Search:josh aaron

Fresh jackin house and jazzy disco vibes from JOSH AARON, handpicked to rep JORDAN FIELDS latest installment on the mighty TRAX RESEARCH. Real Chicago ish on this 4 tracker. Pressed on limited edition assorted multi color vinyl. Paper sleeve

2025 Repress

Sean McCabe’s impressive Good Vibrations Music is back with its 3rd vinyl instalment and features 4 heavyweight, tried and tested soulful cuts.

Kicking off the 12 Inch is the Black Sonix & Sean McCabe Extended Mix of ‘Rise’ from the Matsiko World Orphan Choir, a moving and heart-felt orphan choir group based in Liberia. The choir is an initiative that aims to provide education and break the cycle of poverty for vulnerable children around the world. With a strong message embedded throughout and given the 5-star production treatment, ‘Rise’ has already been heavily pushed by a wide array of artists including Daniel Steinberg, Red Rack’em and The Shapeshifters.

Next up is Sean’s lush piano-laden remix of ‘Baby Don’t Make Me Wait’, from David Bailey and MissFly. David is a firm favourite amongst the London house music community and regular across labels such as Idris Elba's 7wallace, Makin Moves, Rhemi Music & Unquantize. MissFly is widely renowned for her soulful serenades and ability to write songs 'on the fly' in the studio as well as being found regularly on tour with the likes of Thelma Houston, Andrew Tosh, and The Notorious BIG. Sprinkled with luscious piano undertones and subtle string lines. With support from the likes of Dave Lee and Natasha Diggs.

On the flip is ‘Got It Bad’ from Ellis Aaron & Sean McCabe. Built on a rocksolid foundation of late-night, swing-heavy beats, ‘Got It Bad’ bubbles and froths with creamy Rhodes, lush organ swirls and a bassline that moves and grooves in all the right places. Ellis’ warm and rich soulful vocals are the perfect complement to that unmistakeable sound Sean has become renowned for. Early adopters include Ash Lauryn, Ralf GUM, and Mr V.

Rounding off the EP is Last Nubian’s ‘Dance Together’ which beautifully blurs the lines quite beautiful between Deep House, House and Broken Beat, Josh’s strikingly soulful vocals pair harmoniously with the lush, musical backdrop spear-headed with an abundance of Rhodes, soothing string & synth riffs and a tight, rhythmic drum arrangement that simply refuses to let your feet rest!

„Zuversicht“, das jetzt erscheinende fünfzehnte Album des laut Crescendo „klanggenialen Trompeters und Ausnahmekomponisten“ Nils Wülker, strahlt die Lebensenergie des Titels aus – in vielfacher, wunderbarer Hinsicht. Die elf Eigenkompositionen, eingespielt im Quartett mit den Jazz-Stars Aaron Parks (Grammy-Gewinner an der Seite von Terence Blanchard oder Joshua Redman) am Piano, Linda May Han Oh am Kontrabass (Grammy-Gewinnerin, u.a. mit Pat Metheny oder Kenny Barron zu hören) und dem laut Jazz Magazine „Drummer seiner Generation“ Greg Hutchinson, drängen den ECHO-Gewinner und Top Ten-Jazzer Nils Wülker bewusst aus seiner Komfortzone in eine schöne, neue Klangwelt. Wülkers Personalsound ist eindringlich und unverkennbar, das Ergebnis dennoch überraschend. Gemeinsam haben die Vier in nur dreieinhalb Tagen voll gemeinschaftlicher Schaffenskraft in den legendären Hansa Studios in Berlin (U2, David Bowie, Depeche Mode u.a.) ein Album geschaffen, das gleichermaßen zeitgemäß wie richtungsweisend ist – und in seinen starken Melodien und dem sagenhaften Interplay voll Zuversicht.


Das Resultat spricht für sich: „Zuversicht“ ist ein sehr organisches, in jeder Note lebendiges Album, dem die Kompositionen des Leaders in Kombination mit der kreativen Zusammenarbeit der drei weiteren Bandmitglieder enorme Größe und Eleganz verschaffen, eine immer wieder überwältigende Energie. Auch live auf Tour wird die Besetzung des Albums zu erleben sein – mit Nils Wülker an der Seite von Linda May Han Oh, Greg Hutchinson und anfangs, aufgrund von Termingründen, mit keinem Geringeren als Omer Klein am Piano. Gute Gelegenheiten, Nils Wülkers spontan entwickelte neue Stücke und die traditionsreiche, moderne Klangwelt dieser Musik unmittelbar zu erleben.

