Ava Mendoza will release Alive Alone, Alive Together on May 22nd via Burning Ambulance Music. The album features eight tracks of Mendoza’s charged electric guitar and vocals, four of which also feature legendary drummer Hamid Drake.
KLOF reviewed Mendoza’s second solo album The Circular Train back in 2024, noting the bold, direct quality of her playing and the raw power of tracks like Dust From the Mines and Shadow Song. It went on to feature in Glenn Kimpton’s Top 10 albums of that year, who praised it as a stripped-back, complex set of avant-garde music in which finely poised playing catches fire over six beautifully crafted songs. Alive Alone, Alive Together takes that energy into a live setting, with performances recorded across the US and Europe in 2025. The album includes radically transformed versions of tracks from New Spells and The Circular Train alongside brand-new material, mixed by electronic musician Submerged, lending it a powerful psychedelic edge.
A Brooklyn-based guitarist and vocalist, Mendoza has built a formidable reputation over two decades. She is a member of the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, co-leads Unnatural Ways and Mendoza Hoff Revels, and has worked with James Brandon Lewis and William Parker, among others. Her most recent Burning Ambulance release, 2025’s Mama Killa — a collaboration with violinist gabby fluke-mogul and drummer Carolina Pérez — received well-earned rave reviews.
The first single, Dust From the Mines featuring Drake, is available now on Bandcamp and streaming services. Recorded at Summer Bummer Festival at Trix in Antwerp by Jasper Jan, it offers a thrilling glimpse of the album’s live intensity.
Alive Alone, Alive Together will be available digitally and as a limited edition of 500 CDs in gatefold mini-LP sleeves with artwork by Burning Ambulance Music co-founder I.A. Freeman.
For the physical release, International customers can order via Grooves-Inc, Jazz Messengers, No Man’s Land and Soundohm.
Bandcamp: https://avamendoza-bam.bandcamp.com/album/alive-alone-alive-together