photo: VOCES8
2023 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 reviewed at textura during 2023 were eligible. Here, then, are the recordings to which we repeatedly returned and which repeatedly rewarded that return. Slightly modified excerpts from the original reviews, available in their complete form at textura's archives, have been included for the top eight selections in each of the four categories.
TOP 20 CLASSICAL (VOCAL) • TOP 20 CLASSICAL (INSTRUMENTAL) • TOP 30 JAZZ • TOP 20 AMBIENT / NEW AGE • THANK YOU • RIP
photo: ConspirareTOP 20 CLASSICAL (VOCAL)
01. Conspirare: House of Belonging (Delos)
Many of the performances on this latest collection by the Austin, Texas-based vocal ensemble Conspirare are so powerful, one can't help but be awed by their beauty. That starts with its haunting opening work, Reaching, featuring music by the choral group's leader Craig Hella Johnson and words by Welsh-Scottish poet Euan Tait. Elevated by the majestic singing of tenor Haitham Haidar and baritone Simon Barrad, the setting is so stirring it's almost overwhelming. A spell is cast the moment hushed voices intone, “Oh, we are far away from home / We are turning away,” but that's hardly the only time music so moving appears on a release that showcases the splendour of Conspirare's vocal artistry time and time again.
02. Eric Whitacre & VOCES8: Home (Decca Classics)
Could there be a more perfect pairing than Eric Whitacre and VOCES8? In featuring performances by the celebrated UK vocal ensemble of the Grammy-winning composer's works, Home makes the strongest argument possible on behalf of the collaboration. Whitacre himself calls the eight-member outfit his “dream vocal group” and in the release booklet states, “Time after time during these recording sessions I was conducting with tears in my eyes, quietly saying to myself, ‘This is how I always dreamed it would sound.'” Listeners may find themselves as moved by the transcendent performances on the release (including VOCES8's rendering of Whitacre's twelve-movement The Sacred Veil) and the group's glorious vocal sound.
03. Christopher Cerrone: In a Grove (In a Circle Records)
Christopher Cerrone's first opera, Invisible Cities (based on Italo Calvino's novel), was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize. There's every reason to think that this latest creation from the Brooklyn-based composer (b. 1984), In a Grove, should receive similar recognition when the work, based on the same short story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa that inspired Kurosawa's Rashomon and featuring a terrific libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann, mesmerizes from start to finish. Co-produced by the Los Angeles and Pittsburgh Opera companies, In a Grove provides further confirmation of Cerrone's singular gifts and why he's justly regarded as one of today's leading composers.
04. Bernard Herrmann: Suite from ‘Wuthering Heights' / Echoes for Strings (Chandos)
The score Bernard Herrmann (1911-75) created for Hitchcock's Vertigo is renowned for its expression of profound longing, and the romantic parts of his scores for Obsession and North By Northwest also speak to his gift for writing in that mode. Those with a particular love for that side of the composer will therefore find this hour-long treatment—the suite created by Hans Sørensen in 2011 and recorded here for the very first time—of his opera Wuthering Heights (1943-51) to be, frankly, irresistible. The tragic tone of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel is captured vividly in this terrific realization featuring the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and soprano Keri Fuge and baritone Roderick Williams as the tormented lovers Cathy and Heathcliff.
05. Roomful of Teeth: Rough Magic (New Amsterdam)
It's been eight long years since Render, Roomful of Teeth's last full-length album, though the experimental NYC-based vocal ensemble has issued a number of releases in the interim, most notably 2020's EP-length recordings Just Constellations and The Ascendant. Remaining solidly in place is the group's boundary-pushing approach; in fact, Rough Magic sees it advancing well beyond the already daring work of its previous releases into even more adventurous territory. Premiere recordings of four works appear (including ones by album producer William Brittelle and long-time group member Caroline Shaw), each fascinating in its own right and collectively a stunning portrait. Rest assured, this tremendous achievement in vocal artistry and technique sounds like nothing you've heard before.