Limitiertes, farbiges Vinyl exklusiv für den Indie-Handel! In seinen mehr als 15 Jahren als How To Dress Well hat der in LA lebende Musiker Tom Krell mit dem Konzept dessen, was wir hören und wie wir kommunizieren, gespielt, um Musik zu schaffen, die irgendwo zwischen himmlischer Transzendenz und einer Außenseiter-Position für das, was Popmusik sein kann, liegt. I Am Toward You ist das erste neue How To Dress Well-Album seit sechs Jahren und enthält einige seiner bisher lautesten, freiesten und poetischsten Tracks. Krell eröffnet das zweite Jahrzehnt seiner Karriere mit einem Album, das alle Merkmale seiner besten Arbeiten aufweist. Krell begann 2020 zusammen mit wiederkehrenden und neuen Partnern wie CFCF, Chris Votek, Joel Ford, Josh Clancy, Trayer Tryon (Hundred Waters), Brian Allen Simon (Anenon) und Aaron Charles Read, mit der Arbeit an dem, was I Am Toward You werden würde. Er sichtete hunderte von Schnipseln, die er in den vergangenen zehn Jahren aufgenommen hatte, und fand unerklärliche Samples und Tonfetzen, die sich zu einem Album zusammenfügten, das die Dichte früherer Alben zurücknahm, um eine Sammlung von Songs zu schaffen, die zwischen der Gegenwart und der Vergangenheit oszillieren, als ob alles auf einmal geschähe. Eine Erinnerung von vor 20 Jahren hat genauso viel Gewicht wie etwas, das gestern passiert ist. Die ersten Singles und die Ankündigung erhielten eine unglaubliche Resonanz von zahlreichen namhaften Medien, darunter Pitchfork, Stereogum, FADER, Clash, Quietus Brooklyn Vegan und viele mehr. Die Videos für weitere Fokus-Tracks sind fertiggestellt und werden zusammen mit jedem Song veröffentlicht. Digipack-CD sowie als Vinyl mit bedruckter Inenhülle & DLC!

In seinen mehr als 15 Jahren als How To Dress Well hat der in LA lebende Musiker Tom Krell mit dem Konzept dessen, was wir hören und wie wir kommunizieren, gespielt, um Musik zu schaffen, die irgendwo zwischen himmlischer Transzendenz und einer Außenseiter-Position für das, was Popmusik sein kann, liegt. I Am Toward You ist das erste neue How To Dress Well-Album seit sechs Jahren und enthält einige seiner bisher lautesten, freiesten und poetischsten Tracks. Krell eröffnet das zweite Jahrzehnt seiner Karriere mit einem Album, das alle Merkmale seiner besten Arbeiten aufweist. Krell begann 2020 zusammen mit wiederkehrenden und neuen Partnern wie CFCF, Chris Votek, Joel Ford, Josh Clancy, Trayer Tryon (Hundred Waters), Brian Allen Simon (Anenon) und Aaron Charles Read, mit der Arbeit an dem, was I Am Toward You werden würde. Er sichtete hunderte von Schnipseln, die er in den vergangenen zehn Jahren aufgenommen hatte, und fand unerklärliche Samples und Tonfetzen, die sich zu einem Album zusammenfügten, das die Dichte früherer Alben zurücknahm, um eine Sammlung von Songs zu schaffen, die zwischen der Gegenwart und der Vergangenheit oszillieren, als ob alles auf einmal geschähe. Eine Erinnerung von vor 20 Jahren hat genauso viel Gewicht wie etwas, das gestern passiert ist. Die ersten Singles und die Ankündigung erhielten eine unglaubliche Resonanz von zahlreichen namhaften Medien, darunter Pitchfork, Stereogum, FADER, Clash, Quietus Brooklyn Vegan und viele mehr. Die Videos für weitere Fokus-Tracks sind fertiggestellt und werden zusammen mit jedem Song veröffentlicht. Digipack-CD sowie als Vinyl mit bedruckter Inenhülle & DLC!

