Out November 23rd on Don Giovanni Records, Magnetic Memory is a new full-length by NYC-based composer, producer, and performer Hprizm (aka High Priest, aka Kyle Austin).

A founding member of Anti-Pop Consortium, Prizm has consistently challenged the boundaries of hip-hop, collaborating and performing alongside a diverse cast of creative musicians, including Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, and Vijay Iyer,.

Composed and recorded throughout last year, Magnetic Memory is guided by Prizm’s desire to reconnect with a more traditional approach to sampling. That is to say, sampling as a primary element of composition. “History has moved on from seeing sound art as compositional,” he explains. “I wanted to re-embrace that. I thought there was more to say.”

In constructing Magnetic Memory’s rhythms and atmospheres, Prizm chose to work within the technological constraints of his earliest days as a producer. “Not a lot of gear,” says Prizm. “To make it more basement.”

“At my point of entry, you couldn’t do long-form sampling. You had to make something out of 9-12 seconds,” he explains. “Thus, the focus is not on adapting hooks from identifiable songs, but snatching isolated moments to form the basis of instrumentation.”

It’s not about nostalgia. It’s about applying old constraints to new technology in an effort to reconnect with a voice. Prizm is joined on Magnetic Memory by New York City-based jazz musicians, James Brandon Lewis, Heru Shabaka, and Shawn Keys.