Red Hook Records, the acclaimed independent label founded in 2021 by veteran producer Sun Chung following his departure from ECM, is celebrating its fifth anniversary with a profound artistic and philanthropic statement: Peace Anthems. Spanning ten distinct pieces performed by a rotating ensemble of thirteen master musicians, the album avoids the common pitfalls of the conventional anniversary sampler. Instead of functioning as a mere administrative milestone driven by label accountants, Peace Anthems is an intimate, cohesive portrait of a creative ecosystem cultivated by Chung across a decade and across multiple institutions.
Crucially, the release carries a strong humanitarian mission: 100% of the profits from Peace Anthems will be donated directly to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Available on luxurious 180g translucent vinyl accompanied by an insert featuring photography and liner notes penned by artist Moor Mother, the sub-forty-minute project defies the industry urge toward bloated, sprawling compilations. Instead, it offers a tightly curated, meditative exploration of sound, geography, and collective consciousness.
The label will mark this major milestone with a two-night live celebration at Roulette in Brooklyn on September 18 and 19, 2026, bringing the album’s sprawling network of collaborators into a shared physical space.
Detailed Chronology: From ECM Origins to Red Hook’s Fifth Year
To understand the architecture of Peace Anthems, one must trace the professional footprint of Sun Chung, whose production history forms the invisible glue holding this disparate group of artists together.
The Genesis of Red Hook Records
Chung launched Red Hook Records in 2021 with a posthumous release: Hanamichi, a deeply intimate solo piano session by the late, legendary Japanese pianist Masabumi Kikuchi. The release signaled Chung’s curatorial ethos—one characterized by unhurried pacing, spatial awareness, and deep emotional resonance. Over the next five years, Red Hook steadily built a catalog defined by avant-garde jazz, contemporary composition, and sonic experimentation, avoiding commercial compromises in favor of uncompromising artistic integrity.
Tracing the Producer’s Working Circle
The credits of Peace Anthems repay close archaeological digging, revealing a web of relationships forged across disparate recording sessions and multiple record labels:
- November 2016: Chung produced British organist Kit Downes across three English churches for the album Obsidian, a collaboration they would repeat on Dreamlife of Debris.
- December 2016: Just a month after the English church sessions, Chung was in Seoul, South Korea, producing Sungjae Son’s Near East Quartet. That session was engineered by Rick Kwan—the exact same sound engineer who would later helm the mix for Peace Anthems.
- Historical Ties: Bassist Thomas Morgan played on Masabumi Kikuchi’s Sunrise a decade and a half ago, with Kwan assisting behind the glass. Meanwhile, veteran rhythm masters Andrew Cyrille and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith have both spent years under Chung’s production hand across multiple labels.
Consequently, billing Peace Anthems merely as a "various artists" compilation undersells its true nature. It is, in effect, a decade-long photographic exposure of one producer’s working circle, finally gathered into a single frame.
Supporting Context & Metrics: Sonic Architecture and Sequencing
Despite being recorded across various undisclosed global locations throughout 2026—with zero tracks cut in the same room—Peace Anthems possesses a striking, unified sonic cohesion. This is largely thanks to master engineer Taylor Deupree, who serves a dual role as both an instrumental contributor and the final mastering engineer. Deupree’s deft touch at the mastering stage welds thirteen separate acts of recording into a single, breathing organism.
Side A: Opening the Doors and Crossing Borders
The vinyl edition divides the ten tracks into a six-and-four split that mirrors the ideological and structural layout of the label itself:
- Track 1 (“Al Badawi”): Qasim Naqvi opens the album with a solo modular synthesizer piece. As the longest track on the record, its slow, undulating tides of tone establish the meditative gravity required by the project’s overarching theme.
- Track 2 (“Wither Light and Airy”): Taylor Deupree, Kalia Vandever, and Thomas Morgan circle a singular, fragile melodic motif using guitar, percussion, trombone, and bass until the composition frays pleasantly at the edges.
