photo: Felix Broede
2022 TOP 30 & 20 PICKS
The categories in this year's roundup reflect textura's current focus on classical (vocal and instrumental), jazz, ambient, and New Age. As in the past, choices were made in accordance with a simple principle: only those releases covered in 2022 were eligible, though a few 2021 releases appear that arrived too late to make it into last year's roundup or inadvertently slipped through the cracks. Here, then, are the recordings to which we repeatedly returned and which repeatedly rewarded that return. Slightly modified excerpts from the original reviews accompany the top eight selections in each of the four categories, and links to the original reviews also have been provided.
TOP 20 CLASSICAL (VOCAL) • TOP 20 CLASSICAL (INSTRUMENTAL) • TOP 30 JAZZ • TOP 20 AMBIENT / NEW AGE • THANK YOU • RIP
TOP 20 CLASSICAL (VOCAL)
01. Joyce DiDonato: Eden (Warner Classics/Erato)
As critical as the album theme is to Eden, the album's greatest takeaways have to do with its centuries-spanning programme and the magnificent performances mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and the Maxim Emelyanychev-led Italian chamber orchestra Il Pomo d'Oro bring to it. Eden singlehandedly reminds us of the heights a single recording can reach, and one comes away from it awed by her range, curatorial instincts, and, most of all, stunning voice. She shows herself to be a sublime Mahler interpreter in two transporting Rückert-Lieder performances, but the album's towering achievement is the world premiere recording of Rachel Portman's The First Morning of the World, the piece written for DiDonato.
02. Jeanine Tesori & Tazewell Thompson: Blue (Pentatone)
Written after the death of Trayvon Martin and a year before George Floyd's, Blue, by librettist Tazewell Thompson and composer Jeanine Tesori, couldn't be timelier. A powerful meditation on racial injustice in contemporary USA, its tragic story-line concerns an African-American police officer whose son is killed during a protest at the hands of a fellow officer. Blue is polyphonic, expressive, and timely but above all multi-dimensional, and the vast spectrum of human experience is encompassed by this provocative, life-affirming creation.
03. Christopher Tin: The Lost Birds (Decca Classics)
Christopher Tin's choral-symphonic work The Lost Birds is brought to magnificent life by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the celebrated British vocal ensemble VOCES8, who give resonant collective voice to his moving elegy. Though the focus is on the loss of bird species due to human activity, the melancholy tone of the material enables it to stand as a memorial to loss in general. Yet as plaintive as it is in mourning the disappearance of specific bird types, it's also a rapturous ode to their beauty. The Lost Birds is musical poetry of a high order, and we are indebted to Tin for giving us a work of such beauty.
04. Lori Laitman: The Ocean of Eternity (Acis)
American composer Lori Laitman has issued numerous art song-oriented albums since her 2000 debut album Mystery, which might make it difficult to choose one over another. Yet in bringing together multiple strands of her music-making, The Ocean of Eternity presents a strong case for being as quintessential a Laitman portrait as any. There are stand-alone songs and song cycles, and the material extends from majestic and lyrical expressions to ones sprinkled with humour and irreverence; enhancing its appeal, the release includes a song cycle extracted from the oratorio Vedem plus excerpts from Ludlow, the opera project she initiated with librettist David Mason in 2012 and which is currently nearing completion.
05. Jeffrey Derus: From Wilderness (Navona Records)
Jeffrey Derus is both a founding board member of Choral Arts Initiative and one of the esteemed ensemble's tenors. He's also, however, the composer of From Wilderness, a glorious choral work brought to magnificent realization by twenty-five CAI singers, eight crystal bowl players, and cellist Kevin Mills. The company earlier distinguished itself with the release How to Go On: The Choral Works of Dale Trumbore and now equals that achievement with a stellar realization of Derus's work. From Wilderness is a multi-hued meditation that lives up to its transformative billing: it's almost impossible to imagine someone hearing it and not being profoundly moved.
06. Eric Schorr: New York Pretending To Be Paris (Albany Records)
Indicative of the care with which Eric Schorr crafted this masterful art song release is the manner by which he compiled the texts for its thirteen songs. Rather than select pieces from his personal library, he spent hours scanning poems in Manhattan and Cambridge bookshops and in publications such as The New Yorker and The New Criterion. In the songs, Schorr's lyrical style dovetails seamlessly with the yearning articulated movingly by the writers. Orchestrator Nik Rodewald and mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti, tenor Jesse Darden, and baritone Michael Kelly bring the songs vividly to life, and all are supported splendidly by the 19 Mercer Ensemble and pianists Cris Frisco, Erika Switzer, and Schorr himself.
