Echoes, out January 9, 2026 via Chill Tone, evolves the delicate, genre-defiant sound the pair have evolved together over the past decade, with contributions by drummer Josh Dion
“Marantz has a delicate, but precise, touch at the keyboard… He’s a performer who paints at the keyboard with musicality.” – Herb Boyd, DownBeat
“Along with his affable, generous spirit, [Jermyn] has refreshingly broad tastes… moreover, you can hear this reach in his music.” – Bradley Bambarger, Sound It Out
Musicians tend to lead nomadic lives, which means that creative relationships are often subject to the whims of intersecting journeys. Such happenstance brought together the pianist Luke Marantz and guitarist Simon Jermyn in 2015. Marantz had found himself at a crossroads, feeling that his time in Boston was coming to an end after he’d finished studying at New England Conservatory and spent formative time sharing the stage with trumpeter Jason Palmer at his famed weekly gig at Wally’s Café. At that moment, the Dublin-born Jermyn was living in New York and playing regularly with Marantz’s brother, the saxophonist Matt Marantz.
The pair first crossed paths when Marantz made the trek from Boston to Manhattan to join his brother for a gig at the now-defunct Rockwood Music Hall, Fender Rhodes in tow. “It showed total commitment for a 30-minute set in a tiny space with almost no set-up time,” Jermyn recalls. “It was pretty intense, but playing with Luke immediately felt very easy and natural. We had loads of common interests.”
Marantz adds with a laugh, “What we bonded over first was the music of the 16th-century composer William Byrd. Simon was very easy and pleasant to talk to, and playing music with him felt the same. He was clearly the kind of musician and person that I wanted to be around, and he was one of the people who inspired me to move to New York.”
Marantz and Jermyn continued to work together in a variety of contexts and situations over the next five years, but the guitarist’s move to Berlin in the summer of 2020 – coinciding with, though not a result of, the pandemic – could easily have spelled a natural end for their collaboration. Both were determined not to let that happen. “When I left,” Jermyn says, “there were a handful of people – with Luke on top of that list – that I wanted to make sure I kept playing with so that all the work we’d done wouldn’t be allowed to disappear.”
That determination has resulted in Echoes, the pair’s entrancing and atmospheric new duo album. Set for release on January 9, 2026 via Chill Tone, the album was recorded over a period of two and a half years in the home studio shared by the Marantz brothers. The set of mesmeric and genre-defiant new music showcases the exploratory chemistry and unique sonic vocabulary the pair has evolved together, with the addition of nuanced drumming by Josh Dion on a pair of tracks.
While they had played a handful of duo concerts, Marantz and Jermyn embarked on the recording of Echoes with no clear blueprint for the shape the music would ultimately take. “Neither of us knew what this album was going to be at the start” , Marantz explains. “Piano and guitar aren’t always an easy fit. You can swallow each other up or get in each other’s way. But with Simon, not only does that never happen, but an ocean of sonic possibilities opens up. I always feel like we can do anything and go anywhere.”
“I imagine some people will hear this record and say, ‘Oh, that’s a jazz record,’” Jermyn shrugs. “Other people will disagree. I like that sort of in-between music, and that has been a point of connection for me and Luke. Genre is not important. What’s important is personal connection and shared musical values.”
The title stems from the way in which the two musicians react and play off of one another; like an echo, each sound is distinct and separate but unified with the other. A series of pieces by that title is woven throughout the tracklist; unlike the bulk of the music, these were not recorded with Marantz and Jermyn in the studio together. Instead, the guitarist recorded a series of textural excursions and handed them off, after which Marantz transformed them through dense, gauzy layers of piano, synth and other effects.
With its galloping piano and percussive acoustic guitar, Marantz’s “Country” evokes the titular genre by way of Appalachian folk and Aaron Copland-style chamber Americana, both rustic and elegant. Jermyn’s “Hovering” seems to do just that, defying gravity with spaciousness and droning figures supporting the soaring guitar melody. The composer doubles on bass, while Dion enters halfway through to provide a propulsive grounding. Jermyn also contributed the incisive “Shori,” named for the vampire protagonist of Octavia E. Butler’s final novel, Fledgling. The duo conjure an iridescent, aurora-like beauty on Marantz’s “Light Scatters Green,” an illustration of the ethereal colors of the sky that he remembers from growing up in Texas’ Tornado Alley. Dion returns for the pianist’s “Passages,” which transmutes gradually from a searching clamor to a keen, loping groove.
Echoes is the sound of two distinctive musical personalities converging and communing, free to follow each moment’s inspiration as it ripples outwards. One listen reveals why Marantz and Jermyn are determined to continue exploring together, even as their individual paths diverge.
photo: Livia Blanc
Luke Marantz is an internationally acclaimed pianist and composer based in Brooklyn, New York. He has been described by NPR as “among the best young American jazz pianists.” Equally adept at a piano or synthesizer, Marantz’s music organically combines jazz and improvisation with elements of electronic music, contemporary classical and post rock. His debut recording, Embers, a collection of original works for solo piano, was released on Afterworld Records.
Simon Jermyn is an Irish guitarist and electric bassist based in Berlin, after 11 years in NYC. He leads his own band, Obsany and is a member of many more. He has worked with musicians including Jim Black, Aaron Parks, John Zorn, Chris Speed, Gerald Cleaver, Chris Lightcap, Anna Webber and many others. He holds a PhD from Ulster University in Northern Ireland and has performed at venues and festivals around the U.S. and Europe.
Luke Marantz / Simon Jermyn – Echoes
Chill Tone – CT0005 – Recorded between Oct. 10, 2022 and Sept. 9, 2024
Release date January 9, 2026
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