Listen/Watch: Magos Herrera & Brooklyn Rider - "Niña"

Despite the fact that they have one of the most rigorous touring schedules I've seen and released their brilliant new album Spontaneous Symbols just last October, string quartet Brooklyn Rider has somehow found the time to record a brand new collaborative album with Mexican jazz singer/songwriter Magos Herrera. Although the ease of the collaboration might've been helped by the fact that both Herrera and Brooklyn Rider are based in New York. Dreamers, the forthcoming album from Herrera and Brooklyn Rider follows in a long line of Brooklyn Rider's collaborative efforts with singer/songwriters like Bela Fleck and Gabriel Kahane but unlike those previous collaborations, Dreamers sets the words of poets like Ruben Dario, Octavio Paz, and Frederico Garcia Lorca as well as other singer/songwriters and poets to arrangements by Brazilian cellist Jaques Morelenbaum, Argentinian pianists/composers Diego Schissi and Guillermo Klein, and Venezuelan born multi-instrumenalist/composer Gonzolo Grau as well as Brooklyn Rider's own resident composer/arranger Colin Jacobsen. It's an example of classical music as a political statement not unlike Ravel's "La Valse" as the idea to craft an album featuring poetry from a multitude of Central and South American writers (and mainland Spanish in the case of Lorca), featuring arrangements from composers/artists who are largely from these places at a time of particularly anti-immigrant sentiment speaks volumes down to the name of the album.

Featuring the use of cajón and a pair of palmeras or hand clappers as well as Brooklyn Rider's incredibly sharp chops, "Niña" begins an incredibly percussive piece that roots Grau's arrangement of  Mexican poet Octavio Paz's piece more in flamenco than in salsa or tango. In contrast, Herrara's singing is fluid and melismatic with Brooklyn Rider occasionally mimicking to create moments of levitating harmonic consonance as Herrera underlines parts of the texts that are rife with spectacularly vivid imagery. A love song to his Paz's daughter, Grau's arrangements are incredibly dynamic - propulsive builds, cathartic releases, and dramatic shifts all aided by Magos Herrara's impeccable vocal talents, Brooklyn Rider's precision, and the addition of percussionists. 



Dreamers, Brooklyn Rider's new collaborative album with Magos Herrera, is out September 21st on Sony Music Mexico. You can pre-order/pre-save the album here.

Brooklyn Rider - Spontaneous Symbols (2017)

New York string quartet Brooklyn Rider have made a career establishing the crucial link between essential classical music and the now more nebulous, far reaching era of modern composition. It's a choice that's taken them on a rather circuitous journey. From introducing the uninitiated to Armenian composer Komitas Vartaped or their cover of Mexican rockers Cafe Tacvba's "La Muerte Chiquita" on their first record Passport, to the global premiere of collaborations with Iranian composer/Kamancheh play Kayhan Kalhor and New York based Russian composer Ljova, Brooklyn Rider have taken great care not only to bridge the musical gap between traditional classical music and contemporary but also to bridge cultural gaps (unsurprising considering Brooklyn Rider are also members of the Yo-Yo Ma founded Silkroad Ensemble).

While most of their albums paired a known classical work with newer works they felt meshed well or were inspired, the foursome broke new ground with The Brooklyn Rider Almanac: a collection of collaborations from all living composers/artists like folk singer Aoife O'Donovan and jazz pianist Vijay Iyer. Since then the group has gone on to have a number of releases like the Gabriel Kahane collaboration The Fiction Issue but The Brooklyn Rider Almanac signaled a turning point in the quartet's catalog where elevating and commissioning new works took primary focus over their attempts to revitalize old classics. The spirit remained but by focusing almost exclusively on works from composers they could actually work with, the quartet highlights all the exciting things that are happening in current day classical scene. Spontaneous Symbols is a return of sorts to their traditional setup (even as they welcome new cellist Michael Nicolas). Unlike The Fiction Issue or their collaboration with soprano Anna Sofia von Otter So Many Things, Spontaneous Symbols repositions many of those extended collaborations back to the simpler composer/performer dynamic.

"ArpRec1", a composition by Tyondai Braxton, is a notated version of piece Braxton normally performs with the use of a midi controller and built using Ableton and MaxMSP. Brooklyn Rider are no strangers to work with electronics, as evidenced by "Together Into This Unknowable Night" from their album Seven Steps, a composition by violinist/software engineer Christopher Tignor. "ArpRec1" is a piece that relies on the intuition of the performers. Reminiscent of the works of Terry Riley, "ArpRec1" Braxton's use of generative technique allows for a feeling of spontaneity. And yet, much like Riley's use of music modules gives each performance an improvisitory quality, to the casual listener the gradual build and precision of rhythmic fixtures seem wholly planned. It's not until the end of the first part where you hear a sort of unraveling that it occurs there could anything happening other than the written music. Considering this is the notated version of Braxton's musical experiments, it's not totally out of the norm that he would include this moment of chaos as part of the music. It actually forms a bridge between the two parts the piece is split into on the album: from the surefooted, unfurling of part 1 into the frenzied pacing of part 2, the minor elongating, conflicting rhythms sets up an unexpected second act.