06. Haymarket Opera Company: Joseph Bologne: L'Amant Anonyme (Cedille Records)
Last year, Joseph Bologne (1745–1799) received renewed attention when Rachel Barton Pine released Violin Concertos by Black Composers Through the Centuries featuring her performance of his Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 5, No. 2 (1775). But while Pine emphasized his instrumental side on her project, Chicago's Haymarket Opera Company has now ushered his operatic artistry into the spotlight with a terrific world-premiere recording of his third comic opera, L'Amant Anonyme (1780).Cedille has issued the material in a three-CD format: the first discs present the complete opera with dialogue; the third features music only. With dialogue, the opera is a still-easily digestible 100 minutes; without it, it's a breezy seventy-two.
07. David Biedenbender: All We Are Given We Cannot Hold (Blue Griffin Recording)
Composer David Biedenbender might want to consider signing Lindsay Kesselman to some kind of long-term contract when the soprano delivers a performance in Shell and Wing (2018) so spectacular it would be hard to imagine another equaling it—how telling that the work was written for her (plus the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble) by Biedenbender and his collaborator, poet Robert Fanning. In the piece, she sings with a searing intensity that calls to mind Dawn Upshaw's performance of Górecki's third symphony on the 1992 Nonesuch release.
08. The King's Singers: Wonderland (Signum Records)
Few are the ensembles that last past a half-century, The King's Singers one that can lay claim to that distinction. To be clear, the a cappella group's current members aren't the same as those who founded it in 1968 when recent choral scholars from King's College, Cambridge delivered a concert at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. The configuration that first appeared—two countertenors, a tenor, two baritones, and a bass—has remained in place ever since, however, with Patrick Dunachie and Edward Button (countertenors), Julian Gregory (tenor), Christopher Bruerton and Nick Ashby (baritones), and Jonathan Howard (bass) the current members. Presenting eightof the more than 200 works the ensemble has commissioned during its fifty-five-year reign, Wonderland is an exceptionally rewarding testament to its artistry and vision. Listen to any piece and chances are you'll come away awed.
09. Skylark: La vie en rose (Skylark Ensemble)
10. The Ramsey Singers: Men & Angels (Ulysses Arts)
11. Eric Choate / Joseph Stillwell / David Conte: Nature, Love, and Death (Arsis Audio)
12. Emily Albrink: Force of Nature (Lexicon Classics)
13. Eric Ferring: We Have Tomorrow (Delos)
14. Caritas Chamber Choir: All Shall Be Amen (Ulysses Arts)
15. iSing Silicon Valley: love & light (Avie Records)
16. Barnaby Smith & Illyria Consort: Bach (VOCES8 Records)
17. Hélène Grimaud: Silent Songs (Deutsche Grammophon)
18. The Clarion Choir: Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil (Pentatone)
19. AGAVE: In Her Hands (Acis)
20. James Adler: That Star in the Picture (Albany Records)
photo: Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective
TOP 20 CLASSICAL (INSTRUMENTAL)
01. Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective: Transfigured (Chandos)
On earlier albums, Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective performed music by Amy Beach, Florence Price, Samuel Barber, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and the Mendelssohns, Felix and Fanny. Its fourth shifts the focus to fin-de-siècle Vienna, with Verklärte Nacht coupled with less familiar works by Anton Webern, Alexander Zemlinsky, and, in the biggest surprise, Alma Mahler. It might be a stretch to call the material by Gustav's wife a revelation, but the four songs are of such disarmingly high quality one can't help but wonder what kind of composing career she might have had if circumstances had been different. Deciding to include her material was a particularly inspired move, but the hour-long release has much to recommend it otherwise. Certainly the emotionally expressive character of Webern's 1907 Quintet is striking too when it's so unlike the twelve-tone material for which he's known.
02. Calefax: An American Rhapsody (Pentatone)
There are two obvious reasons why Calefax's fourth Pentatone release is so great: performance and repertoire. The Dutch quintet's reed players—Oliver Boekhoorn (oboe, English horn, duduk), Bart de Kater (clarinet), Raaf Hekkema (alto saxophone), Jelte Althuis (bass clarinet), and Alban Wesly (bassoon)—execute brilliantly, and the set-list is inspired and imaginative. For their nearly eighty-minute homage to America, they couple a terrific arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue with pieces by Florence Price, Harry Burleigh, Samuel Barber, Moondog, Kinan Azmeh, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Stevie Wonder. Taken together, An American Rhapsody comprises a panoramic portrait of a country that has been a work in progress since its founding and continues to be so.
