photo: Bonica Ayala

2020 TOP 10s & 20s

Amending slightly the categories used for last year's roundup, textura's 2020 selections are grouped into Jazz, Classical/Opera, Ambient/New Age, General, and Single/EP/Cassette lists. Many releases qualified for multiple categories, but for the most part selections aligned themselves to particular groupings. As in the past, selections were made in accordance with a simple principle: only those releases covered in 2020 were eligible, though a few late-2019 releases were included that didn't make into last year's article. Here, then, are the recordings to which we repeatedly returned and which repeatedly rewarded that return, Excerpts from the original reviews, all available in their complete form at textura's archives (or soon to be), have been included for the highest-ranking selections.

TOP 20 GENERAL • TOP 20 CLASSICAL / OPERA • TOP 20 JAZZ • TOP 10 AMBIENT / NEW AGE • TOP 10 SINGLES / EPs / CASSETTES • THANK YOU • RIP

photo: Kari Leung

TOP 20 GENERAL (rock / pop / electronic / folk)

01. Rebecca Hennessy: All the Things You Do (Rebecca Hennessy)

Now and then, an album arrives that not only surpasses expectations but demands a wholesale reappraisal of the artist. A case in point is All The Little Things You Do, which recasts Rebecca Hennessy from jazz trumpeter to a singer-songwriter of the first rank. Having already distinguished herself with her FOG Brass Band project, the Toronto-based artist does so as commandingly on this latest endeavour. The subject matter addressed on the album runs the emotional gamut, seeing as how its songs crystallized in the time between the death of her mother in early 2019 and the birth of her first child. The former experience is confronted directly in “It's a Beautiful Day to Say Goodbye,” but in keeping with the uplifting tone of the album, Hennessy honours her mother's passing through an acceptance of life's natural transitions. A beautiful tribute infused with warmth and affection, it's merely one of many standout moments. Clearly a major step in her development, it's an album that can't be recommended too highly.

02. orchestramaxfieldparrish: Guitar Improvisations I-VI (Faith Strange)

Mike Fazio's six-volume Guitar Improvisations is an extraordinary document of unfiltered, real-time expression; witnessing the live creation of material by a single musician, especially one so marked by honesty, is a special experience. A more personal statement by him couldn't be imagined as everything associated with it was created by him—music, production, mastering, photography, and packaging. In the spirit of full disclosure, orchestramaxfieldparrish material has appeared on two of textura's releases. Enthusiastic endorsement of this new one doesn't stem from a desire to support an artist whose efforts have enriched our products; it's more the case that the exceptional quality of this set reminds us why we approached Fazio in the first place to be involed in f textura's releases. He's a true original, an artist of integrity incapable of following any but his own path. In that regard, Guitar Improvisations captures the sound of him letting his muse speak as directly as possible and is, all told, a remarkable statement.

03. Endless Field: Alive in the Wilderness (Biophilia Records)

To record their sophomore release, the New York-based instrumental duo of guitarist Jesse Lewis and bassist Ike Sturm ventured to the sweeping wilderness of Southern Utah. To call the undertaking intrepid hardly captures it: recording the seventeen live tracks sometimes involved all-day hikes to remote locations, the treks rendered even more onerous when instruments and a solar-powered recording rig were hauled with them. So why do it? In Sturm's words, “Once a dream emerged around a live outdoor recording, we knew it needed to happen.” Even more important was the mindfulness the experience encouraged, something the recording documents in the immediacy of the performances. A genuine impression of place informs the recording, each piece a live document incapable of being captured the same way twice.

04. Joe Hisaishi: Dream Songs: The Essential Joe Hisaishi (Decca Gold)

To these ears, the soundtracks Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi created for Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli classics Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and Kiki's Delivery Service are so indissolubly bound up in their reception, it's hard to think of the music as a separate entity. To that end, Dream Songs: The Essential Joe Hisaishi does a superb job of enabling admirers to do precisely that by presenting his musical artistry sans visual accompaniment. The material captures his deft fusion of classical, in its European, American, and Japanese forms, with pop song-based melodies. In assembling a diverse selection of twenty-eight pieces spanning his nearly forty-year career, the release is a must-have for those already familiar with Hisaishi and those discovering him anew.

