Weekly Music Roundup: Jon Batiste, Tristan Kasten-Krause, Amy Helm
Week of March 22: This week, Jon Batiste’s “Black folk,” Landlady’s cosmic prog-pop, and a video premiere from two humans and AI software. Plus, new songs from singer/multi-instrumentalist Amy Helm, and Caroline Shaw with So Percussion.
PREMIERE: A Collaboration From Tristan Kasten-Krause, Lisel, and A.I.
Bassist and composer Tristan Kasten-Krause, whom we’ve heard as a member of the chamber orchestra Contemporaneous, is releasing his first solo effort, Potential Landscapes, next month. Today, we premiere the track and video called “From Thin Air,” which features multiple layers of vocals by the singer known as Lisel (the stage name of Eliza Bagg, whose own resume ranges from the art rock band Pavo Pavo to the Grammy-winning new music choir Roomful of Teeth). In fact, it’s quite a ways into the piece before you hear anything not coming from Lisel’s voice. Ethereal drones support criss-crossing lines of slowly gliding vocalise; eventually, Kasten-Krause’s bass starts rumbling, and what sound like wisps of electronics weave through the texture. Meanwhile, the video was made by applying AI software to 200 photos and videos of the Icelandic landscape, creating something abstract and wholly imaginary – but rooted in a real place. It’s an excellent analogy for this beautiful, unearthly sonic landscape.
Jon Batiste Spans Styles and Eras In New LP
Pianist Jon Batiste released his new album, We Are, on Friday. Batiste has a high-profile gig as leader of the band for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, making him one of the most famous jazz musicians of our time. But Batiste is not just a jazz pianist – and if that hasn’t been obvious before, this album will make it evident now. From gospel to soul to New Orleans funk to R&B, all tinged with jazz and socially conscious lyrics, the songs on We Are present a wide-angled view of Black American music. The bluesy stomp called “Cry,” one of the album’s singles, showcases Batiste’s vocal range, from regular chest voice to a convincing falsetto. Batiste refers to this one as “Black folk music,” but it has roots in pop and classic rock as well.
Amy Helm’s New Single Has A Classic Old Sound
Singer and multi-instrumentalist Amy Helm has announced she’ll be releasing her third solo record in June. It’ll be called What The Flood Leaves Behind, and if the first single is any indication, it will look back to the soulful rock of the 70s. This shouldn’t be surprising from the daughter of Levon Helm of The Band, but Amy Helm has been careful not to tread too closely in her father’s footsteps, both with her folk rock band Ollabelle and in her own solo music. The new track, “Breathing,” has a sturdy beat and soulful horns (New York regulars Stuart Bogie and Jordan McLean), and Helm is in great voice. Josh Kaufman (from Bonny Light Horseman, Taylor Swift’s Folklore, The National, etc.) is the producer, and the sound here seems to reference Stax Records, Exile-era Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker, and yes, The Band.
What The Flood Leaves Behind is due on June 18.
Landlady Returns With First New Album in Four Years
Adam Schatz and the rest of Landlady play a technicolor kind of prog-pop; the arrangements may take unexpected twists and turns, but the song structure and the harmonies all come from the world of pop. The band has just released its fourth album, a self-titled effort that might be its most fully realized collection yet. (That is often the case when a band issues a self-titled album in mid-career.) Opening track “The Meteor” starts slow (but the opening lyric, “Nobody asked me/for my opinion” made me want to know what was coming next), and quickly builds to the point where a whole chorus of harmony vocals appear, and a second drum kit starts bashing away off to the left of the stereo mix… it’s reminiscent of late Beatles, or early Flaming Lips, either of which is fine by me.
A Solo Debut For Pulitzer Prize Winner Caroline Shaw
Caroline Shaw has teamed up with So Percussion on a beautiful, ultimately soaring new song called “To The Sky.” Shaw, a singer and violinist who won a Pulitzer for her vocal octet piece Passacaglia, and who has produced for Kanye West and Nas in a wide-ranging career, has occasionally drawn inspiration from the so-called shape note hymns of 19th century America. Her suite of songs called Narrow Sea, performed by soprano Dawn Upshaw, pianist Gilbert Kalish, and the four members of So Percussion, came out in January and used texts from some of those old hymns. This new song does the same, and for the first time we get to hear Shaw’s own voice in a solo setting (though there are many layers of her voice by the end of the song). The quartet provides an ever-expanding accompaniment that includes electronics, marimba, and bowed cymbals. The combination of voices and ensemble bursts into its full splendor when they reach the title phrase at the end of the song (the lyrics are by the 18th century British writer Anne Steele, whose words appear in numerous shape note hymns). The track comes from an upcoming album called Let The Soil Play Its Simple Part, due on June 25.
