Trumpeter Michael Sarian will release In This Desert, the fifth album by his quartet, on Burning Ambulance Music September 25, 2026.
Sarian, born in Canada and raised in Argentina, has been leading his quartet with keyboardist Santiago Liebson, bassist Marty Kenney, and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell for close to a decade. They have released five previous albums together —New Aurora (ears&eyes, 2020, with Dayeon Seok on drums); Living At The End Of The World (ears&eyes, 2022); Live At Cliff Bells (Shifting Paradigm, 2024); Esquina (Greenleaf Music, 2025); and Live At Cliff Bells Vol. II (Shifting Paradigm, 2025) — but In This Desert is their most expansive work yet, an 82-minute double CD inspired by the trumpeter’s Armenian heritage.
The opening three-part title suite is “inspired by the feeling of desertedness one can feel in NYC even though it’s full of people.” The first disc ends with “Lost Mountains,” which is “inspired by the many mountains the Armenian people have had to travel across in the wake of genocide, and the many physical mountains we have lost.”
The second disc offers “Tapestries,” which incorporates Armenian musical elements; “The Eyes of Parajanov,” a tribute to Soviet Armenian filmmaker Sergei Parajanov (whose images and colour palette in turn inspired Burning Ambulance co-founder I.A. Freeman’s cover art and design); and “Village of Sons Of,” which Sarian says is “in reference to the Armenian surnames ending in ‘ian’ or ‘yan’ (meaning ‘son of’) and how even within the diaspora across the globe, we’re just a village.”
In This Desert will be released on September 25, 2026 digitally and as a limited edition of 500 double CDs in heavy-duty gatefold mini-LP sleeves printed on textured paper, with artwork by Burning Ambulance Music co-founder I.A. Freeman.
Micheal Sarian Quartet
Micheal Sarian Quartet, photo Sara Statha
Michael Sarian will be performing this summer and fall in the following cities:
• August 20 — NUBLU, NYC
• September 6 and 7 — The Rex, Toronto
• September 10 — Rhizome, Washington DC
• October 8 — PizzaExpress Live, London
• October 10 — Librería Byron, Barcelona