05. Burial: Tunes 2011 To 2019 (Hyperdub)

Burial and Untrue, the full-lengths William Bevan respectively issued in 2006 and 2007, had such a tectonic impact, it hardly surprises the London electronic producer elected thereafter to issue a steady stream of twelve-inch releases rather than a third album. The inaugural sets caused such a stir, with their visionary blend of garage, jungle, grime, and R&B, that concentrating on EPs had to have seemed the more palatable choice. Nothing quite like those albums had been heard before, especially when they so seamlessly captured the ambiance of late-night, rain-drenched London streets. Further to that, no one's crackle ever sounded quite like Bevan's, the needle in his productions not just riding the vinyl surface but carving seeming trenches within it. Seventeen of the tracks previously heard on the EPs and twelve-inch releases appear on Tunes 2011 to 2019, a set that while comprehensive doesn't include everything Burial-related Bevan issued during that time, 2017's Rodent and collaborations with Four Tet and Zomby, for example, absent.

06. Ray Larsen: Songs To Fill The Air (Slow & Steady)

If the bucolic strains of the fifth album from trumpeter Ray Larsen come as something of a surprise, a brief account of the events leading to its creation helps clarify why it sounds as it does. After comfortably establishing himself in the Seattle music scene, he began to see colleagues decamping for other locales, effectively ending many of his long-established projects and in turn prompting a two-year period of reflection and re-assessment. But after a 2018 Artist Residency granted him a summer month's stay inside the 150-acre forest and botanical garden at the Bloedel Reserve, songs and lyrics different from those he'd previously produced materialized. What came out of the experience is a remarkable orchestral-folk crossover album featuring songs whose arrangements call to mind Van Dyke Parks and whose singing exudes an innocence characteristic of Sufjan Stevens and Jonathan Richman.

07. annasara: Songs From Sälshög (annasongs)

Songs from Sälshög takes its name from a small community on the plains of Scania where Annasara Lundgren lived for a year; it's also the place where, surrounded by birds, cats, and nature, the Swedish neoclassical singer-songwriter wrote the material for this captivating collection. It's a mere half-hour in duration, but Lundgren makes every moment count: the recording's mix of songs—an eclectic set of originals plus a treatment of U2's “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For”—speaks resoundingly on behalf of the classically trained violinist, composer, pianist, and singer. Downbeat's annual polls include a category familiar to its readers as ‘Talent Deserving Wider Recognition.' Annasara isn't a jazz artist, obviously, but, after listening to the release, one can't help but think the category title definitely applies in her case.

08. Douglas MacGregor: Songs of Loss and Healing (Douglas MacGregor)

Certainly the personal history Douglas MacGregor drew upon for his Songs of Loss and Healing provided an inestimably fertile ground. After losing his mother to cancer when he was seven, a quarter-century of suppressed grief eventually brought about an emotional collapse of nearly two years' duration. It was, not surprisingly, music that helped sustain him through that time and allow for some kind of sense to be made of it all. He composed seven solo acoustic guitar instrumentals and then recorded each in a different non-studio location in the UK, video treatments of which were posted online with accompanying commentary. The work involved in creating the project aided the healing process and also enhanced his appreciation for how other cultures use music to cope with grief.

09. Chloe March: Starlings & Crows (Hidden Shoal)
10. Jess Gillam: Time (Decca Classics)
11. David Ian Roberts: From the Harbour (Cambrian Records)
12. Nick Jonah Davis: When the Sun Came (Thread Recordings)
13. Luke Sellick & Andrew Renfroe: Small Vacation (Luke Sellick & Andrew Renfroe)
14. Kiln: Astral Welder (Ghostly)
15. Phil Tomsett: The Sound of Someone Leaving (Fluid Audio)
16. Kamancello: Of Shadows (Kamancello)
17. Lukas Lauermann: I N (col legno)
18. Causa Sui: Szabodelico (El Paraiso Records)
19. Goldmund: The Time it Takes (Western Vinyl)
20. Snowdrops: Volutes (Injazero Records)