03. Lowell Liebermann: Violin Concerto, Op. 74 | Chamber Concertos 1 and 2 | Air (Blue Griffin Recording)
The release of Lowell Liebermann's works for violin and orchestra brings with it a number of auspicious firsts: all four are world premiere recordings, and it's also the debut recording of the Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra (KSSO). Led by conductor Tigran Shiganyan, the ensemble partners wonderfully with its founder and Artistic Director, violinist Aiman Mussakhajayeva. The American composer also participates by joining her and the orchestra's strings on piano in the performance of his first Chamber Concerto. Performing on a 1732 Stradivarius, the award-winning Mussakhajayeva proves herself to be an ideal conduit for Liebermann's imaginings.The Philadelphia Inquirer opined of the album's primary work that it could achieve “a popularity not enjoyed by any other violin concerto since the Barber.”
04. National Brass Ensemble and Eun Sun Kim: Deified (Pentatone)
Many things distinguish the double-CD set Deified. It's the first appearance by The National Brass Ensemble and conductor Eun Sun Kim on Pentatone, for one; it presents terrific performances by the musicians, for another. What recommends the release most, however, is its programme, which, on disc one, follows an opening Richard Strauss fanfare with world-premiere recordings of pieces by Jonathan Bingham (b. 1989) and Arturo Sandoval (b. 1949) and, on its second, an incredible recomposition by Timothy Higgins of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen. That nearly eighty-minute treatment amounts to a comprehensive brass ensemble tour through four of the composer's operas and offers to other ensembles of similar instrumental makeup a wonderful new work to consider for their own playlists.
05. Todd Mason: Violin Concerto | Chamber Suite (Ulysses Arts)
Pitched as “a violin concerto for the 21st century,” Todd Mason's Violin Concerto (2022) is brought to thrilling realization by soloist Tosca Opdam and the Budapest Scoring Orchestra. Complementing it is the Los Angeles native's Chamber Suite (2020), the result an immensely satisfying release on a number of counts. First, the concerto unfolds without pause for twenty-three minutes and thus becomes for both listeners and performers an exciting and intense experience. Opdam delivers a scintillating reading that will be hard for other violinists to top, and the orchestra performs the score deeply attuned to its nuances, arc, and dynamics. Not only does the Chamber Suite partner splendidly with the concerto, the two total thirty-eight minutes, concision in this case amplifying the strengths of each work without taxing the listener's stamina with an overlong release.
06. Lara Downes: Love at Last (Pentatone)
It's not unusual for an artist to include a message to listeners on an album; it's less common for said message to be included as a concluding audio commentary. Such a move is, however, wholly consistent with Lara Downes' character: rather than share her message through the impersonal medium of the written word, she connects with immediacy using her voice, the illusion fostered of the artist speaking directly to you. Those who've been following the pianist throughout her career are familiar with her generosity of spirit, her resolute belief in the potential of human beings, her hope for peace, and her embracing vision. On her Pentatone debut, pieces by J. S. Bach and Schubert sit comfortably alongside covers of standards and world premiere recordings of works by living composers from around the globe. One comes away from Love at Last renewed and uplifted.
07. The Tailleferre Ensemble: There Are Things To Be Said (Ulysses Arts)
Co-founded in 2019 by oboists Nicola Hands and Penelope Smith, Tailleferre Ensemble has issued an exemplary debut with the eighty-minute There are Things to be Said. The collection is distinguished by superb musicianship and an inspired and varied set-list. While the principal aim of this UK-based chamber outfit is to promote women in music, the recording includes female and male composers, and living as well as earlier ones too. Adding to the release's appeal, arrangements change throughout, with one piece performed by, say, two oboes and bassoon and another flute, oboe, and piano.
