Shifts (Fat Cat) "Shifts (Fat Cat)"
From Fat Cat:
A wonderfully immersive suite of five stunning new tracks, ‘Shifts’ expands upon Swedish-Iranian pianist / composer Shida Shahabi’s debut album and confirms her as a genuine new force in contemporary piano music.
Check out the stunningly intimate “Futo.”
Xylouris White "The Sisypheans (Drag City)"
From Drag City:
Xylouris White’s fourth installment of progressive Cretan lute compositions present the sounds of the lute, George Xylouris’ vocals and Jim White’s drums in an open, spacious sound-field. With the philosophical bent that suits their music’s ancient headwaters, Jim and George are meditating on the life of a traveling musician, Sisyphyan in its repetition, but inspired in an eternal recurrence of themes and techniques that allow them to climb ever-further into their experience as players.
Check out the haunting, pastoral “Tree Song.”
Leif Vollebekk "New Ways (Secret City)"
New Ways, the new album from Leif Vollebekk, is a meticulous, sparse, stunner of a soul-esque album. I cannot think of a recent example of better use of silence on an album than this. Now, I’m not talking John Cage silence here, I just mean that everything sure has room to breathe, and breathe it does. As the PR mentions (quite correctly) there are parallels of sound to be heard here to both Prince and Bill Withers. Frankly, if those two names don’t want to get you to check out an album then I don’t know what sorts of things you are looking for. Check out the first single from the album “Hot Tears” and dig all that space!
Sean Henry "A Jump From The High Dive (Double Double Whammy)"
I was a huge fan of Sean Henry‘s 2018 album Fink. So, as you can imagine, I was pretty thrilled to check out his 2019 release A Jump From The High Dive (Double Double Whammy). Thankfully, it did not disappoint. It’s every bit as much fun as the last album was, as Sean is keenly attuned to what made ‘90s indie as much fun as it was. A little like early Built To Spill, a little like early Pavement, a little like early Modest Mouse-and if that isn’t a trifecta of indie greatness then I don’t know what to tell you. But don’t think this is some kind of retro show or something-this isn’t just a pastiche. It’s just obvious who his influences are. So check out the aforementionedly BTS-esque “Rain Rain.”