"BTT", Brooklyn Rider's own addition to the album by violinist/composer Colin Jacobsen, sees the quartet essentially finding parallels between their classical training and the modern classical movement. Inspired equally by the 70's/80's downtown New York scene as well as by John Cage, Jacobsen realized that Cage and Bach, though diametric opposites are connected through a tendency towards rule-making. Bach's being strict and conservative while Cage's were meant more to focus his chaos. The result is a multi-layered piece that's a pendulum swing between order and chaos, minimalism and maximalism. Theoretically, Jacobsen is operating on a level of deep complex: having two motifs: a Bach and Cage one, interweaving all throughout while also trying to pay homage to Phillip Glass and Steve Reich. It's a piece that's pretty much synonymous with Brooklyn Rider's mission statement as it seeks to illustrate the interconnectedness of music using the string quartet as that lens.
    
Brooklyn Rider's albums have contained at least one multi-movement work and Evan Ziporyn's Qi is Spontaneous Symbols offering. Inspired by the Chinese concept of life-force, Ziporyn's three movement work is breath-taking. First movement "Lucid Flight" is adequately named as it seeks to inspire a feeling of weightlessness in the listener, the harmonics like soft wisps of air streaming past your face. But Ziporyn avoids expectations of what flying is supposed to sound like - it's not all polished breathy melodies and bright timbres, rather there's a dissonance that flutters in and out as if the awareness of the unnaturalness of human flight seeks to ground it at any time. That "awareness" theme is passed around from instrument to instrument even as those airy harmonics try to keep everything afloat.

"Garden", the second movement of Qi begins slowly, a comedown from the flighty first movement but when it truly touches down, it offers up one of Spontaneous Symbols most beautiful moments. It's meditative while not lethargic, it's also built with kaleidoscopic complexity, as a shifting array of vibrant coloring and stirring melodic moments catapult it forward from section to section. Where "Lucid Flight" glides from one moment to the next, "Garden" arrives to each with deep centering breaths. And its final section gives the sense of relieving sighs before letting everything peter out to contemplative silence.

And where "Garden" is an inward moment, "Transport" is reactionary. Inspired by intense moments that led to epiphanic revelations, "Transport" is expectedly busy. But even then Ziporyn subverts that notion, it isn't a fast paced sprint, it's a patient plod toward a moment of true weightlessness "Lucid Flight" never actually achieves. Perhaps because of the expectation and cerebral nature of it then but in "Transport" it whisks you up and away.

Where Ziporyn's piece is focused on the inner life, Paula Matthusen's "on the attraction of felicitous amplitude" is a piece shaped by a strong sense of place. Written during Matthusen's fellowship at the American Academy at Rome, it's a piece that draws from Matthusen's love of architecture and a cistern underneath the Villa Aurelia in particular. Matthusen utilizes field recordings she took of the cistern and the piece is an exploration of how sounds travel in the space paired with notated music performed by Brooklyn Rider. The quartet capture both the cavernous quality as the space while also replicating the sound of trickling water with col legno and slides. In addition to trying to replicate the sounds of the space but also invoking how sound travels in it, the field recordings are also transduced through the actual instruments themselves.

Kyle Sanna's "Sequence for Minor White" closes out the album and is a particular solid choice for that duty. Inspired both by the photography and the teachings of photographer Minor White, Sanna builds a set of sequences sans movement. One doesn't have to be at all familiar with Minor White or his teachings to be effected by Sanna's work as the work is multitudinous and sans context but like White's sequence philosophy, Sanna seeks to construct a sense of interconnectedness. White's attempts to evoke a stronger feeling through the grouping of specific photographs is an idea not at all foreign to composition where often you string various personal ideas or techniques together in the hopes that the observer can put the puzzle together (except if you have the benefit of program notes) but the idea to essentially score selected still photographs and White's philosophy to try and provide an adequate measure of the man is incredibly ambitious. But if the piece inspires you to acquaintance yourself with either the photography, creative thoughts, or poetry of Minor White, Kyle Sanna is sure to consider the work successful.   

For a group of musicians that pushes themselves to new creative endeavors over and over, it seems unfair to call Spontaneous Symbols their best work. It is an assuredly different work than they've released before both in form and content but it seems like their most vital. Brooklyn Rider essentially wrote themselves a new playbook on The Brooklyn Rider Almanac and those lessons have been internalized and improved upon. Spontaneous Symbols is not the easiest album to listen to but it is an incredibly interesting one full of fruitful collaborations and compositions. Brooklyn Rider are hardly the kind of that frequently need to highlight their strengths as a string quartet but Spontaneous Symbols contains many pieces that do just that. Brooklyn Rider are not only game for just about anything but have an exception knack for curation that in turn spotlights their incredible versatility. Spontaneous Symbols that requires patience but rewards it with both incendiary moments and soothing ones.



