Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 11 September 2020.
Sally Anne Morgan is an artist and multi-instrumentalist whose mastery of traditional folk forms is matched only by her ability to push the bounds of those forms into fresh, imaginative pastures. Known for her fiddle playing with the traditional Black Twig Pickers and the duo House and Land, Sally Anne’s debut solo album Thread establishes her as an unparalleled voice in contemporary folk. With a penchant for tuneful melodies, combined with hypnotic rhythms, the result verges on pop. The candour and austerity of Appalachian music serve as the warp to Morgan’s musical tapestries, where strands of psychedelia, rock, and experimentalism are the weft, deftly woven in intricate and beguiling patterns.Thread centers on connectivity and exploration, stringing together practices both ancient and modern and brimming with simple beauties.
Ethan P. Flynn has released an expanded version of his debut compilation and career retrospective B-Sides & Rarities Volume 1. Originally released via Bandcamp, B-Sides & Rarities Volume 1 is an evolving body of work featuring a collection of songs recorded between 2015 and 2018. Showcasing a deft songwriting flair and touching on musical inspirations that run the gamut from Sparklehorse to Madlib, Julia Holter to Danny Brown and Tom Waits, the collection first appeared via Bandcamp in 2019. Now expanded to include four new songs – ‘Everybody’s Dying To Meet You‘, ‘Are You Doing This To Hurt Me?‘, ‘What You Do To Me‘ and ‘When I Taste The Pavement’ – it is out now globally through Young Turks.
ARTEMIS is a supergroup comprising seven of the most acclaimed musicians in modern jazz. Featuring pianist and musical director Renee Rosnes, clarinetist Anat Cohen, tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller, and featured vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, ARTEMIS conjures a powerful collective voice from this septet of visionary bandleaders and composers. The group is distinctive not only for bringing together seven singular artists, each renowned for their own remarkable solo career; but for its multi-generational and globe-spanning line-up, with members hailing from the US, Canada, France, Chile, Israel, and Japan. The band’s debut album is a superb nine-song set that features material composed and/or arranged by each of the band’s six instrumentalists. ARTEMIS unfurls with a dynamic flow, stunningly eclectic yet entirely cohesive.
The Munich Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor Kevin John Edusei have released the latest installment in their series of the complete symphonies by Franz Schubert. They’ve paired the youthful and energetic Third Symphony with a completion of his unfinished Seventh Symphony of 1821. Several musicians have tried their hand at completing the sketches, the conductor Felix Weingartner among them. In the present recording, the Munich Symphony Orchestra uses the version by the British Schubert scholar Brian Newbould, who presented a painstaking completion of the missing passages in the early 1980s.
On their new album Rise Up, Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters — Dave Limina on keys, Diane Blue on vocals, Paul Kochanski on bass and Forrest Padgett on drums — take listeners on a journey through a wide swathe of musical influences, Ronnie’s passions and concerns. Rise Up was created a bit differently than his other recordings. While recuperating from back surgery to alleviate a stubborn case of sciatica, Ronnie decided to hold the session at his modest home west of Boston. It took place in March, just before the coronavirus hit. Created to heal and move bodies and souls alike, the majority of the album’s value-packed 15 tracks were recorded in “Living Room Sessions” at Earl’s house, with a vibe that puts the listener right in the room with Ronnie & The Broadcasters. A special bonus is the inclusion of several tracks recorded live from a set at a “Daryl’s House Club” show.
Dance-pop renegades Haiku Hands have unveiled their debut self-titled album via Spinning Top. Rebellious, experimental and wildly unconventional, Haiku Hands was recorded in Melbourne with Joel Ma (Joelistics) and features collaborations with Sofi Tukker, Mad Zach, Machine Drum, Mirac, Elgusto of Hermitude and Lewis CanCut. To mark the release, the trio have shared their bass ridden, uplifting new single “Sunride”.
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David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television
