"Stress Positions is Joe Moffett's second solo studio album release. In this collection of pieces he produces mangled, oscillating, chittering noises, a collision of muscle, bone, and metal. The contortions herein were carried out in the spirit of the glossolalic and obsessive."-Neither/Nor

"Joe Moffett is a member of Carlo Costa's Acustica, Earth Tongues and Twins of El Dorado and also led his own quintet for Ad Faunum (Not Two Records, 2012). The trumpeter's second solo recording is preoccupied with breath. Of course, all wind instrument recordings are concerned with breath. But for Moffett, recording this work while doctors were rationing ventilators for the sick and George Floyd's dying words were "I can't breathe," breath is paramount. Even the title, Stress Positions-a police tactic used to subdue a suspect-sets off alarms. The trumpeter's breath, heard as he forms notes or inhales to catch it, represents a very human struggle.

Moffett's brief opening salvo, "Milkweed Salad," attacks with an urgent sputtering growl and sprints to its conclusion as if Moffett's thoughts were spilling unchecked. His approach on "Feinting Bulb" is to blow circular breaths to exhaustion, regularly pausing, the only sound being his own inhalation. Moffett is a member of a new class of trumpeters like Nate Wooley, Peter Evans and Axel Dorner who are reimagining the sonic capacities of their instrument. He utilizes other materials like metal (or is it paper?) to create resonant overtones on "Luxury Drywall Manoeuver." Moffett also sheds notes, using the horn's body on "Succulent Midnight Quicksilver" to allow for a breath-only sound experience both chilling and comforting at the same time."-Mark Corroto, All About Jazz