Brooklyn Rider's new album Spontaneous Symbols is out October 20th on violinist/Brooklyn Rider founding member Johnny Gandelsman's In A Circle Records. You can pre-order the album here.

All Around Sound's Favorite Albums of 2014

2014 was an odd year - on one hand it seemed like the amount of notable releases were as plentiful as ever before while on the other, a lot of those releases ultimately did not live up to the hype. 2014 was the year a multitude of artists not only reserved for their follow up records but also seemed inclined to pack full of releases - artists like Sondre Lerche and Steve Gunn had more than one album out this year. Lerche offering up the soundtrack to the movie The Sleepwalker he wrote music in addition to return to original songs after his first ever live album while Steve Gunn pursuing two collaborations in addition to his own full length follow up to last year's brilliant Time Off. While every genre and music type was represented this year, 2014 in my humble opinion, was the year of the singer/songwriter. From releases from The New Pornographers, Cold Specks, Hiss Golden Messenger, and dozens more, the singer/songwriter's seemingly dominated this year delivering on the potential of their releases in a way that bands didn't seem quite able to. Despite this, it's been a year of surprises all across the board so without further ado here's my favorite releases of the year in no particular order.

Kevin Morby - Still Life
It's funny that in a year with not one, not two, but three albums from Steve Gunn that the album that most resembled the simple narratives of Time-Off was actually that of Los Angeles' based songwriter Kevin Morby's sophomore record Still Life. But where Gunn's lyricism sprang from a sort of deductive observationalism, Morby's seem like ready additions to the folk canon if not for their experimental twists. Where Gunn's folk rock rambles were aided by his jazz background, Morby relies on his psych and garage rock past to give his songs and extra bit of flavor. But Morby is more than Steve Gunn's foil; Morby's songwriting is undoubtedly his own - it's a free-flowing candor that doesn't detract from its moments of poignancy. Morby's lyrics are plainspoken but articulate; casual but intelligent and in moments like "The Jester, The Tramp, & The Acrobrat" or its callbacks elsewhere on the album ("The Dancer"), it's obvious Morby knows a thing or two about songwriting structure - able to build upon them in ways that are understatedly great.

Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness
There's no denying that last year's sneak peak of Olsen's sophomore album Burn Your Fire For No Witness in the form of the fiery, rock "Forgiven/Forgotten" got a lot of people amped up for the album but ultimately Olsen subverted expectations by making that the lead single - while relying far more frequently on electronic guitar on the album, it's not quite as incendiary as the single would lead listeners to believe. Olsen's still ruminates beautifully in her introspective heartfelt tunes. Burn Your Fire For No Witness is a patient album, especially in its second half as Olsen gets sparser and more intimate but there's little doubt of Olsen's songwriting or ability to make an effecting album. It's an album of arresting beauty where Olsen lays herself completely bare even amid growling guitars.

Landlady - Upright Behavior
When I first discovered Landlady at SXSW, I was so taken with their incredible live energy and commitment to audience participation in "Above My Ground" that pretty much everything else about the band failed to register. It's not until you sit down with Upright Behavior, the sophomore record for Adam Schatz and company that you realize just how much Landlady have going for them. In addition to having an impressive roster of musicians, and engaging live performances - Adam Schatz is a gifted songwriter. His topics are eclectic - from the universal feelings of loss and existential dread ("Above My Ground", "Dying Day") to the zany and specific ("Girl","X-Ray Machine") but what's pervasive in all of Schatz songs is that quiet need for connection, Landlady's songs are the kind that seem to force a sincere reaction out of you - not through any sort of introspection; the reaction seems surprisingly incidental. And yet, that's part of Schatz skill. His songs profiting from both a pop universality and also his occasionally comic wit. Landlady is a good a band as any to fight what was previously a losing battle against irony and cynicism. Landlady's songs, seem unaffected and unassuming but they stir something in you, drawing a wellspring of feelings in their tragically short run times and yet, it's 30 minutes of earnest response that might not have existed without them. Landlady are a band rebelling against a increasingly normalized response against sincerity but if Upright Behavior is any indication they just might win.