07. Ben Moore: Gathering (Delos)
There's so much to like about this collection of songs by Ben Moore, it's hard to know where to start. Let's begin with the material itself, twenty-two songs that span the spectrum of emotional experience with dignity and poise. His music has been called “gorgeously lyrical” (The New York Times) and commended for its “romantic sweep” (Opera News), and many a song on the release exemplifies those qualities, plus a great deal more. Gathering is a magnificent collection, and as the songs were written over a span of thirty years, it also offers a superb overview.
08. Eric Ferring: No Choice But Love: Songs of the LGBTQ+ Community (Lexicon Classics)
With No Choice But Love, American tenor Eric Ferring and his longtime accompanist, pianist Madeline Slettedahl, have created something of remarkable importance and, ideally, consequence. The double-album collection features works that reference, directly and indirectly, the LGBTQ+ community, its members' experiences and perspectives, and the profound challenges they face. It is a remarkable collection, not only for the statement it makes but for its glorious music and the duo's illuminating treatments. On thematic grounds, No Choice But Love is a major accomplishment; as a musical expression, it's riveting.
09. Barbara Hannigan: Sehnsucht: Berg - Mahler: Live in Rotterdam (Alpha Classics)
10. Anthony Davis: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (BMOP/sound)
11. Scott Ordway: The Outer Edge of Youth (Acis)
12. Hanna-Elisabeth Muller: Sinnbild-Strauss Songs (Pentatone)
13. Camille Saint-Sans: Henry VIII (Odyssey Opera)
14. Lawrence Foster & Coro & Orquestra Gulbenkian: Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Pentatone)
15. Lorelei Ensemble: Antigone (New Focus Recordings)
16. Danish National Vocal Ensemble & Marcus Creed: Lux Aeterna: Choral Works by György Ligeti and Zoltan Kodály (OUR Recordings)
17. Florian Just: Éternelle Dualité: Songs of Love & War (Etcetera Records)
18. Sasha Cooke: How Do I Find You (Pentatone)
19. The Crossing: Born: The Music of Edie Hill and Michael Gilbertson (Navona Records)
20. Kühn Choir of Prague: Voices of Earth and Air Vol IV (Navona Records)
TOP 20 CLASSICAL (INSTRUMENTAL)
01. Igor Levit: Tristan (Sony Classical)
The epic reach of Igor Levit's Tristan is intimated by the mist rising behind the pianist in its dramatic cover photo, a character that carries over into the double album's ambitious programme and themes. Love, death, and redemption are probed intensively in works by Wagner, Liszt, Mahler, and Henze, with only one of the pieces originally conceived for solo piano. It's an immensely rewarding listen, even when the material is as challenging as Henze's. However daunting, it's a work that deserves to be heard, and the realization here is strong. That it's accompanied by Levit's solo treatments of the “Adagio” from Mahler's tenth symphony and Wagner “Prelude” makes the release all the more commendable.
02. Femke Ijlstra & Celia García-García: Colores del sur (TRPTK)
Colores del sur seduces the ear with a set-list designed to delight and exemplary performances by alto and soprano saxophonist Femke IJlstra and pianist Celia García-García. In place of selections from the Western classical repertoire, the two venture to southern Spain (Brazil too) for sultry enticements by Isaac Albéniz, Manuel de Falla, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Darius Milhaud, and others. As steeped in the south as the album is, it also includes pieces by Maurice Ravel and Kurt Weill, composers whose love for the tango and habanera sometimes seeped into their writing.
03. Rachel Barton Pine: Violin Concertos (Cedille Records)
In issuing an album of violin concertos by composers of African descent, Rachel Barton Pine could be seen to be capitalizing on the recent resurgence of interest in figures such as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, William Grant Still, George Walker, and Florence Price. Said presumption would be wrong on a number of counts. Firstly, Violin Concertos by Black Composers Through the Centuries is a Pine release that in a slightly different form appeared two-and-a-half decades ago and has now been issued in a handsome twenty-fifth anniversary edition. As importantly, Pine is no follower but rather a prescient pioneer who long ago recognized what these composers have to offer and took major steps towards sharing that awareness with others.
