Billie Davies: 2455 (Music for the Future) by Max Kutner Feb 3, 2026

2455: Music for the Future features the telekinetic duo of drummer/percussionist Billie Davies and trumpeter Branden James Lewis presenting a series of dreamlike improvisations united under Davies' concept of No Boundaries, Music for the 24th Century. Davies' vision and designs allow the music to shape-shift and wander at whim between dub, ambient, free jazz, musique concrète, and more. By allowing for fluid stylistic ambiguity and employing a bevy of processed sounds in their arsenal—extensive synth layering and loops, for example—the duo has offered a unique vision and fresh perspective on creating expressive music in the modern age that can be anything, nothing, and everything simultaneously. 

Both Davies and Lewis come from slightly unorthodox and deeply nuanced artistic backgrounds. Davies began her career as a touring drummer/percussionist traveling across Europe before moving to the States, first to Oregon, the Bay Area, New Orleans, and currently in West Palm Beach. Starting with 2016's On Hollywood Boulevard (Cobra Basement, 2016), Davies began to incorporate synthesizers and e-drums into her work and has been developing this expanded palette up through this release. The sound of electronic drums, in particular, allows Davies to substantially expand and augment her performance facilities. While somewhat traditional grooves and figures appear often in her playing, there are also various instances of gated snares, reversed crashes and otherwise non-naturally occurring sounds blended seamlessly and appearing altogether in real time. Hearing how easily Davies brings the sides together in her playing without drawing favored attention or emphasis to either synthetic or natural sounds is remarkably striking and singular. Branden Lewis, current leader of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and world-renowned touring and session artist, provides ample sonic beds of synth, reharmonized trumpet, ethereal noises, and lush keyboard harmony.

Davies first introduced her concept on 2024's Pandemos (Cobra Basement) which also featured Lewis. From that album to this one, the presentation has evolved to something more akin to a specific program. Things groan to life with "Everything Flows," bringing to mind a vision of some ancient transformer slowly reassembling itself, given the heaving groans of warped synth textures and select bursts and cracks of feral drumming. The progression from this introductory movement to the slightly wobbly "Blue Moon Dance" and the gritty, abstract "Infinite Destiny" gives a sense of a definite linear, cinematic arc in the sequence. That piece features special guest Damani Butler adding an extra layer of sonic gloss and complex texture. The pieces mentioned above form a functional first half of the album and feel tonally distinct from the rest of what follows.

"The Root of All" feels decidedly ghostly and desolate compared to the previous tracks. It is the album's most abstract piece, featuring isolated bits of feedback and frequency sweeps around a loose, Paul Motian-esque groove from Davies. There was more of a solitary, nocturnal quality to the music from this point on. This gives way to the melodramatic "A Universal Groove, which features ambient cloudy sonorities based on an unwavering hip-hop-leaning beat. Things conclude with "Tabula Rasa," a spare, meditative and relatively brief unwinding that allows a safely rematerialized present dimension. Various moments of listening recalled Jon Hassell's fourth world music or the more melodic aspects of bands like Psychic TV, while others approached the industrial dub of Adrian Sherwood and the digital, jammy atonality of any number of releases from ECM Records's 1980s releases. The manner in which Davies and Lewis call upon and splice elements from all those references in real time is spellbinding and entirely original. The sound of all those elements melding and breaking down will appeal to listeners across many diverse music worlds.

Davies and Lewis are part of a unique group of current fellow US artists working from either jazz or non-jazz improvisatory backgrounds and scenes. Artists including Bad Luck (Seattle), Twans (Portland), David Lord (Wichita), or Grampus (Los Angeles) are linked with Davies and Lewis in that they lean towards writing and performing open-ended pieces that are, conceptually and stylistically, informed by broad tastes in both academic and non-academic approaches to art practice and expanding jazz definitions. Given that accounting for all this diverse musical cultural history allows for an infinite amount of possible expressions, improvisation becomes a natural primary vehicle. Awareness becomes the priority for such work to succeed. This is why Davies' and Lewis' creative vision imagines music and the future.

Max Kutner

February 3, 2026

All About Jazz