- Track 3 (“Imaginary Lines”): Poet and artist Moor Mother collaborates with BlankFor.ms (Tyler Gilmore), whose foundational work with degraded tape and analog synthesis resists traditional instrument mapping. Moor Mother’s spoken delivery provides the album’s boldest juxtaposition against unstable sonic architecture. Her voice is heard on the track and read on the physical release, as she also authored the package’s liner notes.
- Track 4 (“Sonic Requiem X”): Wadada Leo Smith and Amina Claudine Myers present their first of two duos on the album. Building on their established history in the Red Hook catalog, the pair utilizes strategic negative space, demonstrating complete trust in one another’s silences.
- Track 5 (“The River of Imjin”): Composed and performed by Sungjae Son on tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, and pump organ, this multi-layered, hymn-like tour de force serves as the emotional heart of Peace Anthems. By centering the Imjin River—which flows from North Korea through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into South Korea—Son translates the geopolitical trauma of division and the yearning for reunification into pure, transcendent geography.
- Track 6 (“War is Over”): Closing Side A, Martha Deribe and Simone Maggio (the Italian-based duo behind 2024’s Sacred Times) offer a measured performance. Maggio shifts from piano to the Fender Rhodes, casting a warm, enveloping light over which Deribe’s vocal delivery floats intimately.
Side B: Rhythmic Resets and Organ Framing
Flipping the vinyl introduces a deliberate shift in momentum, prioritizing rhythm before easing back into transcendent stillness:
- Track 7 (“Three Years Later”): Qasim Naqvi reunites with Wadada Leo Smith and Andrew Cyrille. Cyrille’s introduction of a Caribbean-influenced pulse via cowbell and toms provides the album’s only true rhythmic drive, acting as a brilliant sequencing masterstroke that revives the listener after the ambient drift of Side A.
- Tracks 8 & 9: Kit Downes takes over B2 with “Into the Woods – 3 Weary Calls,” followed immediately by “Reflections on Palestine,” the second duo collaboration between Smith and Myers.
- Track 10 (“Closing Meditation for OM”): Kit Downes returns for the album’s briefest and final piece. Treating the organ as an acoustic machine designed to shift air within a massive room, Downes leaves the listener with the sound of pure breath resonating in an empty space, folding the entire record back into profound silence.
Running at just under forty minutes, Peace Anthems successfully avoids the common trap of bloated benefit compilations, maintaining an unbroken narrative thread from first note to final resonance.
Official Statements & Humanitarian Impact
In an era where artistic production often feels detached from global realities, Red Hook Records has anchored Peace Anthems in direct civic responsibility.
Sun Chung’s decision to route 100% of the album’s proceeds to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) underscores the project’s title. Rather than treating peace as a passive, abstract concept, the label frames it as an urgent call to action. In the liner notes, Moor Mother articulates this ethos, framing the sonic explorations not merely as musical exercises, but as acts of communal healing and resistance against global fracturing.
For music consumers wishing to contribute directly—regardless of whether they purchase the physical vinyl or digital release via Bandcamp or independent outlets—donations can be channeled directly through the official ICRC portal at icrc.org/en/donate.
Future Outlook: The Brooklyn Anniversary Residencies
To celebrate five years of independent curation and the release of Peace Anthems, Red Hook Records is expanding its physical footprint with a landmark two-night residency at Roulette in Brooklyn, New York, scheduled for September 18 and 19, 2026.
- Night One (September 18): Features performances by the core lineage of the label, bringing together Wadada Leo Smith, Andrew Cyrille, Qasim Naqvi, and Amina Claudine Myers. This evening is expected to lean heavily into the improvised telepathy and spontaneous composition that defines the label’s most exploratory releases.
- Night Two (September 19): Shifts the lens toward the broader, contemporary edge of the roster, showcasing Jason Moran, BlankFor.ms, Marcus Gilmore, Caroline Davis, Qasim Naqvi, and Grey McMurray.
These live performances will act as a physical extension of the community captured in the grooves of Peace Anthems. As Red Hook Records steps past its half-decade mark, Peace Anthems proves that independent jazz and avant-garde music can remain fiercely vital, politically resonant, and deeply humane.