04. Rebeca Omordia: African Pianism (Somm Recordings)
In casting her gaze exclusively on the music of African composers Akin Euba, Ayo Bankole, Christian Onyeji, David Earl, Fred Onovwerosuoke, J. H. Kwabena Nketia, and Nabil Benabdeljalil, London-based pianist Rebeca Omordia has created something truly special. Not only does she bring attention to figures whose names might be new to many a Western listener, she also presents a compelling argument on behalf of the classical music originating from their homeland, especially when so much of it entices for its distinctive melodic quality, rhythmic drive, and folk-influenced tone.
05. Peter Boyer: Balance of Power (Naxos American Classics)
The tone of this appealing hour-long album release, Boyer's third in the Naxos American Classics Series, is often celebratory, even triumphant. As performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, his material packs a visceral punch that ensures no listener's attention will drift, and the evidence at hand suggests his name could be mentioned in the same breath as Barber, Bernstein, Ives, Adams, and Copland. Like them, he writes works that have popular appeal, engage with immediacy, and are impeccably crafted. While he's one of the most frequently performed American composers of our time, his writing is sincere, honest, and authentic; that it connects so readily with listeners is surely no knock against it.
06. Magdalena Hoffmann: Nightscapes (Deutsche Grammophon)
On her debut album for Deutsche Grammophon, harpist Magdalena Hoffmann tailors the recording to maximize two things in particular: the spellbinding sonorities her instrument inherently lends itself to producing, and a waking dreamstate condition the composers' compositions are as naturally capable of inducing in listeners. The set-list is diverse when material by Fred Hersch and Benjamin Britten appears alongside pieces by Chopin and Clara Schumann, but all of the selections exemplify qualities associated with music of the night: introspection, intimacy, mystery, and magic. Any harpist benefits from the natural beauty of the instrument's sound, but Hoffmann's artistry and curation make Nightscapes an especially strong recording.
07. Scott Ordway: The Clearing and the Forest (Acis)
The Clearing and the Forest solidifies Scott Ordway's reputation as one of today's most gifted composers. He's that rare thing: an artist who's steeped within the classical tradition yet has cultivated a wholly original personal vision. He's a serious composer in the best sense of the word: every work is meticulously conceived, impeccably crafted, and built to last. Performed by SOLI Chamber Ensemble (clarinetist Stephanie Key, violinist Ertan Torgul, cellist David Mollenauer, and pianist Carolyn True), The Clearing and the Forest explores concepts of migration, landscape, and refuge in strikingly original manner. Contemplative and passionate episodes alternate as the four methodically progress through the work's many parts and deliver a sensitive and authoritative performance.
08. Chineke! Orchestra: Coleridge-Taylor (Decca)
Founded in 2015, the London-based Chineke! Orchestra holds the distinction of being Europe's first professional majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra. How fitting, then, that the first release on its own Chineke! Records should be a double-CD set featuring the music of African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, with a special bonus the world premiere recording of a work by his daughter Avril. In presenting 144 minutes of music, the release, which also commemorates the 110th anniversary of his death, offers a vital and generous portrait of the composer. By any estimation, the set is an invaluable addition to the recordings of his work currently available.
09. United Strings of Europe: Renewal (BIS)
10. Lisa Batiashvili: Love Letters (Deutsche Grammophon)
11. Intercontinental Ensemble: Arc (TRPTK)
12. Hans Abrahamsen: Schnee (Dacapo)
13. Mark John McEncroe: Symphonic Suite No. 3 (Navona Records)
14. Lowell Liebermann: The Devil's Lyre / Personal Demons (Steinway & Sons)
15. Daniel Hope: America (Deutsche Grammophon)
16. Minerva Piano Trio: Dance! (SOMM Recordings)
17. Kellen Gray & The Royal Scottish National Orchestra: African American Voices (LINN)
18. Solomiya Ivakhiv: Poems and Rhapsodies (Centaur)
19. Leif Ove Andsnes: Dvorák: Poetic Tone Pictures (Sony Classical)
20. Barokkbandið Brák: Two Sides (Sono Luminus)
TOP 30 JAZZ
01. Theo Croker: Sketches of Miles (ACT)
Sketches of Miles, the twelfth chapter in ACT's ‘Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic' series, presents a terrific performance by the Theo Croker Quartet, first alone and then augmented by members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Magnus Lindgren. To honour the legend and mark the three decades that have passed since his death in 1991, the series' curator Siggi Loch invited Croker to perform on 27 November 2021 at the historic site. Structuring the concert in two halves, the first featuring the trumpeter with pianist Danny Grissett, double bassist Joshua Ginsburg, and drummer Gregory Hutchinson and the second an expanded ensemble performing suites based on Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain, proved a masterstroke in showcasing the quartet's deft handling of Miles's material and the collective's masterful reimaginings of his renowned collaborations with Gil Evans.