FYEAR is a Montréal-based ensemble led by composer Jason Sharp and poet/writer Kaie Kellough that fuses spoken word into genre-bending compositions for electronics, two voices, two drummers, and processed saxophone, pedal steel guitar, and violins. FYEAR incorporates drone, out-jazz, post-classical, ambient metal, avant-rock, and modular synthesis in a sonic and stylistic palette the opposite of collage or pastiche: the FYEAR ensemble integrates a unique and unified sound/aesthetic while traversing adventurous and variegated terrain. Kellough’s poetic materiality conveys acute political-existential themes, alternating between declarative, meditative, and cut-up/semiotic manifestations. This self-titled debut album is a supremely innovative 40-minute multi-movement work; an ardent mission statement that mines the interzone where Saul Williams, Moor Mother/Irreversible Entanglements, Shabazz Palaces, Zulu, Angel Bat Dawid, Damon Locks/Black Monument Ensemble, Shabaka Hutchings, and Matana Roberts are all iconoclastic neighbours. FYEAR melds improvisation and composition, traditional notation and graphic scoring, electronic and acoustic instrumentation, lucid recitation and abstract vocalization, balancing intensive structure with an expansive sense of exploration. Through several years of collaboration, development, workshops, commissions and performances conducted by Sharp and Kellough, their wordsound practice has culminated in this nine-piece group which also features poet/writer/activist Tawhida Tanya Evanson (present director of the Banff Centre Spoken Word program) violinists Josh Zubot and Jesse Zubot (Tanya Tagaq, Darius Jones, Joshua Hyslop), pedal steel player Joe Grass (Tim Hecker, Patrick Watson), drummers Stefan Schneider (Bell Orchestre) and Tommy Crane (The Mingus Big Band, Aaron Parks), with live visual typographics from Kevin Yuen-Kit Lo, who also designs the album art. Propelled by the vocal interactions of Kellough and Evanson, FYEAR interrogates our present and future post-capitalist polycrisis, invoking collective anxieties, emotions, and critiques. FYEAR re-poetizes our constructed, manipulated social/conceptual realities, re-inscribing questions about the future by setting them to a wildly dynamic and evocative temporal soundtrack: Who does it belong to? How will it be shared? How do we project a collective future into the contested challenges of climate change, global migration, wealth gaps, safety/precarity, identity/affinity, segmentation / segregation, all our seemingly irreconcilable histories and forward visions for the world we dream to inhabit

Der gefeierte Saxophonist Joshua Redman jetzt neu bei Blue Note Records!

Sein Debüt beim Label trägt die Frage „where are we“ im Titel und ist ein sanftes, stimmungsvolles Werk, das sich von Kitsch jedoch weit fernhält. Die Songtitel geben preis, dass es hier um Amerika geht, und um das, was das heutige Amerika für Redman und die anderen an diesem Album Beteiligten bedeutet.

Ein großer Teil des Albums besteht aus bekannten Jazz- und Pop Standards, die in der Neuinterpretation Joshua Redmans immer wieder ein Gefühl des Neuentdeckens bieten.

„where are we“ ist Joshua Redmans erstes Projekt mit durchgehender Beteiligung einer Sängerin, der großartigen Neuentdeckung Gabrielle Cavassa, die mit ihrer geschmeidigen, lässig-intimen Stimme Akzente setzt, genauso wie Redmans Band aus Pianist Aaron Parks, Bassist Joe Sanders und Schlagzeuger Brian Blade, sowie die Special Guests Nicholas Payton an der Trompete, Kurt Rosenwinkel und Peter Bernstein an der Gitarre sowie Joel Ross am Vibraphon.

