Loren Mazzacane-Connors, Alan Licht - Hoffman Estates (1998)

On Hoffman Estates, the legendary American outsider blues-guitar miniaturist Loren Mazzacane-Connors and avant-garde minimalist foil Alan Licht anchor a staggering, Chicago-vanguard super-ensemble to deliver a deeply haunting, monumental, and masterfully abstract studio document. Released in 1998 by the definitive independent outpost Drag City, this brilliant masterpiece serves as a towering nexus point for late-90s underground exploration, cross-pollinating traditional American blues structures with skeletal post-rock arrangements, dense microtonal drone layers, and fierce free-jazz horn bursts. Spanning over 41 minutes of immaculate, multi-layered spatial design, the 7-track landscape operates with a brooding, cinematic, and beautifully fluid kinetic energy. Engineered, produced, and additional-arranged by the visionary Jim O'Rourke, the group shifts seamlessly through sprawling improvisational frameworks—firing off magnificent highlights like the tense, structural crescendo of Block That Nixon, the mournful stillness of Sad At Times, and the colossally beautiful, ambient horn-anchored closer And Everyone 'Neath Their Vine And Fig Tree Shall Live In Peace And Unafraid. Driven by Connors's weeping, deeply expressive glissando guitar runs, Licht's structural drone counterpoint, and the volcanic push of a Chicago creative-jazz elite—including Ken Vandermark, Rob Mazurek, and Chad Taylor—this pristine archive remains an indispensable cornerstone for serious avant-garde purists and experimental guitar collectors worldwide.