08. Reed Tetzloff: Concord (Master Performers)
On his third album, pianist Reed Tetzloff pairs Ives's monumental Sonata No. 2, “Concord, Mass., 1840-60” with Beethoven's Sonata No. 31 in A-Flat major, Op. 110. Tetzloff, a pianist of extraordinary technical and interpretative ability, maintains the high standard of his earlier releases, 2017's Sounds of Transcendence and 2021's Schumann. Like its predecessor, Concord was recorded at the Rockport Music Shalin Liu Performance Centre in Rockport, Massachusetts and fittingly appears on the Master Performers label. The Minneapolis-born pianist is well-served by the venue, the Steinway D he plays on the album, and the care with which producer Steven Epstein and recording engineer Rick Jacobsohn have captured the performances.
09. Eldbjørg Hemsing: Arctic (Sony Classical)
10. United Strings of Europe: Through the Night (BIS)
11. Jonathan Leshnoff: Elegy, Violin Concerto No. 2, Of Thee I Sing (Naxos)
12. Karina Canellakis & NRPO: Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra (Pentatone)
13. Hilary Hahn: Eugène Ysaÿe: Six Sonatas (Deutsche Grammophon)
14. Nicholas Van Poucke: The Schumann Collection Vol 2 (TRPTK)
15.
Kellen Gray and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra: African American Voices II (Linn Records)
16. Stella Chen: Stella x Schubert (Platoon)
17. Bruce Levingston: Without Words (Sono Luminus)
18. Tamayo Ikeda: Schubert: Impromptus D. 899; Liszt: Schubert Song Transcriptions (Ulysses Arts)
19. Carrie Krause & John Lenti: Sonata Tramontana (Black Bear Records)
20. Martin Jones and Adrian Farmer: French Music for Two Pianos (Nimbus Records)
TOP 30 JAZZ
01. Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (Whirlwind Recordings)
When she released her terrific Pursuance: The Coltranes album in 2020, alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin set a dauntingly high bar for its follow-up. Remarkably, Phoenix is not just a credible sequel, it's arguably as strong as its predecessor. Just as she celebrated John and Alice Coltrane on the earlier set, Benjamin again honours influential figures and personal inspirations, from Angela Davis, Dianne Reeves, Patrice Rushen, and Sonia Sanchez to Wayne Shorter and Jean-Michel Basquiat. While Benjamin possesses great vision, let's not overlook her skills in the playing and composing departments: her ever-imaginative alto playing is all over the recording, and she writes a solid tune too.
02. Matt Ulery: Mannerist (Woolgathering Records)
Of all the ensembles Matt Ulery's fronted, the eleven-member unit on Mannerist might be the one most perfectly suited to his music. It's easy to explain why: in enhancing the Chicago bassist's core trio—himself, pianist Paul Bedal, and drummer Jon Deitemyer—with horns (tenor saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi, trumpeter James Davis, trombonist Chris Shuttleworth, and French hornist Matthew Oliphant) and woodwinds (clarinetist Zachary Good, oboist Andrew Nogal, bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward, and flutist Constance Volk), the chamber-jazz project affords Ulery the fullest palette of timbres and colours with which to work. Add to that six terrific compositions by the bassist and Mannerist, his fourteenth album as a leader, can't help but position itself high in the Ulery canon.
03. Allison Au with the Migrations Ensemble: Migrations (Allison Au)
With a Juno award and an impressive number of releases to her name (as a leader and contributor to others' projects), saxophonist Allison Au has established herself as a formidable force in Canadian jazz circles. The esteem with which she's held should increase considerably with the release of what's clearly her most ambitious statement to date, Migrations. Supplementing her quartet—pianist Todd Pentney, bassist Jon Maharaj, drummer Fabio Ragnelli, and herself on alto and soprano saxes—with singer Laila Biali, vibraphonist Michael Davidson, and string quartet (violinists Aline Homzy and Jeremy Potts, violist Catherine Gray, and cellist Amahl Arubanandam), Au has fashioned an episodic suite that explores the many facets of the migration experience, from the hardships it entails to the promise and hope it engenders.