photo: Josh Huskin

TOP 20 CLASSICAL / OPERA

01. Tobias Picker: Fantastic Mister Fox (BMOP/sound)

It's a rare opera that can entrance children and adults, but Fantastic Mr. Fox is that very thing. That Tobias Picker's delightful work is capable of captivating children comes as less of a surprise when photos of one stage production show the singers in brilliantly coloured outfits and made up to suggest the story's creatures. Adding to its charm, Donald Sturrock's libretto keeps Roald Dahl's tale moving at a brisk pace, and at eighty-three minutes, the family opera's not so long it threatens to exhaust the patience of its audience. For this recorded version, the work's brought vividly to life by musicians of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), members of Odyssey Opera, the Boston Children's Chorus, and vocalists, including tenor John Brancy and mezzo-soprano Krista River as Mr. and Mrs. Fox. Deservedly awarded the 2020 Grammy for ‘Best Opera Recording,' Fantastic Mr. Fox is a major feather in the cap of BMOP and its conductor Gil Rose.

02. Eric Whitacre: The Sacred Veil (Signum Classics)

Familiarization with the background to The Sacred Veil makes listening to it an all the more profound experience. Performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale choir, pianist Lisa Edwards, and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler and conducted by the composer, the nearly hour-long work draws its originating power from text by Charles Anthony Silvestri, whose wife died of ovarian cancer in 2005, leaving him a widower with two small children. Whitacre's score provides an elegiac counterpoint to Silvestri's words, which deal with stages of love, life, and loss with heartbreaking directness. Over twelve movements, we witness his wife's journey as the cancer advances, the text often devastating in its sharing of her diary entries, journals, and e-mail messages, until death inevitably arrives. The Sacred Veil catalyzes personal grief into cathartic art capable of resonating universally.

03. The String Orchestra of Brooklyn: afterimage (Furious Artisans)

The String Orchestra of Brooklyn and conductor Eli Spindel couldn't have chosen a better programme for its debut album, recorded in 2016 but only now seeing release. Rather than present interpretations of unrelated early and contemporary works, the company selected pieces that connect brilliantly. Christopher Cerrone's High Windows (2013) and Jacob Cooper's Stabat Mater Dolorosa (2009) are followed by the two pieces to which they're respectively tied, Niccolò Paganini's Caprice No. 6, written in the early 1800s, and the first movement of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's 1736 work, Stabat Mater, “Stabat Mater Dolorosa.” Effectively articulating what the contemporary works do, Spindel says they “take as their starting point a single moment from an older work and—through processes of repetition, distortion, and, in the case of the Stabat Mater, extreme slow-motion—create a completely new soundscape, like opening up a small door into an unfamiliar world.” The cumulative results are stunning.

04. Skylark: Once Upon a Time (HMR)

Brilliantly conceived and executed, Once Upon a Time is a magnificent addition to Skylark's discography. It's the fifth album by the Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble, which artistic director Matthew Guard assembled in 2011from a group of Atlanta- and Boston-based friends and colleagues and which has been recognized for its extraordinary musicianship and innovative programming. Enchanting treatments of two classic fairy tales, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” by the Brothers Grimm and “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen, are presented, with vocals by Skylark (four sopranos, four altos, five tenors, and five basses) augmented by Sarah Walker's narration; in terms of musical content, choral pieces by composers such as Francis Poulenc, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Veljo Tormis are intertwined with original material by Benedict Sheehan.

05. Norman Dello Joio: The Trial at Rouen (BMOP/sound)

With the release of The Trial at Rouen, conductor Gil Rose, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), and Odyssey Opera perform a wonderful service for both Norman Dello Joio (1913-2008), for shining a most flattering light on the American composer, and the listening audience, for bringing to public awareness exceptional work that in the absence of such a release could eventually be forgotten. Though the Boston-based Dello Joio was an Emmy Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and was one of America's leading composers in the ‘40s and ‘50s, he's less well known today than he should be. What helps distinguish the release is its coupling of the one-act opera with the three-movement orchestral work The Triumph of Saint Joan Symphony (1952); it's The Trial at Rouen, however, that is the primary selling-point, especially when its presentation is grandly elevated by a magnificent performance by soprano Heather Buck as the French national hero.

