Unconventional. Unheard of. Some might add unreal. If you can get your hands on either of them, listen to their previous releases for Blue Note and you’ll be struck by the startling freshness and flat-out nerve that have become hallmark sounds produced by Animation, the best rock and jazz mélange you’ve never heard of.

And now comes Animation Asiento (from the UK-based label Rare Noise Records), the long-overdue release that follows those two Grammy nominated Blue Note CDs, animation * imagination (1999) and re*animation LIVE! (2000). Spearheaded by music visionaries Bob Belden, Tim Hagans and Scott Kinsey, Animation has raised the bar for experimental music, carrying with it infectious tinges of hip-hop, trip-hop, drum ‘n’ bass, fusion and whatever your own imagination might add with each new listen.

It makes complete sense that Rare Noise should be in on the production side. Co-founded by Giacomo Bruzzo and Italian musician Eraldo Bernocchi, Rare Noise credits also include working with example fellow experimentalist Bill Laswell of M.O.D. Technologies. Yes, that same Bill Laswell responsible for those radical late ’90s reconstructions and remixes of electric Miles Davis from the 1960s and ’70s. Says Belden of Rare Noise: “Rare Noise is way into the music. For the first time I have a company that ‘gets it,’ and is into the music, the band and the musicians individually.” Speaking of Bruzzo, Belden adds, “He’s into progress and not nostalgia!!!”

A bit of history: In 2006, Belden led Animation into New York City’s famed and more classically oriented Merkin Hall for a rare show performed by his extremely happenstance, inconspicuous aggregate. The idea was to “re-imagine” the now-classic musical text of Miles Davis’ landmark 1969 recordings from Bitches Brew. For Belden and Hagans, producer/saxophonist and trumpeter, respectively, it was an opportunity to take the material and reinterpret it according to the vibes of 21st century cutting-edge popular music. But to get a true taste of what that audience had waiting for it, listeners might have appreciated what liner notician Bill Milkowski had to say when writing about the band’s debut album, animation * imagination: “Producer Belden presided over this wildly creative session with a loose, bohemian touch. A true renegade in the jazz industry, his aesthetic isn’t slick, it’s slack. There was a kind of mischievous twinkle in his eye as he continually encouraged the participants to push the envelope as far as possible.”

“We don’t know what we’re doing so it can’t be wrong,” Belden wryly added. And added Milkowski: “And the musicians seemed to appreciate this no-holds-barred approach.”

And, along with Belden and Hagans, who were those musicians who added so much to the musical proceedings? Synthesizer player Scott Kinsey, bassist Matt Garrison, drummer Guy Licata and DJ Logic on turntables all had major roles in how the music was created. Kinsey has been like an alter ego to Belden and Hagans, now making a name for himself with his innovative group Human Element and also working with such artists as the late Joe Zawinul (Scott was the only keyboardist Joe would share the bandstand with or let sub on gigs!), Tribal Tech with Scott Henderson, Bill Evans, and doing soundtrack gigs with David Holmes for films like Ocean’s Eleven through Ocean’s Thirteen. Garrison, the son of the legendary bassist Jimmy Garrison, has worked with, among others, Jack DeJohnette, Joni Mitchell and Herbie Hancock and currently plays with Kinsey in Human Element. Licata’s credits include work with Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell and The Collective, and Method of Defiance, Laswell's latest band (and a Rare Noise signing). As for DJ Logic, the man’s credits run long and wide and include sizeable streaks with such names as Vernon Reid, John Mayer, Bob Weir’s Ratdog, and Medeski Martin & Wood. His background is loaded with work in and around hip hop, funk, soul jazz and jazz.

By way of introducing the band and its history, Belden sent “folders” as a way of describing the roots of the music, folders that essentially refer to previous recordings. “These folders,” says Belden, “are music examples of the development of the concept of the band in chronological order. The only way to understand the band is to hear the concept grow over the years. Otherwise, it makes the Merkin show sound like a one-off.”

Room does not permit going into too much detail about Belden’s catalogue on this. Suffice to say, he traces the evolution of the Animation band back to the late 1980s and his innovative Treasure Island big band, continuing on with material that’s had the main members of Animation on board to this day. Fans of this band should check out Belden’s Black Dahlia, Strawberry Fields, Tapestry, Straight To My Heart: The Music Of Sting, When Doves Cry: The Music Of Prince, Prince Jazz and Puccini’s Turandot -- releases that canvassed the 1990s musical terra firma, recordings that cemented Belden’s musical aesthetic. It has become an aesthetic that’s not only groundbreaking, but indifferent to musical trends, and capable of moving in and out of different musical realms, realms that include not only pop music but soundtrack and classical music as well. And all this coming from someone who remains, essentially, a jazz musician at heart.

As for the name of the album, Asiento, label head Bruzzo says it “refers to a particular level of initiation within Santeria.” And who is a Santero? Bruzzo explains: “A Santero is the disciple who has achieved ‘Asiento,’ someone who, for the first time, is a true ‘Santero.’ It is both a point of arrival and a point of departure.

“This title,” he concludes, “wants to honor the very personal importance of that evening’s performance, declare that performance to be a point of arrival, but also a point of departure for Animation. Finally, it is to provide a reference to the music and their authors without being overly explicit or subservient.”