04. James Brandon Lewis & Red Lily Quintet: For Mahalia, With Love (TAO Forms)
A pivotal statement from tenor saxist James Brandon Lewis, For Mahalia, With Love honours gospel legend Mahalia Jackson by reimagining songs associated with her. As a young man growing up in Buffalo, Lewis was first exposed to her music through his grandmother, which makes the release as personal as his 2021 set Jesup Wagon, on which the saxophonist fashioned an illuminating portrait of George Washington Carver. Both releases feature the Red Lily Quintet, Lewis on tenor and William Parker double bass, Chad Taylor drums, Kirk Knuffke cornet, and Chris Hoffman cello. What makes the new one extra special is that the Mahalia content is augmented by These Are Soulful Days, a long-form composition performed by Lewis and the Lutoslawski Quartet.
05. Emily Kuhn: Ghosts of Us (BACE Records)
Ghosts of Us, the second album from Chicago trumpeter Emily Kuhn, is notable for the consummate poise of its writing and performances. Fronting a stellar quintet, she leads with authority and exemplifies the kind of maturity one associates with a more seasoned player. There's nothing tentative about the performances by the outfit either, which comprises her, guitarist Erik Skov, pianist Meghan Stagl, bassist Kitt Lyles, and drummer Gustavo Cortiñas; all show themselves as capable of delivering a moody ballad as a hard bop workout. Compared to Kuhn's 2020 debut album, Sky Stories, featuring her chamber nonet Helios, the lineup on the sophomore release hews more to convention, but the exceptional quality of the performances more than compensates.
06. Antoine Drye: Retreat to Beauty (Cellar Music)
Retreat To Beauty is credited to Antoine Drye and strings, a detail's that not entirely accurate when the ensemble accompanying the trumpeter also features woodwinds, horns, and a rhythm section. With twenty-plus musicians involved, the mini-orchestra more recalls one of those seminal Miles Davis-Gil Evans collaborations than a Charlier Parker-with-strings session. No matter: Retreat To Beauty, the third chapter in Drye's long-standing Oblation series, is a terrific album regardless of how it's pitched and a profile-enhancing statement by the trumpeter. Working with orchestrator Isaac Raz, Drye's dressed originals and covers in sumptuous arrangements and distinguished them further with his own exemplary playing. Combine it with great song choices and arrangements and the result is a supremely satisfying release.
07. Shuteen Erdenebaatar: Rising Sun (Motema)
A remarkably poised debut from twenty-five-year-old Shuteen Erdenebaatar, Rising Sun sees the Munich-based pianist turning in one of the year's most striking albums. Growing up in a home filled with classical and opera music, she naturally gravitated to the study of classical piano and composition when attending the State Conservatory of Ulaanbaatar. It was her exposure to jazz through a Goethe Institute program that proved pivotal, however, in revealing that she was also capable of playing beyond notes on the page. That led to the acquisition of masters degrees in Jazz Performance and Composition at the conservatory in Munich and the path she's now on. Rising Sun is a jazz quartet recording, full stop, yet there's no question her classical background is foundational. The technical skill and compositional sophistication reflected in the performances and writing on the album are ample proof of that.
08. Composers Collective Big Band: The Toronto Project (The Composers Collective Big Band)
Toronto boasts such a vibrant mix of ethnicities and locales, it's a perfect springboard for compositional imaginings. For The Toronto Project, the Composers Collective Big Band (CCBB) asked city-based jazz composers to write about the neighbourhoods and aspects of the city that most inspire them, the result an immensely satisfying collection of large ensemble performances. Led by trombonist and composer Christian Overton and founded in 2005, the CCBB is an eighteen-piece jazz ensemble featuring some of the city's best musicians, many of them bandleaders in their own right and with flourishing careers of their own. Toronto has long been a breeding ground for dynamic jazz talent, and The Toronto Project shows exactly how robust the city's current talent pool is.
09. Greg Ward's Rogue Parade: Dion's Quest (Sugah Hoof Records)
10. Ethan Philion: Gnosis (Sunnyside Records)
11. The Nimmons Tribute: Volume 2, Generational (The Nimmons Tribute)
12. Gretchen Parlato & Lionel Loueke: Lean In (Edition Records)
13. Jonny Wickham: Terra Boa (Fresh Sound Records)
14. Emilie-Claire Barlow: Spark Bird (Empress Music Group)
15. Nat Bartsch: Hope Renewed (Amica Records)
16. Tania Giannouli: Solo (Rattle Records)
17. Siril Malmedal Hauge & Kjetil Mulelid: Blues and Bells (Grappa Musikkforlag)
18. Corey Smythe: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Pyroclastic Records)
19. Sara Caswell: The Way To You (Anzic Records)
20. Rebecca Hennessy: Joy Will Find Us (Rebecca Hennessy)
21.