06. Paul Moravec: Sanctuary Road (Naxos)

Coming after 2008's The Blizzard Voices, Sanctuary Road is the second in what composer Paul Moravec (b. 1957) calls his “American historical oratorios.” An extraordinary vocal work that draws on the stories chronicled by William Still in his1872 book The Underground Railroad, Sanctuary Road, created by the 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer in collaboration with librettist Mark Campbell, recounts the oft-clever strategems used by African American slaves to escape into free states and Canada during the early- to mid-1800s (Still himself abetted the movement of some 800 fugitive slaves). One can't help but be staggered by the courage and perseverance they showed as they made their way north via secret routes and safe houses, and their stories constitute an epic saga that its creators have brought thrillingly to life. The oratorio ends on a note of glorious exultation, but in truth the piece, especially when its richly melodic and emotionally expressive score is so accessible, is in its entirety a triumph.

07. Trio Eclipse: Spheres (Prospero Classical)

There's so much to admire about Trio Eclipse's recording debut Spheres, it's hard to know where to begin. There's the marvelous playing of clarinetist Lionel Andrey, pianist Benedek Horváth, and cellist Sebastian Braun for starters. An excellently curated set-list also distinguishes the release, with works by two familiar figures joined by four premieres. It would be hard to think of a better choice of opener than Gershwin's An American in Paris, and the inclusion of a three-part work by Italian composer Nino Rota is also welcome. The pieces by Swiss cellist Thomas Demenga, violinist-composer Simon Heggendorn, American composer Sean Hickey, and Swiss composer-saxophonist Daniel Schnyder are not only splendid individually but grant the trio broad stylistic and emotional palettes with which to work.

08. Portland State University Choir: Translations (Naxos)

Could there be another composer whose music singers love performing more than that of Eriks Ešenvalds? Stirring the soul with swelling vocal textures, his material manages to sound wholly contemporary yet at the same time feel as if it's been with us for centuries. Translations is The Portland State Chamber Choir's second Ešenvalds set, the group's acclaimed first, The Doors of Heaven, having appeared in 2017. Recorded last year at St Mary's Catholic Church in Mount Angel, Oregon, Translations finds the choir, which was founded in 1975 and has earned more than thirty medals and awards in international choir competitions, conducted by Ethan Sperry, the Barre Stoll Professor of Choral Music at Portland State University.

09. Eriks Esenvalds: There Will Come Soft Rains (Signum Classics)
10. Brooklyn Rider: Healing Modes (In A Circle Records)
11. Gunther Schuller: The Fisherman & His Wife (BMOP/sound)
12. Jake Runestead: Song, Wearing the Sky (Naxos American Classics)
13. William Alwyn: Miss Julie (Chandos)
14. Michael Hersch: I Hope We Get a Chance to Visit Soon (New Focus Recordings)
15. Philip Glass & Igor Stravinsky: Violin Concertos (Sony Classical)
16. Tchaikovsky; Leshnoff: Symphony No. 4; Double Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon (Reference Recordings)
17. Niv Ashkenazi: Violins of Hope (Albany Records)
18. Mark John McEncroe: Musical Images for Chamber Orchestra: Reflections & Recollections Vol. 2 (Navona Records)
19. Ekmeles: A Howl, That Was Also a Prayer (New Focus Recordings)
20. Jennifer Bellor: Reflections at Dusk (Innova)

photo: Briene Lermitte

TOP 20 JAZZ

01. Maria Schneider: Data Lords (ArtistShare)

It's safe to say the arrival of a new Maria Schneider album qualifies as a major event. Years are dedicated to the writing, arranging, and producing of her projects, the result a discography that's modest in size yet distinguished. The multiple Grammy-winning composer brings an exhaustive amount of thought to every release, and the care and commitment she brings to the undertaking are always evident in the finished product. Data Lords might be her most audacious and challenging release to date, not only in its double-album size but in its thematic scope. Presented in two parts, the ‘Digital World' and ‘Our Natural World,' the project makes clear the position Schneider holds, the former in her estimation responsible for significant compromises to the quality of contemporary experience and the latter ever more vital as a result.