PHOX - PHOX
It says a lot about the Baraboo, WI septet and the trust they have in each other that they can make an album as understated but enjoyable as their self-titled full length debut. That's not surprising considering PHOX's members have known each other for years before shacking up together and forming a band but seven members is a lot of people to account for if you don't exactly know what to do with them. Luckily for PHOX this is never the case and their eclectic instrumentation - clarinet, banjo, flute, flugelhorn/trumpet, in addition to the standard guitar/bass/drums helps separate them from the pack. It's an album that resists the siren song of the Mumfordized folk that's become wildly popular. Each song has distinct melodies, unique narrative subjects, and utilizes its multitude of members ably. Monica Martin may be the group's mouthpiece but there's no doubts PHOX is a full band affair. PHOX spends a significant amount of time pursuing the melancholic but even then doesn't lose it's lightness of step and arrangement. They never reach off-putting levels of sadsackery, hitting just the right amount of emotion required. PHOX take the scenic approach to folk pop, rarely giving you those monumental, catchy moments right up front and it's a welcome reprieve from the in-your-face nature of your garden variety indie pop act.

Brooklyn Rider - The Brooklyn Rider Almanac
10 years after their initial formation, New York based indie classical string quartet Brooklyn Rider have settled into a comfortable groove of sorts: their release schedule is surprisingly consistent - more or less releasing an album a year since 2008's Passport. There's touring schedule And yet while falling into a comforting rhythm, Brooklyn Rider has strived and succeeded at avoiding to be predictable. Just take this year's release The Brooklyn Rider Almanac; the essence of what drives the foursome at it's epicenter, it's a release that simultaneously breaks down and relies on Brooklyn Rider's familiarity. "Morris Dance" and "Exit" introduce vocals to what has for the longest time been a mostly instrumental endeavor for the quartet while tracks like "Dig the Say" and "Necessary Henry" absolutely requires their years of rapport to navigate the intricate improvisatory layers. Normally building the album around an reinterpreted classical work, The Brooklyn Rider Almanac instead is formed from the contribution of all living composers who themselves sought inspiration for the Almanac's pieces from other artists/composers. The Brooklyn Rider Almanac is not only a strong, interesting experiment but also one  that challenges and reintroduces the quartet's own mission statement - making for one of the most exciting and engaging albums they've released.

Lewis & Clarke - Triumvirate
Lou Rogai is nothing if not patient - it's reflected in everything that makes Lewis & Clarke worth listening to - their song's leisurely pace, the instrumental efficiency in the arrangements, the steady but surefootedness of Rogai's lyricism. It's virtually no surprise that the band's full length follow up would come years after their last; 7 if you're counting the time since Blasts Of Holy Birth, 5 from the sign of life that was 2009's 4 song Light Time EP. And in that time Rogai has grown more patient still. Triumvirate is a wide-sweeping sprawl of melancholic flourishes and meditative introspection. Triumvirate, Lewis & Clarke's third album, is a stunning work of beleaguered beauty; lush but complex in tone and overall mood; it's a record that contains a remarkably human breath. From it's melancholics flourishes to its meditative introspection, Triumvirate unfurls at a realistic rate of growth and decay. Nothing here is rushed - plodding casually through the philosophical brush instead of relying too heavily on the visceral, Rogai invoking emotion through a sort of learned response; he never directly appeals to the heart but engages each sense equally over the course of his long-form art-pop compositions until you find yourself responding in earnest.

Wye Oak - Shriek
While the latest record from Baltimore duo Wye Oak received its fair share of hype, it was arguably for wrong reasons. Lauded as the guitarless Wye Oak album, Shriek comes after quite a bit of Jenn Wasner dabbling in her other musical projects like Dungeonesse and Flock of Dimes and the influences from those fair more mainstream pop efforts have seeped into Wye Oak for the better. There wasn't anything wrong with Wye Oak's past incarnation as an indie rock band of note but the Wye Oak's synth pop renaissance provided a palette cleanser that Wasner has stated needed to continue to feel invested in the band and it's resulted in some of her most honest songwriting moments amid Shriek's dancier flights of fancy.

Sea Wolf - Song Spells No. 1: Cedarsmoke
It's a marvel that the latest Sea Wolf album, Song Spells No. 1: Cedarsmoke isn't actually considered to be a full blown effort by singer/songwriter Alex Brown Church. The album, the first in what is hopefully an ongoing collection of songwriting experiments pursued between official albums is basically meant to keep fans sated until Church and company have a "proper" full length effort prepped and potentially keep Church's songwriting chops sharp. Song Spells No. 1: Cedarsmoke achieves both those goals but also succeeds in being an incredible effort in its own right housing one of Alex Brown Church's strongest and most immediate songwriting efforts in "Young Bodies".

Sylvan Esso - Sylvan Esso
It sounded almost too much like a novelty - two folkies Amelia Randall-Meath of Mountain Man and Nicholas Sanborn who I had known from his run as a member of Megafaun's touring band team up for an electronic project. The only thing I didn't really count on was the versatility of Amelia's voice or the fact that Nicholas Sanborn is actually a skilled electronic producer. Sylvan Esso wasn't a project that was supposed to exist and yet, no is wishing it didn't. The duo, unlikely as they might seem on paper/without all the fact, creates a sort of charmingly easily accessible brand of electro-pop that it's hard not to get behind. With Sylvan Esso there's no gimmick, just the strength of the songs which happen to all be ridiculously good. It's a record that plays off of each person's obvious strengths and a few hidden ones for good measure while capitalizing on the duo's obvious creative chemistry and an undeniable urge to dance.