Kris Davis' Diatom Ribbons: Live at the Village Vanguard (Pyroclastic Records)
22. Jalen Baker: Be Still (Cellar Music Group)
23. Miho Hazama's m_unit: Beyond Orbits (Edition Records)
24. Nick Maclean Quartet feat. Brownman Ali: Convergence (Browntasauras Records)
25. Mette Juul: Celeste (Naxos-Prophone)
26. Ben Wendel: All One (Edition Records)
27. Dahveed Behroozi: Standard Fare (Sunnyside Records)
28. Lina Allemano Four: Pipe Dream (Lumo Records)
29. Elsa Nilsson's Band of Pulses: Pulses (ears&eyes Records)
30. Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe: The Rite of Spring – Spectre d'un songe (Pyroclastic Records)
TOP 20 AMBIENT / NEW AGE
01. Ann Sweeten: Love Walks Through Rain (Orange Band Records)
In many ways, pianist Ann Sweeten's Love Walks Through Rain plays like a natural extension to 2021's Change Is in the Wind. Like it, the new album was engineered, mixed, and mastered by Tom Eaton, with production credited to him, Sweeten, and Will Ackerman. While her music is sometimes categorized as New Age, it transcends that designation for its emotional depth. Furthermore, it possesses a formal elegance and eloquence that aligns it arguably more to chamber classical, even if her melodic compositions are song-like in length and structure. They're often introspective but never hermetic; on the contrary, she excels at fashioning material that speaks with immediacy to listeners' inner lives, no matter how different their experiences might be. It's easy to imagine listeners swooning to Love Walks Through Rain and its predecessors decades from now.
02. Akira Kosemura: Rudy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Schole Records)
When a soundtrack's released, the question invariably arises as to whether familiarity with the film of which it's a part is required to assess the music's merits or whether it should be judged on its own stand-alone terms. Applied to Akira Kosemura's soundtrack for Rudy, the question isn't so much irrelevant as it is moot: the Japanese composer's work always holds up, regardless of whether it was created for a movie, stage production, or for purely listening pleasure. That the release comprises thirty-one short tracks signifies that the pieces were composed for soundtrack purposes; even so, Kosemura's seemingly inexhaustible gift for melody is on abundant display when so many of these captivating miniatures provide opportunities for its application.
03. Kirsten Agresta-Copely: Aquamarine (Valcope Recording Company)
Kirsten Agresta-Copely's 2020 album Around the Sun brought the classically trained harpist a number of awards, and its follow-up, Aquamarine, will likely do the same. As the album title intimates, the ocean was a key inspiration that prompted the harpist to meditate musically on its vastness and enigmatic quality and by extension to our fundamental connection to it and water in general. On this album, the ocean isn't seen as a danger or threat but rather as a site of peace and tranquility from which to draw spiritually. The album also pays heartfelt tribute to her recently deceased mother, a pianist and former Miss Michigan who was not only a lifelong source of support to her daughter but who also fostered her appreciation for nature.
04. May Roosevelt: Pearl (May Roosevelt)
One word in particular comes to mind as I listen to May Roosevelt's Pearl: mature. The music the Thessaloniki-born composer, thereminist, and producer presents on her fifth album shows a remarkable degree of refinement, and the careful arrangement of elements and sensitivity to timbre and compositional form make the forty-minute release arguably her most satisfying to date. The blend and balance she achieves between classical strings and her theremin, vocals, violin, and synthesizers results in a distinctive fusion of neoclassical and electronic music.
05. Folias Duo: Heartdance (Folias Music)
Folias Duo members Carmen Maret (flute) and Andrew Bergeron (guitar) call Grand Rapids, Michigan home, yet the married couple often seem more like itinerant troubadours when so much of their time revolves around exploring new places and sharing their music with listeners. Their latest, Heartdance, celebrates two decades as life partners and musical collaborators; it's also arguably the strongest Folias Duo album statement to date. That shouldn't be interpreted to mean their earlier releases (five on Blue Griffin and the last two on Folias Music) are in any way deficient but more a way of stressing that the new one finds the duo in exceptionally fine form. The nine chamber music pieces exude vitality, as if the two couldn't wait to get their latest material onto tape.