02. Nadje Noordhuis: Full Circle (Newvelle Records)
While jazz musicians always hope magic will happen at a session, in being something that can't be manufactured it often fails to materialize. Yet in those rare cases when it does, its presence is undeniable, a case in point Nadje Noordhuis's Full Circle. There's nothing radical about the set-up—four high-calibre musicians gathering to record the leader's material—but the oft-lyrical music they produced on March 31, 2022 at New York's East Side Sound borders on transcendent. With sterling accompaniment by pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Thomas Morgan, and drummer Rudy Royston, the Australian trumpeter/flugelhornist has released one of the year's most rewarding albums.
03. Anders Koppel: Mulberry Street Symphony (UNIT Records)
Mulberry Street Symphony isn't the first time a work for jazz ensemble and orchestra has been created; it is, however, an exceptional realization that could stand as a model for anyone thinking of taking on the challenge henceforth. Many things are remarkable about the double-CD release, two of which stand out immediately: first, in place of two instrumental forces alternating, they're fully integrated, so much so that they play less like separable entities and instead a large ensemble fronted by three soloists; second, the balance achieved between the musicians is exemplary, with the dynamic levels of the orchestra and trio carefully calibrated to maximize impact. It also doesn't hurt that the jazz trio features the terrific alto saxophonist Benjamin Koppel, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Brian Blade.
04. Marquis Hill: New Gospel Revisited (Edition)
New Gospel Revisited looks backwards and forwards for trumpeter Marquis Hill: the incendiary live reimagining of his 2012 debut album is also his debut for Edition Records and thus signifies the beginning of a new chapter. Recorded at Constellation in Chicago on December 8th, 2019 and produced by Hill, much of the set is pure fire thanks to the incredible musicians featured on the seventy-six-minute release: the leader, tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, vibraphonist Joel Ross, pianist James Francies, drummer Kendrick Scott, and bassist Harish Raghavan. On the uptempo cuts especially, the unit blazes with visceral energy and commanding force.
05. Eli Degibri: Henri & Rachel (Eli Degibri)
With sterling accompaniment provided by pianist Tom Oren, bassist Alon Near, and drummer Eviatar Slivnik, Tel Aviv-based Eli Degibri brings his full-bodied saxophone to his self-released ninth album, Henri and Rachel. Perhaps the greatest takeaway isn't so much the chemistry the quartet exhibits but rather the beauty of the leader's compositions. One reason why the material is so striking has to do with the inspirations behind the project, Degibri's father, who passed away in the fall of 2020, and his mother, who's suffering from Parkinson's Disease and dementia. In honouring them, the saxophonist has created material that captures the deep feelings he has for his parents.
06. Lynne Arriale: The Lights Are Always On (Challenge Records International)
The Lights Are Always On, Lynne Arriale's sixteenth album as leader, is a particularly fine example of the form. With double bassist Jasper Somsen and drummer E. J. Strickland accompanying her, the recording achieves a near-perfect symbiosis of emotion and technique, one where the latter's always deployed in service to the former. Music of genuine and authentic character results, and consistent with the album title, gratitude is conveyed throughout in its uplifting tone and the trio's performances. Her commanding melodic expression is buoyed by the responsiveness of her collaborators, resulting in ten visceral statements that achieve an exceptionally high standard.
07. Wako: Ut Av Det Nye (Øra Fonogram)
The acoustic quartet's latest, Ut av det nye, might be Wako's purest, most direct, and most defining statement to date. Nine pieces are delivered with dispatch (all but one are five minutes or less), the playing to-the-point and the writing inspired. As per usual, composer credits are split between saxophonist Martin Myhre Olsen and pianist Kjetil Mulelid, with double bassist Bárður Reinert Poulse getting in on the act and contributing a beautiful ballad, “Løgmannabreyt.” Arriving ten years into the group's existence, Ut av det nye is a summative statement, yes, but hopefully also something like a mid-term report. With so much collective energy and imagination to draw upon (and with all just in their early 30s), Wako's creative fire should continue to burn for many a year still.
08. Daniel Rotem: Wise One (Daniel Rotem)
With Wise One, tenor and soprano saxophonist Daniel Rotem pays heartfelt tribute to his legendary precursor on a live club recording featuring the leader, pianist Billy Childs, acoustic bassist Darek Oles, and drummer Christian Euman. Rotem's all in on the release, not only in replicating Coltrane's classic line-up but in devoting almost the entire set-list to his compositions, the traditional “Song of the Underground Railroad” the exception. Wise One is no rote exercise in imitation, however: captured live on February 7, 2020 at the now-shuttered blue whale in Los Angeles, the recording sees Coltrane originals re-arranged and re-imagined, so much so the results largely support Rotem's contention that, with the exception of “Wise One,” “they sound nothing like the original recordings.”