02. Gregg August: Dialogues On Race, Volume One (Iacuessa Records)

Occasionally a jazz recording arrives that, in tackling subject matter of immense import, timeliness, and gravitas, immediately identifies as a defining statement and a collection capable of making a profound mark. The double-album Dialogues on Race, Volume One is such a release, a sweeping and wholly committed eighty-five-minute meditation on race relations by Brooklyn-based bassist Gregg August that has never been more relevant than right now. The scope of the project's thematic content is mirrored in the resources August marshaled for the recording. In assembling an eleven-member ensemble and augmenting it on selected tracks with strings, three vocalists, and a narrator, Dialogues on Race, Volume One assumes the ambitious character of a large-scale Duke Ellington or Charles Mingus opus.

03. Nat Bartsch: Forever More (ABC Jazz)

This exceptional release from Australian pianist/composer Nat Bartsch presents a jazz sextet performing new versions of lullabies she originally penned for piano, celeste, and electronics. The album featuring those treatments, Forever, And No Time At All, appeared in 2018, written when she was pregnant with her first child. In the time since the original release, she experimented with different ways of re-presenting the material and, after seeing how successful the songs were when interpreted by jazz musicians at live venues in Melbourne, decided to re-record them with a small jazz ensemble. Recorded in a single day at ABC's Melbourne studios in early March, the performances preserve the character of the original whilst also enriching its material with playing of inordinate sensitivity.

04. Lakecia Benjamin: Pursuance: The Coltranes (Ropeadope)

On logistical grounds alone, Pursuance: The Coltranes is a remarkable achievement. For her smartly conceived homage to John and Alice Coltrane, alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin assembled a star-studded cast of jazz musicians representing three generations, ones like her in the twenty-to-forty range, others a generation older who taught and mentored the younger players, and still-vital elders who performed with the Coltranes and are able to share the wisdom they gained from their first-hand experiences. Yet as impressive an accomplishment as it is on that level, the truest test of Benjamin's third full-length as a leader has to do with the musical outcome, and thankfully the album's a veritable garden of earthly delights, with Benjamin and company delivering incendiary treatments of thirteen selections split between John and Alice.

05. The Westerlies: Wherein Lies the Good (The Westerlies)

With trumpeter Chloe Rowlands now helming the chair once occupied by Zubin Hensler, The Westerlies' third full-length heralds a new chapter for this Seattle-born, New York-based brass quartet. In addition to pieces written by Rowlands and the other band members, trumpeter Riley Mulherkar and trombonists Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch, the release features five transcriptions of vintage gospel songs (by way of the a cappella Golden State Quartet vocal group) and material by Arthur Russell, Charles Ives, Judee Sill, and Robin Holcomb, her gorgeous eleven-part title work the album's centrepiece. One comes way from the recording buoyed by the quartet's ability to meet any challenge it sets for itself.

06. Chip Wickham: Blue to Red (Lovemonk Records)

As I listen to Blue To Red, a few moments arise that remind me of Bullitt, in particular the scene where the 1968 film's titular detective relaxes with friends in a San Francisco bar as a flute-powered jazz combo performs. Yet while some degree of connection between the album and Lalo Schifrin's soundtrack could be proposed, the primary reference point for Blue To Red involves the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane and Yusef Lateef. Wickham emphasizes flute on the date, which deepens its spiritual jazz connection through the presence of harpist Amanda Whiting. The ensemble's acoustic sound is fleshed out by Dan Goldman on Fender Rhodes, Simon Houghton's double bass and cello, Rick Weedon's percussion, and crisp drumming from Sons of Kemet member Jon Scott.

07. Lara Downes & Friends: Some of These Days (Lara Downes)

Lara Downes's versatility is routinely captured on her releases, with the pianist as comfortable performing the music of the Schumanns as Bernstein. That being said, she's never sounded more at home than on Some of These Days. Even without knowing anything about her personal connection to these spirituals and freedom songs, one would still imagine them pieces she grew up hearing long before her professional career began. Her ties to the material do, it turns out, run deep, with the release featuring songs her Jewish mother and African-American father (true to the spirit of the times, they met at a San Francisco sit-in in the late ‘60s) sang during the Civil Rights Movement and others that originated at the plantation fields and along the Underground Railroad.