Blake Mills - Heigh Ho
While Blake Mills continues to make a name for himself a session musician everyone wants to work with and album credits continue to lengthen, this year saw the return of Mills to his solo project/main songwriting vehicle for the first time since his 2009 debut Break Mirrors and it's an album that's certainly worth the wait. Undeniably the more accessible record, it's ironic that it's also the record where Mills explores and experiments with various guitar tones and techniques far more openly. Mills has learned a thing or two about pop music to level up his songwriting and the results while lyrically broad - the magic comes from what Mills doesn't quite say, what the listener infers like on Fiona Apple featuring "Don't Tell Your Friends About Me". Mills has a talent that still percolates through his broadest moments like "Before It Fell" and "Curable Disease" which are contain the album's most impressive and effecting lyrical agility.

Tiny Ruins - Brightly Painted One
It's rather fitting that Brightly Painted One is the first album from Hollie Fullbrook's Tiny Ruins most Americans will hear. Based on the strength of lead track "Me at the Museum, You in the Wintergardens", it exemplifies everything Fullbrook has to offer - a stunning simplicity built around wonderfully evocative imagery and artful musical moments. Fullbrook is a breath of fresh air in the guise of a folk singer; finding inspiration in unexpected subjects and avoiding obvious tropes, Brightly Painted One is a scenic amble with an ever-changing focus but whose effect remains wholly the same. Fullbrook and her band are the only constant - an angel-voiced Scheherazade navigating the listener around mountains, across seas, and through time with a surprisingly fluidity and lilting gait.

Adult Jazz - Gist Is
When people listen to Adult Jazz - their knee-jerk reaction might be to compare them to the Dirty Projectors. It makes sense to an extent: they both strive to create music that is simply more than a catchy melody. It's music that stimulates the senses but challenges the listener and the performer alike. But the comparison distracts exactly from what Adult Jazz has going for it. Gist Is, a debut that is equal parts auspicious and criminally underrated, Adult Jazz prove themselves as precocious innovators. Take album opener "Hum", first an a capella introduction to the distinct vocals of frontman/songwriter Harry Burgess before undergoing an organic metamorphosis. It's an introduction to the band that's surprisingly apt - rarely does the Leeds four-piece sit on a single thought but neither do they haphazardly rush from one idea to the next; Adult Jazz are both restrained and restless; their creative flow resembling a tangent more than a leap but without all the clutter. Adult Jazz are many things - experimentalists with a meticulously polished creative vision; musicians with an inherent desire for chaos and subversion of expectations. There's no doubt a natural poppiness to Adult Jazz's songs and yet they rebel against that very notion in both theory and practice. It's an album of considerable thought and forethought that also embraces a improvisatory stream of consciousness; it's polished and precise but at times purposefully rough and effectively human.  Adult Jazz is a band of contradictions but those same contradictions are both what give the band its creative power and sets them and their debut album Gist Is apart from all the rest.

Elizabeth & The Catapult - Like It Never Happened
Elizabeth Ziman is a mainstay in New York City's singer/songwriter circle and with her third album Like It Never Happened it's not hard to see why. Ziman manages to perfectly balance a sense of playful ease with honest and effective lyricism in a way that's refreshing in absolutely every single way. A pop aficionado, Ziman's most winsome moments both on Like It Never Happened and in general are when she's able to imbue her personality into her songs. Like on the titular "Like It Never Happened" where Ziman offers up the wry lyrics with a rather straight-faced delivery that makes it doubly enjoyable. Ziman's strength comes from her unique approach to the singer/songwriter genre - she's a purveyor of love songs but there's no sense of whimpering inactivity from Ziman. She's a woman of action, aware of her own romantic weaknesses and pursues the for the narrative mileage without letting herself be solely defined by them. Like It Never Happened's appeal is that even at it's most poppy, it never comes off as cutesy. It's a sincere record where Ziman shows off the best parts of herself; owning her personal weaknesses in a way that make them quite flattering without her having to spin them as such. From it's arrangements to Ziman's shifting instrumental focus (guitar versus piano), Like It Never Happened shows Elizabeth & The Catapult at her very best. Everything is polished but not to the point of being overly produced and it's a collection of songs that really demonstrates what Ziman's capable of.