09. Sam Reider: Petrichor (Slow & Steady)
10. Matt Ulery: Become Giant (Woolgathering)
11. Yosef Gutman Levitt: Upside Down Mountain (Yosef Gutman Levitt)
12. Franco Ambrosetti: Nora (Enja Records)
13. Sasha Berliner: Onyx (JMI Recordings)
14. Way North: New Dreams, Old Stories (Way North)
15. Ryan Oliver: With Strings (Cellar)
16. Tyshawn Sorey Trio +1 with Greg Osby: The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism (Pi Recordings)
17. Jocelyn Gould: Golden Hour (Jocelyn Gould Music)
18. Or Bareket: Sahar (Enja Records)
19. Kjetil Mulelid Trio: Who Do You Love The Most? (Rune Grammofon)
20. Staffan Bråsjö: Stratosfär (Staffan Bråsjö)
21. Roxy Coss: Disparate Parts (Outside in Music)
22. Benjamin Koppel: Anna's Dollhouse (Cowbell Music)
23. Ethan Philion: Meditations on Mingus (Sunnyside Records)
24. Karen Marguth: Until (OA2 Records)
25. Dan Cavanagh & James Miley with John Hollenbeck: Another Life (S/N Alliance)
26. Reverso: Harmonic Alchemy (Outnote Records)
27. Julieta Eugenio: Jump (Greenleaf Music)
28. Noam Lemish: Twelve (TPR Records)
29. Billy Mohler: Anatomy (Contagious Music)
30.
Esbjörn Svensson: HOME.S. (ACT)
TOP 20 AMBIENT / NEW AGE
01. Anne Garner: Dear Unknown (Slowcraft)
Imagine the most perfect Anne Garner album and chances are it would sound pretty much like Dear Unknown. It's as if she and producer James Murray consciously identified every single thing that makes her music phenomenal and distilled it with immense care and deliberation into a single statement—it's that good. Though it was assembled over a three-year period, the material never sounds laboured; instead, the impression created is of music that's arrived fully formed, conceptualized with clarity, and realized with acute sensitivity to detail. As this suite-like project unfolds, it becomes apparent that its contents are less songs than incantations and intoxicants.
02. Ann Sweeten: Change is in the Wind (Orange Band Records)
Much like its predecessor, 2019's Before Today, Beyond Tomorrow, the material on this 2021 release by pianist Ann Sweeten transcends categorization by blending chamber classical and New Age into music of beguiling beauty. Strengthening the connection between the two albums, Nancy Rumbel (English horn), Eugene Friesen (cello), and Charlie Bisharat (violin) grace Change Is in the Wind with magnificent contributions, just as they did the earlier one. The recording comes with a glowing endorsement from Windham Hill Records founder Will Ackerman, who's worked with the Steinway artist for fifteen years and, as he's done before, co-produced the album with her.
03. Robbie Basho: Bouquet (Lost Lagoon Records)
Bouquet, Robbie Basho's thirteenth album, re-emerged in an expanded and remastered form after first appearing almost forty years ago on cassette. Available for the first time on vinyl and CD and released with the full approval of Basho's estate, this remarkable statement from the visionary guitarist has never sounded fresher. Of course he's forever associated with Takoma Records and is an ongoing inspiration for his steel-string acoustic guitar playing. Bouquet is less about audacious fretwork, however, than ecstatic celebrations with Basho's declamatory vocalizing at the forefront. The fourteen pieces—the original eleven plus extras—honour diverse spiritual traditions and literally are, as per the album subtitle, Basho's “song offerings.”
04. Ellen Gibling: The Bend in the Light (Ellen Gibling)
This totally beguiling collection captures the Canadian harpist's sincere love for Irish traditional music and Canadian folk. On the fifty-minute collection, she embroiders twelve settings with propulsive patterns and evocative melodies and executes them with the kind of authority that comes from years of playing. The album's dominated by dance music—hop jigs, reels, slides, polkas, hornpipes, and the like—but also makes room for an occasional tender moment, most touchingly the traditional Irish air “Lament for the Death of Staker Wallace.”