08. Brandi Disterheft: Surfboard (Justin Time Records)

A more perfect title for Brandi Disterheft's fifth album than Surfboard would be hard to conceive when the associated activity evokes feelings of freedom, joy, and abandon. Consistent with that are tunes of equally breezy character and effervescent performances the bassist, pianist Klaus Mueller, drummer Portinho, and guest saxophonist George Coleman bring to the fourteen tracks. Bolstering the music's buoyant feel even more are renditions of Brazilian songs that appear alongside Disterheft originals, covers of fellow bassists' tunes, and selections from the American Songbook.

09. Francesco Cataldo: Giulia (AlfaMusic)
10. Thana Alexa: One (Thana Alexa)
11. Ryan Cohan: Originations (Origin Records)
12. Tomoko Omura: Branches Vol. 1 (Outside In Music)
13. Anders Hagberg: North (Prophone)
14. Yelena Eckemoff: Nocturnal Animals (L&H Production)
15. Wako: Wako (Ora Fonogram)
16. Dominic Ingham: Role Models (Dominic Ingham)
17. Emily Kuhn: Sky Stories (BACE Records)
18. Chad McCullough: Forward (Outside in Music)
19. Simon Moullier: Spirit Song (Outside in Music)
20. Elsa Nilsson: Hindsight (Bumblebee Collective)

photo: Nate Decker

TOP 10 AMBIENT / NEW AGE

01. VA: A Better Life (Mindful Music Records)

The double-CD compilation appears on Mindful Music Records though it might just as easily have been issued by Heart Dance Records, not only because it includes artists associated with the label but also for emphasizing a humanistic spirit and soothing music. The release is an encompassing presentation pitched as an ‘An Introduction to the Mindful Music Association,' with all twenty-six tracks by members of the MMA. The settings range from pretty, pastoral pieces arranged for strings, acoustic guitar, and woodwinds to calming electronic-ambient soundscapes. Displayed on the album cover are the words “Relax, be calm, and find peace,” and certainly the generally introspective music contained within does much to aid the realization of said goal.

02. Peter Sterling: Sanctuary of Light (Harp Magic Music)

Harpist Peter Sterling apparently conceived Sanctuary of Light in concert with a dream that directed him to create material that would be celestial in tone and would eschew overt rhythms and drums for free-floating melodies and sultry atmospheric textures. To realize the vision, he worked alone for over a year, fashioning its eight tracks from harp, keyboards, woodwinds, piano, vocals, and percussion. The result? Harp-centred New Age music that's seductive in the extreme. Each element is used to reinforce the serene, gently uplifting character of the material, be it harp, strings, piano, or tinkling bells. Sterling's decades of musical experience served him well in the creation of this alluring collection.

03. Scott Cossu: Memories of Water and Light (Heart Dance Records)

A more eloquent example of New Age music than Memories of Water and Light would be hard to imagine. This sixteenth release by Scott Cossu features ten of his compositions performed by the pianist with Van Manakas and cellist Holly Reeves. In expressing gratitude for family and friends, many of them alive but some recently departed, Cossu's heartfelt music communicates humble appreciation for the short time we have on the planet and the memories we carry with us. In drawing inspiration from those around him, the Olympia, WA-based Cossu in turn inspires listeners with harmonious music designed to instil peace and positivity.

04. Olivia Belli: River Path (1631 Recordings)

Mantova-born pianist Olivia Belli lists Bach, Chopin, Satie, Glass, Max Richter, and Ludovico Einaudi as musicians she loves, and while one might naturally expect to hear evidence of their influence on River Path, its dozen pieces show she's subsumed those influences into an expressive style all her own; one hears Belli here, in other words, not a pastiche of others. River Path is many things—pretty, romantic, lyrical—but perhaps more than anything else intimate, especially when she reveals herself so unguardedly in the pieces and performs them with an equivalent degree of openness.

