998, and the experimental ensemble Microkingdom, formed in 2006. Strohmeier has recorded or toured with Beach House, Dan Deacon, Daniel Higgs and Lower Dens, and Hammer Burt performs in Baltimore’s Red Room and High Zero improvised-music circles. Crying Laughing joins Hausu Mountain with “Talking,” its debut album, recorded live in a single day at a basement studio outside Baltimore with engineer Chris Freeland.
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