Das Exploding Star Orchestra wurde bereits 2005nach einem Kulturauftrag des Chicago Cultural Center an Rob Mazurek aus Musikern aus allen Teilen Chicagos zusammengestellt und debütierte auf Thrill Jokey 2007. 2015 folgte ein Triple-LP release auf Cuneiform. Der neueste Release, nun auf International Anthem, versammelt 11 Musiker, wurde zwischen August 2019 und März 2020 aufgenommen und war nicht weniger als 3 Monate in der Post-Production.

In 2018 JazzFest Berlin invited Mazurek to present a new iteration of ESO. Meeting the commission with the boundless ambition characteristic of his approach, he imagined a jubilee of musicians - true to ESO’s essence in their widely diverse backgrounds and voices, but more tightly arranged than ever before. Mazurek’s debut was an ecstatic and wholly original program that marked a pinnacle in his distinction as a composer and conductor of Contemporary Music. When he returned to Chicago, International Anthem took the opportunity to capture these new ESO compositions with a cast of collaborators from their collective constellation of artists. In the studio between August 2019-March 2020, Mazurek channeled his arrangements through 11 musicians - Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Jaimie Branch, Joel Ross, Mikel Patrick Avery, Tomeka Reid, Chad Taylor, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Macie Stewart, Angelica Sanchez, and John Herndon - and commissioned his long-time collaborator Damon Locks to do lyrics and vocals. After 3 months of rigorous post-production, editing and assembly, Mazurek completed Dimensional Stardust.
Somehow swirling adventurous elements of avant-garde jazz and contemporary classical into the most universal attractors of pop music, the cosmic opera of Dimensional Stardust is a pure spiritual extension of Exploding Star Orchestra’s unifying ethos, and a peak in the prolific creative career of Rob Mazurek.