Kishi Bashi - Lighght
When K. Ishibashi decided to embark on a solo career after countless years as an ensemble player for artists like of Montreal and Regina Spektor he did so with pretty much everyone's blessing. In a lot of ways his initial releases (his inaugural Room For Dream EP and debut full length album 151a) were made with what he learned from his collaborators balancing practiced patience with bursts of unheralded ingenuity. On Lighght, Kishi Bashi overcame any notion of the sophomore by leaning more into his influences than on his previous releases - jazz fusion and progressive rock explode Kishi Bashi's established cinematic scope with pyrotechnic grandeur. K.'s straight forward pop efforts "Philosophize In It! Chemicalize With It!" and "Carry On Phenomenon" are almost infuriatingly infectious while other songs "Bittersweet Genesis For Him AND Her" and "Q&A" flourish from their emotional resonance. It's an album leagues stronger than his already superb debut that imbues the studio work with Kishi Bashi's intensely affable live energy and ever-growing technical prowess. It's an album that only Ishibashi himself could've predicted he could make but one where the amount of hard work is evident despite it's effortless delivery.

SoftSpot - MASS
Brooklyn art-rock trio SoftSpot are not a singles band. That's not to say they're albums don't possess standalone songs on them but SoftSpot are a band with a considerable knack for the album medium. The treat it with a sacredness that pretty much ensures that they'll be rewarded for their piety. SoftSpot's debut was such a fully realized effort with a total cohesion of ideas, for their follow up it was never a question of whether it would be so; merely what would those ideas be and how would the band implement them? On their sophomore record MASS, SoftSpot dial back the intensity of Ensō in order to create a work that stands separate from it. MASS is far more languorous record than Ensō and yet, there's no denying its ideas gestate far more quickly. On MASS, SoftSpot may condense their gestation of ideas but not its flow relying far less on sprawling track lengths than before. It's surprisingly at odds with SoftSpot's deceleration but fitting ultimate making their more vivacious efforts like "You/Yours" and "Crosswinds" much more effective. There's no question SoftSpot has ideas in spades but MASS proves sometimes all you really have to do with them is let them simmer.

Sondre Lerche - Please
One of the most exciting things about following the career of Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche is how absolutely committed the man is towards finding new ways to tackle pretty universal topics. That in a nutshell is what Lerche brings to his approach towards pop music - it's how Lerche can, after a decade-long career still dip into the well of love songs but still put out something that seems fresh. On Please, Lerche's seventh studio album, Lerche takes his one chance to handle something as less inclusive as his divorce and manages to imbue in it not only a sense of broad appeal but avoid the usual trapping of a break up record in the same stroke. Lerche doesn't allow himself the luxury of a pity party on Please, nor does it pretend that he hasn't gone through something life-altering but true to form, he finds a way that's better than the expected to reach that sense of commonality - by creating a record that's downright celebratory. A celebratory of his flaws, her flaws, our flaws in general; Lerche's not pulling any punches but he's mature enough not to play the blame game and in that regard he's able to play off of and play with his undeniable charm and avoid the dangers of sentimentality.

Hundred Waters - The Moon Rang Like A Bell
When Hundred Waters unleashed their debut self-titled record into the world, it was an unfathomable work of art; completely separate from the notion of genre with an artistic vision that was light years ahead of what was currently happening in the musical industry on the most epic of scales. So when Hundred Waters announced their intention not only to follow it up but rather quickly doing so - it was anyone's guess what the hell that would even sound like. How could Hundred Waters build on a sound that was so absolutely unique and yet incredibly difficult to pin down? And yet, Hundred Waters managed to do so. The Moon Rang Like A Bell while leaning far more heavily into their almost all of the various genre slashes you might use to describe their sound - electronic, art, rock, pop while still not entirely adhering to any of them. Their sophomore record continues a sort of creative narrative you weren't entirely sure Hundred Waters were creating until the work emerged - they've tightened up, lasered in, and ironed all the seams - the result is a work that explores Hundred Waters' interests - their grand artistic moments even grander - hushed and solemn but unfettered; their pop leanings more leaned into. It's a work no one could have predicted they'd make and yet, fits so perfectly among their previous album that demonstrates their ability to channel the magic of their collective creativity as they see fit. Their fully realized debut wasn't just the alignment of their creative energies, it was only a peek into the hivemind and a benchmark for which they could easily surpass. The Moon Rang Like A Bell leaves you with only one question at it's quietly satisfying conclusion: what the hell are Hundred Waters going to do now?

Pattern Is Movement - Pattern Is Movement
On their sophomore record All Together, Philly experimental pop duo Pattern Is Movement planted many of the seeds for what would become their self-titled record and yet, it's a record that probably wouldn't exist as it does now if not given the time they put between it and the 2008 record. Quietly inspired by hip hop & R&B in the past (both singer/keyboardist Andrew Thiboldeaux and drummer Chris Ward come from hip hop backgrounds), Pattern Is Movement is the record where they let those influences really come through while avoiding treating it like too much of an affect. From Ward's J Dilla inspired drumming to the subtle use of autotune on Thiboldeaux's normally unaffected vocals, Pattern Is Movement lean heavy into their R&B roots but through their pure reverance of the genre as well as the reliance on their own ideas, Pattern Is Movement comes off as a properly honest effort and less like a part of the culture-biting trend.