05. Monica Williams: Within Us All (Heart Dance Records)
06. Sverre Knut Johansen: Dreams Beyond (Spotted Peccary)
07. Desensitized: Hemispherica Portalis (Spotted Peccary)
08. Scott Reich: Interbeing: Elements of Connection (Heart Dance Records)
09. Tom Eaton: Elements: Audio Environments Parts 1-4 (Tom Eaton)
10. anthene: Collide (Home Normal)

photo: Bonica Ayala

TOP 10 SINGLES / EPs / CASSETTES

01. Roomful of Teeth: The Ascendant / Just Constellations (New Amsterdam Records)

The simultaneous release of not one but two EPs by the acclaimed vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth is cause for celebration. Augmenting the singing on Wally Gunn's The Ascendant is drumming by Jason Treuting, which naturally gives the work additional heft. In his six-part song cycle, Gunn explores the momentum generated by voices moving in counterpoint by threading hockets, canons, rounds, and the like into the design. Michael Harrison's Just Constellations is different from Gunn's in many ways, aside from its fundamental austerity and ethereality. Words are eschewed for syllables, and the material, written in just intonation for eight individual voices, is emblematic of Harrison's music.

02. Christian Löffler: Parallels (Beethoven): Shellac Reworks (Deutsche Grammophon)

While well-intentioned, makeovers by electronic producers of classical works often miss the mark for any number of reasons. The integrity of the original can suffer, for example, if the interpreter goes so far that the essence of the composer's work gets lost in the process. Christian Löffler (b. 1985) achieves a smart balance on this EP (now available digitally and as a physical release in February) by handling Beethoven's material respectfully but not so reverentially that creativity's stifled. Löffler clearly took the project seriously and dedicated obvious care to his fashioning of the EP material. Parallels (Beethoven): Shellac Reworks is an exceptionally well-crafted and, as important, thoughtfully considered recording.

03. Donna McKevitt: Sail EP / Wave EP (Left Out Records)

To say McKevitt's CV impresses is a major understatement. A one-time Miranda Sex Garden member, the London-based composer (b. 1970) is a classically trained violist, pianist, and vocalist who's worked with Nick Cave, Michael Nyman, and, on his final film Blue, Derek Jarman. For the EPs Sail and Wave, she drew on her extensive experience as a composer and abilities as an instrumentalist and vocalist to create eight arresting productions, all written, performed, and produced by her. No piece is more striking than “Wave,” which moves from an opening of blustery brass chords to an intoxicating section where McKevitt multiplies her voice into a celestial array of sopranos. On these releases she makes the practice of merging boldly experimental and melodic materials seem like the most natural thing in the world.

04. Stuart Weber: Pieces of Road (Ravello Records)

Anyone charmed by Stuart Weber's 2018 album The Fifth Row will assuredly cotton as much to the guitarist's latest—even if its fourteen-minute length makes it more exquisite morsel than full-course meal. That's the only regrettable thing about it, however: its two settings, the first a lovely folk setting that oozes the kind of gentle heartache one might hear in a Mexican ballad and the other a three-part work for solo guitar, are quintessential Weber. In Anniversary Waltz, guitars, violin, and cello blend beautifully in lustrous expressions of nostalgic longing. With plaintive melodies as the foundation upon which its three parts are built, the title work engages immediately. The release is pitched as “a heartfelt, profound homage to the spirit of the American West,” and Pieces of Road certainly lives up to the billing.

05. Flica: Tapsskog (Schole)
06. Simon Kirby, Tommy Perman, and Rob St. John: Sing the Gloaming (Blackford Hill)
07. Channelers: Isles Beyond (Inner Islands)
08. Mette Jul: New York - Copenhagen (Universal Music Group)
09. Dylan Henner: A Dingo Crossing a Stream (Inner Islands)
10. James Murray & Mike Lazarev: Suññata (Home Normal)

photo: Alex Shukoff

THANK YOU

Allison Au, Gregg August, Olivia Belli, Jennifer Bellor, Lakecia Benjamin, Leslie Beaukelman, Ann Braithwaite, Ernesto Cervini, Brandi Disterheft, Mike Fazio, Rebecca Hennessy, Dominic Ingham, Emily Kuhn, Lukas Lauermann, Bruce Levingston, Lydia Liebman, Douglas MacGregor, Matt Merewitz, Paula Myn, Elsa Nilsson, Tineke Postma, April Thibeault, and The Westerlies

photo: Gene Martin

RIP

December 2020