[a] A1 . After Minneapolis (Face Toward Mo[u]rning) (Face Toward Mo

Die Lead-Sängerin, der isländischen Multi-Platin-Band „Of Monsters and Men”, kündigt ihr Solo-DebütAlbum „How To Start A Garden“ an. Zusammen mit Aaron Dessner (Taylor Swift) und Josh Kaufmann
(Bonny Light Horseman) wurde das Album in den New Yorker Long Pond Studios aufgenommen. Insgesamt enthält das Werk 11 Tracks, darunter „Crybaby“, die zweite Veröffentlichung nach „Godzilla“, die
einen ersten Einblick in das Album bieten. Beide Songs schrieb Nanna in einer kleinen Hütte außerhalb ihrer Heimatstadt Reykjavík auf Island. Dabei beeinflusste „Crybaby“ die Platte mit am meisten.
„Viele Dinge mussten enden, damit dieses Album zu dem wurde, was es ist“, sagte Nanna und widmet das Album der Freude am Neuanfang. „How To Start A Garden“ befindet sich genau in diesem Zwischenzustand.

Mit drei beeindruckenden und weltweit erfolgreichen Alben schrieb die „Of Monsters and Men“-Sängerin ein Solo-Debüt-Album, das ihrer Meinung nach auf ihre ganz eigene Art und Weise geliefert werden musste und auf das man gespannt sein darf.

A Jazzman’s Blues is the 2022 Netflix drama film written, produced, and directed by Tyler Perry. It stars Joshua Boone, Amirah Vann, Solea Pfeiffer, Austin Scott, and Ryan Eggold a.o. The film centers on the forbidden romance between Bayou and Leanne who are best friends. They fall in love as soon as they cross paths, however Leanne’s mother forbids their union and forcefully takes Leanne with her to Boston.

The orchestral music in A Jazzman’s Blues was composed by the classically trained composer Aaron Zigman, who has previously scored music for films including The Notebook, The Company Men and Sex & the City. He has also written, arranged, and produced for artists including Quincy Jones, John Legend, Phil Collins, Christina Aguilera, and Aretha Franklin amongst many others. The songs of this score have been arranged and produced by Oscar-nominated trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard. He has been nominated for composing the scores for BlacKkKlansman and Da 5 Bloods.

The soundtrack features vocals by the cast members, including Joshua Boone, Amirah Vann and Austin Scott.

AJazzman’s Blues is housed in a gatefold sleeve and includes an unfolded “paper plane” insert with lyrics of Ruth B.’s song “Paper Airplane”.

15 years after the album’s release, ‘City Of Echoes’ is now
available in a deluxe 2LP edition, newly remastered by
Josh Bonati and featuring a full LP’s-worth of bonus
material, including original album demos, alternate takes,
and pieces originally only available on the rare ‘Pink
Mammoth’ EP.
‘City Of Echoes’, originally released in 2007 by Hydra
Head Records, marked a paradigm shift for Pelican.
Coming off the heels of the glacial ‘Australasia’ and their
even more expansive and acclaimed follow-up, ‘The Fire
In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw’, their third album is
a study in precision.
Inspired by their non-stop tour schedule following ‘The Fire
In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw’’s release, the
quartet composed ‘City Of Echoes’ to be a lean
powerhouse of non-stop melodic hooks and lurching
rhythms that reflected the energy of live performance.
Guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent
Schroeder-Lebec trade crisp riffs that twirl in opposition
before thundering together in monoliths. The sheer
amount of potent interplay between the two, often
borrowing from disparate edges of rock and metal at a
whim before completely transforming, is mind-boggling.
Bassist Bryan Herweg and rhythm section compatriot /
drummer / brother Larry Herweg lock into a wider array of
grooves than ever before. Their considered bedrock
guides the band’s dynamics into some of the ensemble’s
most tender moments as well as their most ferocious.
Recorded by Andrew Schneider at Electrical Audio Cover.
Art designed by ISIS and SUMAC founder Aaron Turner,
with photography by Robin Laananen.
Also available to independent retailers on Translucent Blue
vinyl.