A Spotify playlist featuring full streams of all the albums on this can be reached here. Thanks for reading~
 
Honorable Mentions:

Damien Jurado - Brothers And Sisters Of The Eternal Son

Frankie Cosmos - Zentropy

Friend Roulette - Grow Younger EP

Grandma Sparrow - Grandma Sparrow & His Piddletractor Orchestra

Mirage - Blood For the Return EP

Saintseneca - Dark Arc

Salt Cathedral - OOM VELT EP

Steve Gunn - Way Out Weather

White Reaper - White Reaper EP

Wild Beasts - Present Tense

Will Stratton - Gray Lodge Wisdom

Brooklyn Rider - The Brooklyn Rider Almanac (2014)

In my college years, deep in the throes of my Russian composer Alexander Borodin obsession, I stumbled upon Les Vendredis. Les Vendredis, French for Fridays, began as an informal gathering at the mansion of successful lumber merchant turned music publisher Mitrofan Belyayev of musicians to play chamber works. Later attracting many of Belyayev's in form of Borodin, Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov, and more - the visiting composers began  creating works specifically to play at the gatherings (many of which were gathered into collections named after the weekly gathering). During much of my college career I wondered why such a thing didn't exist nowadays. Though their inspiration comes from a different source - New York based indie classical quartet Brooklyn Rider ultimately resurrected this idea at least in spirit with their latest project/album The Brooklyn Rider Almanac.

Inspired by the European artistic collective La Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) from which the quartet drew their name, The Brooklyn Rider Almanac is a multi-disciplinary project that essentially explores the nature of inspiration and influence. Tapping gifted artists/musicians not necessarily known for their classical output like singer/songwriter Aoife O'Donovan ("Show Me") or Deerhoof's Greg Saunier ("Quartet, Parts One and Two"), the commissioned works draw from equally inspiring sources - jazz guitarist Bill Friskell looks to John Steinbeck, O'Donovan to William Faulkner.

Brooklyn Rider start the almanac (the recorded first installment of their project) off with a bang - "Necessary Henry!", composed by Albanian cellist Rubin Kodheli and inspired by multi-instrumentalist and avant-jazz composer Henry Threadgill, is perhaps the best introduction to the project if not Brooklyn Rider in general. A driving fortissimo combustion - it's a work of charming ebbs and flows that effortlessly encapsulates Brooklyn Rider's genre fluidity. It's a piece of understated cool that tests the instrumental prowess and limits of the quartet's members - it's a mounting wave of kinetic energy that requires rapidfire changes not only between musical ideas but extended techniques. Brooklyn Rider, as always, of course tackle the challenge head on. Despite the swift perpetuum mobile feel of the piece, Kodheli and by extension Brooklyn Rider are able to keep the piece from feeling overstuffed with ideas - the saving grace being the sudden lulls in intensity with the subtler, more nuanced jazz-inflected passages.


Though Brooklyn Rider have worked outside of the confines of the their quartet setup before (their earlier collaboration with Iranian composer/kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor springs immediate to mind), it no doubt still comes as a bit of a shock when Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond's voice enters on the piece "Exit" composed by Brooklyn Rider's own Colin Jacobsen. Drawing text from Kandinsky's Klänge and taken from the Chalk and Soot song cycle which features choreography John Heginbotham but inspired by David Byrne, "Exit" is another excellent indicator of what Brooklyn Rider set out to do with their project. The piece actually resembles something more in line with art song/folk song than anything from the Talking Heads frontman himself and therein lies its appeal. Blending a wide variety of forms (and coming from Kandinsky's own rejection of form), the piece remains singularly unique. What makes the piece the most radical of Brooklyn Rider's output is purely based on the departure of form - in this case that of the traditional quartet. Even with the addition of Worden, the piece still defies easy classification - making ample use of body percussion in the form of handclaps and footstomps.

Perhaps more than ever, Brooklyn Rider are proving not only exceeding difficult to pigeonhole but actively rebelling against such attempts. While The Brooklyn Rider Almanac is a testament to the nature of homage and influence, it also does its best to and succeeds in transcending those very things. Each contributor on the almanac brings their A game and Brooklyn Rider theirs, the union pushing each to creative heights thought previously unreachable. Brooklyn Rider have endured ten years based not only on the merits of their artistic ability but their continued efforts to keep the ensemble form relevant. Moments like the rhythmic dexterity of Vijay Iyer's "Dig the Say" or Ethan Iverson's "Morris Dance" choir-vocal ending and it becomes quite apparent what separates and ultimately unites Brooklyn Rider with the multitude of chamber groups embracing and marrying classical and contemporary influences - a thrilling enthusiasm, a creative fearlessness that keeps Brooklyn Rider not only true to their artistic statement but excitedly scaling to new creative peaks. The Brooklyn Rider Almanac is a snapshot of this wonderful moment in nothing else and no doubt a placeholder for Brooklyn Rider's next unpredictable endeavor in possibly the best way.