05. David Helpling: IN (Spotted Peccary)
In every artist's career, there are achievements that tower over others, works that register as culminations of all that's come before and distill into a single statement everything about the artist's output that makes it deserving of attention. Though his career is hardly at its end, David Helpling's IN carries with it the feel of a peak when it so definitively presents his artistry at the highest level. Decades ago, a double-album release would be seen as an artist's crowning expression; today, a double-CD release conveys the same idea. It will certainly be a challenge for the California-based Helpling to surpass the level of refinement he's achieved on this terrifically crafted collection of ambient artistry.
06. orchestramaxfieldparrish: Four Thousand Trees (Faith Strange)
Need an example showing how much more effective a physical format can be than a download? Look no further than Four Thousand Trees. Sure, its two tracks sound great in their digital form and certainly make a lasting impression too. But in pressing its two long-form settings on a handmade lathe-cut of clear ten-inch vinyl and housing it and a text insert inside a personally assembled sleeve, the release registers much more powerfully; as important, the care with which Four Thousand Trees has been crafted is consistent with the indefatigable spirit embodied by the man who inspired the project, Ziya Abay. One's appreciation for what Fazio has done goes up when the time and energy involved in producing the fifty physical copies is factored in.
07. Will Ackerman: Positano Songs (West River Records)
Upon listening to Positano Songs, one could be forgiven for wishing Will Ackerman spent less time producing other artists' albums at his Imaginary Road Studios and issuing more of his own. The release is, after all, the first solo collection of original compositions from the Windham Hill Records founder since 2011's New England Roads. No matter: Positano Songs is a superb testament to Ackerman's gifts as a composer and guitarist, regardless of however long it took to reach fruition. Ten acoustic instrumentals appear, all grounded in the the beauty of Ackerman's steel-stringed fretwork, but the release is also enhanced by the contributions of violinist Charlie Bisharat, cellist Eugene Friesen, flugelhornist Jeff Oster, vocalist Noah Wilding, and bassist, pianist, and co-producer Tom Eaton.
08. Nerissa Schwarz: New Eyes For Laika (Nerissa Schwarz)
In refusing to be slotted into any one genre category, be it prog, ambient, classical, or rock, Nerissa Schwarz's sophomore solo album becomes an all the more enticing proposition. It's a perfectly balanced recording: its thirty-seven-minute duration is neither too short nor long; its meticulously designed arrangements are neither too sparse nor overloaded; and its nine instrumentals boldly explore imaginative directions yet not so much that clarity of form and concept is lost. Schwarz's bewitching tapestries are the musical equivalent of owls hooting during night's darkest hour and shadowy creatures casting flickering impressions against the forest's fading light.
09. Miho Ota & Paniyolo: Sora to Hana (Schole)
10. Sverre Knut Johansen: Metahuman (Spotted Peccary)
11. Genevieve Walker: Home Songs (Higher Level Media)
12. Desensitized: Chaos in Premonition (Spotted Peccary)
13. Keith Berry: Viable Systems 5 (VSM Theory)
14. Phillip Golub: Filters (Greyfade)
15. Harry Towell & Guy Gelem: Restful Spaces (Polar Seas)
16. James Murray: Careful Now (Home Normal)
17. Rosales: Woven Songs (Polar Seas)
18. Bruno Bavota & Chantal Acda: A Closer Distance (Temporary Residence)
19. Jeanine Schulz: Humble (Polar Seas)
20. Haythem Mahbouli: Last Man On Earth (Schole Records)
THANK YOU
Amanda Bloom, Ernesto Cervini, Laura Cocks, Theo Croker, Jeffrey Derus, Mike Fazio, Eric Ferring, Cynthia Fischer, Jim Fox, Ellen Gibling, Christina Jensen, Lori Laitman, Kerry Leimer, Lydia Liebman, Matt Merewitz, Katlyn Morahan, James Murray, Paula Mynn, Patrick Niland, Daniel Rotem, Eric Schorr, Katy Salomon, Gail Wein, Raphael Weinroth-Browne, and Orion Weiss.
RIP
Angelo Badalamenti, John Beckwith, Harrison Birtwistle, Jaimie Branch, Mira Calix, Julee Cruise, George Crumb, Anton Fier, Andy Fletcher, Mick Goodrick, Michael Henderson, Philip Jeck, Ramsey Lewis, Ingram Marshall, Christine McVie, Ron Miles, Charnett Moffett, James Mtume, Geoff Nuttall, Pharoah Sanders, Klaus Schulze, Vangelis, Abdul Wadud, Alan White, and many more.
December 2022