15 years after the album’s release, ‘City Of Echoes’ is now
available in a deluxe 2LP edition, newly remastered by
Josh Bonati and featuring a full LP’s-worth of bonus
material, including original album demos, alternate takes,
and pieces originally only available on the rare ‘Pink
Mammoth’ EP.
‘City Of Echoes’, originally released in 2007 by Hydra
Head Records, marked a paradigm shift for Pelican.
Coming off the heels of the glacial ‘Australasia’ and their
even more expansive and acclaimed follow-up, ‘The Fire
In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw’, their third album is
a study in precision.
Inspired by their non-stop tour schedule following ‘The Fire
In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw’’s release, the
quartet composed ‘City Of Echoes’ to be a lean
powerhouse of non-stop melodic hooks and lurching
rhythms that reflected the energy of live performance.
Guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent
Schroeder-Lebec trade crisp riffs that twirl in opposition
before thundering together in monoliths. The sheer
amount of potent interplay between the two, often
borrowing from disparate edges of rock and metal at a
whim before completely transforming, is mind-boggling.
Bassist Bryan Herweg and rhythm section compatriot /
drummer / brother Larry Herweg lock into a wider array of
grooves than ever before. Their considered bedrock
guides the band’s dynamics into some of the ensemble’s
most tender moments as well as their most ferocious.
Recorded by Andrew Schneider at Electrical Audio Cover.
Art designed by ISIS and SUMAC founder Aaron Turner,
with photography by Robin Laananen.
Also available to independent retailers on Translucent Blue
vinyl.

High quality, 2 x 180g pink marbled vinyl, gatefold sleeve and download
code containing the digital album in multiple formats. Singer Nishla
Smith creates vivid, enigmatic stories through sound, her voice stretching
from melancholic sweetness through to dark intimacy
Her debut album 'Friends with Monsters' confirms Smith as a major new vocal
talent and sees the vocalist's affinity for inventive narratives extended over the
span of a full album. The Australian performer travelled via Berlin to eventually
settle in Manchester and is joined here by some of the city's most talented
improvisers. Richard Jones and Johnny Hunter cover piano and drums
respectively, whilst bassist Joshua Cavanagh-Brierley and trumpeter Aaron Wood
add graceful touches to complete the quintet's intimate feel. Smith's depictions of
night-time have an enigmatic quality, inviting listeners on an atmospheric journey
but all the while pointing to something greater.
Smith's work moves swiftly through genres, driven by her unique artistry. A City
Music Foundation artist, she has received commissions from Manchester
Collective and Opera North, as well as Manchester Jazz Festival and Jazz North.
As co-creator of theatre company Ulita, she also creates collaborative pieces that
blend theatre, music and visual arts. 'Friends with Monsters' continues that
theatrical drive - "I'm a very natural storyteller, I just love to tell stories. I find
myself weaving everyday events into tales that are very narratively pleasing."
Set over the course of a single evening, 'Friends with Monsters' explores changing
states of insomnia, informed by Smith's own sleepless nights. It's realised in four
distinct sections; each is introduced by a scene-setting interlude. Delving deeper
into the dreamy world of Smith's storyland rewards greatly.

Das zweite Album der Indie-Folk-Supergroup um Anaïs Mitchell ("eine der größten Songwriterinnen ihrer Generation" NPR), Eric D. Johnson (FRUIT BATS) und Josh Kaufman (THE WAR ON DRUGS, THE NATIONAL, TAYLOR SWIFT). Produziert von Bandmitglied Josh Kaufman, ist "Rolling Golden Holy" der Nachfolger ihres von der Kritik gefeierten, selbstbetitelten Debüts, das zwei GRAMMY-Nominierungen (Best Folk Album und Best American Roots Performance) erhielt und von u.a. Paste, MOJO, Uncut Magazine als eines der "Besten Alben des Jahres 2020" bezeichnet wurde. Falls sich das Debüt von Bonny Light Horseman jemals wie das Werk einer kurzlebigen Supergroup oder einer einmaligen Abwechslung angefühlt haben sollte (was sie nie war), widerlegt "Rolling Golden Holy" diese Vorstellung mit überirdischer Schönheit, Charme und Fantasie. Diese 11 Songs - allesamt Originale, geschrieben und realisiert vom Trio als Ganzes - folgen den Pfaden der traditionellen Melodien, die die Band schätzt, zu neuen musikalischen und lyrischen Grenzen, und geben den Klängen und Situationen der Geschichte die Schwere und Form der Gegenwart. "Rolling Golden Holy" bestätigt, dass es sich bei Bonny Light Horseman nicht um ein Projekt, sondern um eine Band handelt, die derzeit an der Speerspitze des modernen amerikanischen Folk arbeitet. Die ersten Schreibsitzungen von "Rolling Golden Holy" - und die beiden darauf folgenden Aufnahmesessions, zuerst in Aaron Dessners (THE NATIONAL) Long Pond Studio und dann in dem, was sie als ihr "spirituelles Zuhause" bezeichnen, der wunderschönen und buschigen alten Kirche namens Dreamland - waren eine Reihe von "Ja, und"-Treffen, bei denen jedes Mitglied die anderen ermutigte, eine Idee aufzugreifen und sie ein wenig weiterzuverfolgen, um die Komfortzonen zu überwinden. Auf "Rolling Golden Holy" stellt das Trio eine wesentliche Frage - und beantwortet sie mit jedem Stück: Wo hört die traditionelle Folkmusik auf und wo fängt die moderne Folkmusik an, falls es eine solche Abgrenzung überhaupt gibt? Diese Lieder suggerieren und verkörpern ständig ein unausgesprochenes Kontinuum. Hier zeigen sich BONNY LIGHT HORSEMAN in der vollen Pracht ihres Lebens als komplette Band.