The Brooklyn Rider Almanac is out September 30th on Mercury Classics. If the above sampler piques your interest, the whole album is available to stream until its release date via NPR's First Listen.

Watch: Brooklyn Rider - "A Walking Fire"

Your eyes aren't deceiving you. This is in fact a new track from New York based string quartet Brooklyn Rider. Right off the release of last year's Seven Steps, they're offering another sampling of their own brilliant take on tunes both of their own creation and from some of their friends/collaborators.

And that's what you get here. The title track of their upcoming album A Walking Fire, due out April 30th on Mercury Classics, is another piece by Brooklyn Rider's Colin Jacobsen. From his Three Miniatures for String Quartet, the first movement mixes the clear, simple melodies of Komitas Vartapet (whose Armenian Folk Songs were featured on 2008's Passport) along with a far more virtuosic displays in the short gypsy-recalling rhapsody. Not at all surprising considering draws from the influence of Iranian composer/kemancheh player Kayhan Kalhor.

Short but oh so very sweet, it's a rather attention-grabbing though not offensively showy piece. It's enough not only to get you properly excited for the other two movements of Jacobsen's Miniatures but also A Walking Fire in general. Luckily its release date is so closely on the horizon. Until then just keep hitting replay on this live video of Brooklyn Rider playing "A Walking Fire".

       

Brooklyn Rider - Seven Steps (2012)

It's rare that I feature classical music here but I will always make an exception for genre-straddling string quartet Brooklyn Rider. Brooklyn Rider is as comfortable playing your standard string quartet fare as they are some of the more out there stuff - like an album with Iranian composer and kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor. Considering Brooklyn Rider's innovative approach to the string quartet, it only made sense that for their latest album Seven Steps, they would tackle one of classical music's foremost innovators - Ludwig van Beethoven.

Though Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14 is the crux of the album, it's far from its only highlight. Title track "Seven Steps", composed collaboratively between the foursome using sketches and improvisation, was inspired by Brooklyn Rider's experience writing a piece with a band 2 Foot Yard for University at North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Consisting of seven parts, "Seven Steps" exists as a sort of modern mirroring of Beethoven's fourtheenth, partially recalling the sound and feel of Colin Jacobsen composed piece "Brooklesca" off 2008's Passport. Separating the two distinctive pieces is Christopher Tignor's "Together Into This Unknowable Night", a piece full of a solemnity and that minimalistically explodes into a beautiful multi-layered roar of tiered pizzicati and flowing melodic lines.

Even if classical music isn't your normal cup of tea, Brooklyn Rider provide you with ample to choose from in fast-paced thrill ride "Seven Steps", rich moving "Together Into This Unknowable Night", or the stunning masterpiece that is Beethoven's Op. 131 (that actually injects some much-appreciated joviality into the album in the form of the fifth movement's Scherzo) that something's bound to resonate with you. Seven Steps is an intensely pleasing affair that's sure to be enjoyed by all regardless of where your tastes normally lie. Brooklyn Rider has succeeded once again in creating an accessible gem that displays not only their talent but brilliantly highlights the talents of others.

Get a taste of Brooklyn Rider with opening/title track "Seven Steps" and if you like what you hear, you can check out the album on Spotify.

Pitstop: Brooklyn Rider

My discovery of New York City based string quartet Brooklyn Rider occurred due to the awesomeness that is NPR and their Tiny Desk Concerts and actually marks the first time I'm talking about classical music on this blog. Equally comfortable playing Debussy, Haydn, and Cage; the string quartet also teams up with singer/songwriters, Turkish kamancheh players, and plays some of its own members' compositions. To call the band purely a classical group actually doesn't accurately describe the quartet or its goals. Brooklyn Rider is a unique blend of influences wishing to stretch across a wide terrain through the vehicle of the string quartet. Instead of isolating itself in any one period of classical music or any school of musical thought, the quartet uses its four talented members to weave together these musical tapestries that can best be described as genre-bending. Not in the sense that artists like David Garrett or Vanessa Mae or even the Turtle Island String Quartet bend genre but into this totally different, raw, organic thing. Their latest release Dominant Curve is inspired by Debussy and how he brought outside influences into classical music and joins together Debussy's own String Quartet in g minor with works by Brooklyn Rider violinist Colin Jacobsen, Kojiro Umezaki from Japan, Dmitri Yanov-Yanovski from Uzbekistan, and an electronic/acoustic arrangement of a John Cage work by Brooklyn based composer Justin Messina. The result is this product that is universally accessible both to classical music lovers and others.

Check out Brooklyn Rider with their NPR Tiny Desk Concert that won me over: