Atlas Maior creates original music informed by Jazz, Free Improvisation, and the musical traditions of the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and India. Band members Joshua Thomson (alto saxophone, flutes), Josh Peters (oud, lutar), Josh Flowers (upright bass), and Gray Parsons (drums) often create cinematic soundscapes that balance intimate moments of sincerity with powerful melodies and incendiary rhythmic passages. The group writes original compositions that blend maqamat (Middle Eastern modal system) with harmonic progressions found in American jazz, resulting in a distinct evocative sound. Atlas Maior composes with a variety of instrumentation, including the oud, Chinese hulusi, saxophone, and lutar. The band often improvises within conceptual frameworks, or freely without form. Atlas Maior's approach often expands and contracts the group’s sound through a commitment to dynamics and textural accentuations. 

As an ensemble Atlas Maior has released 8 studio albums, most recently new vinyl LP Palindromlar (release date 10/11/25) which is a follow up to 2024's Hadal Deluxe Edition (released 6/7/24), and 2019's Riptide, voted a 2019 Top 100 release by The Austin Chronicle. During 2020-21 the group released 4 singles which featured Coke Studios artist Ali Pervez Mehdi (Nazuk, Ya Ali, & 2 studio remixes). 

The group has performed both internationally and nationally, including 2024’s 12-date tour throughout Morocco and Spain, as well as performances in France and Turkey. Atlas Maior has garnered positive reviews and media coverage from Jazziz Magazine, Medium, PRI’s The World, New York Daily Music, Jazz Journal, Afropop Worldwide, and Songlines, and in 2019 was named City of Austin Cultural Ambassadors. In 2023, Atlas Maior received the City of Austin’s Live Music Fund grant.

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