06. Deborah Martin & Jill Haley: Into the Quiet (Spotted Peccary Music)
The Silence of Grace, the first collaboration between oboist Jill Haley and ambient shaman Deborah Martin, was so critically well-received upon its 2021 release, a follow-up was inevitable, and here it is. Into The Quiet invites the listener into perhaps an even more absorbing realm than its predecessor, the music a portal through which one enters with no resistance whatsoever. For the creators, the titular “quiet” refers to the inner place one enters to achieve the most authentic possible connection with oneself. The challenge for Haley and Martin has to do with evoking a state of stillness in a medium that's by its very nature unfolding in time. Even so, the eight meditations approximate that state in presenting vivid sound realms characterized by serenity and calm.
07. Nadje Noorhuis & James Shipp: Multitudes (Little Mystery Records)
Anyone who fell under the spell of Nadje Noordhuis's late-2022 album Full Circle might be surprised at how radically different Multitudes, her collaboration with longtime musical partner James Shipp, is from that quartet release. Whereas Full Circle features the Australian trumpeter-and-flugelhornist joined by pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Thomas Morgan, and drummer Rudy Royston on a terrific jazz date, Multitudes, in its dense layering of trumpet, keyboards, percussion, and synthesizer textures, invites comparison to Mark Isham's Castalia more than anything jazz-related. That doesn't mean that the new recording suffers next to Full Circle; Multitudes offers many rewards, though it needs to be appreciated for the different project that it is and assessed on its own terms.
08. Paniyolo + Akio Watanabe: Yanami (Schole)
Thankfully, Sora Mo Sukoshi, the lovely album guitarist Paniyolo (Muneki Takasaka) and steelpan player Akio Watanabe issued four years ago, wasn't a one-off, as a follow-up from the collaborators has now materialized. Even better, the character of the music they presented on that earlier set hasn't undergone any noticeable change: the new one, Yanami (The row of houses), is as tranquil, delicate, and pure as its predecessor. The two have fashioned the release so that its eleven tracks focus on the humble simplicity of everyday life. Writing a morning letter, cleaning out rain gutters, going to the store for stamps, enjoying the view from a bridge during a walk—all such and more are the subject matter of Yanami.
09. Christina Galisatus: Without Night (Slow&Steady Records)
10. James Murray & Chimo Perez: Ascension Por (Slowcraft Records)
11. Chronotope Project: Chronology (Spotted Peccary Music)
12. Rudy Adrian: A Walk in the Shadow Garden (Spotted Peccary Music)
13. Phil Tomsett & Aaron Martin: At Sea (Fluid Audio)
14. Tom Eaton: Weathering (Heart Dance Records)
15. Isnaj Dui: Cereus (FBox Records)
16. James Murray: Sound Flowers (Slowcraft Records)
17. Nashville Ambient Ensemble: Light & Space (Centripetal)
18. IKSRE & anthéne: Seasons Shifting (Polar Seas)
19. worriedaboutsatan: The Pivot (This Is It Forever)
20. Keith Berry: Viable Systems 6 (VSM Theory)
THANK YOU
Lina Allemano, Ernesto Cervini, David Conte, Mike Fazio, Eric Ferring, Folias Duo, Jim Fox, Ashley Jackson, Christina Jensen, Carrie Krause, Lori Laitman, Lydia Liebman, Matt Merewitz, Katlyn Morahan, Kjetil Mulelid, James Murray, Paula Mynn, Gil Rose, Katy Salomon, Geoffrey Silver, Tailleferre Ensemble, and Gail Wein.
RIP
Burt Bacharach, Jeff Beck, Tony Bennett, Carla Bley, David Del Tredici, Ahmad Jamal, Robbie Robertson, Kaija Saariaho, Ryiuchi Sakamoto, Wayne Shorter, Dwight Twilley, Tom Verlaine, George Winston, and many more.
December 2023