ETA IVtet turn a hard year into live-recorded joy on Happy Today

ETA IVtet release Happy Today on 15 May via International Anthem, bringing Jeff Parker’s quartet back with two extended live-recorded pieces. The group follows 2024’s The Way Out of Easy with a record captured at the Lodge Room in Los Angeles, where Parker and the band build music that feels communal, searching and alive in the moment.

The album consists of two long tracks, Like Swimwear and Happy Today, both stretching past the usual song-length frame. That matters because ETA IVtet work best when the music is allowed to unfold. Parker’s guitar language has always bridged jazz, post-rock, experimental music and groove, and International Anthem remains one of the key independent labels for music that blurs those lines with real purpose.

Parker has described the album as a statement of joy after a difficult year marked by displacement from the Eaton fires and broader political exhaustion. That context gives Happy Today its emotional weight. It is not cheerful in a shallow sense. It is joy as recovery, joy as resistance, joy as something a group of musicians can build together in real time. For indie readers open to jazz-adjacent experimental music, this is a vital 15 May release. Source: https://pitchfork.com/news/jeff-parker-announces-eta-ivtet-album-happy-today ; Label: https://www.intlanthem.com