As funny as it may sound, Anaïs Mitchell has spent the past 15 years in some kind of hell. OK, not actual hell, but the multi-faceted world of Hadestown, a musical project she began in Vermont in 2006 that has grown into a Tony®- and Grammy®-award-winning Broadway phenomenon with touring editions now delighting audiences as far away as South Korea.

“I experienced so much joy working on Hadestown, but it just kept ramping up and up and requiring more and more attention,” Mitchell admits. “I had to become so single-minded and really put blinders on to my other creative life.” As it did for many artists, the COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly offered Mitchell a blank slate to reconnect with her own music. The result is a new self-titled album made with close collaborators from Bon Iver, The National and her own band Bonny Light Horseman, Mitchell’s first collection of all-new material under her own name since 2012’s Young Man in America.

“I was nine months pregnant when the pandemic reached New York, so we made an 11th hour decision to leave and have the baby in Vermont,” Mitchell recalls. “We left the city and had the baby a week later, and then like everyone, we were in the midst of this unprecedented stillness. It felt like I could see behind me: oh, there’s New York City. There’s Hadestown. There’s my life with just one kid. A certain kind of stress and expectations. In Vermont, we moved onto my family farm and lived in my grandparents’ old house, with a new baby. I’d look at pictures on my phone from a few months earlier and wonder, whose life was that? This record, and the songs that are on it, came out of that time. I got into a flow again that I hadn’t felt in a really long time.”

Dubbed by NPR as “one of the greatest songwriters of her generation,” Mitchell is a master of the worlds of narrative folksong, poetry and balladry. Those talents are evident from the first moments of the new album, as Mitchell narrates what she calls “an unbearably romantic” trip over the Brooklyn Bridge colored by Bon Iver member Michael Lewis’ heartstring-tugging saxophone accompaniment. “Having left New York, I was able to write a love letter to it in a way I never could when I was living there,” she says. “It was like, fuck it. This is how I feel. There is nothing more beautiful than riding over one of the New York bridges at night next to someone who inspires you.”

Produced by Mitchell’s Bonny Light Horseman bandmate Josh Kaufman, the album proceeds to chronicle Mitchell’s reconnection with the Vermont roots that have been so formative in her life and music. “Bright Star” finds her making peace with the idea of being at peace in the familiar setting of her grandparents’ house, while “Revenant” was inspired by paging through a box of journals and letters belonging to herself and her grandmother — “a very pandemic activity,” she says. “That house is literally my happy place. I can picture myself as a kid, in this house, laying on the carpet with a sunbeam coming through the sliding glass door. There’s something about it that is really connected in my mind to my childhood and a very free, imaginative, creative time. “Revenant” has a lot to do with that house and reconnecting with my childhood self.”

Mitchell concedes that she tends “to be someone who thinks it has to be hard in order for it to be good or beautiful,” but that feeling has changed, partly thanks to her deep connection with musicians she’s met through the 37d03d collective established by The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. During the pandemic, some of those artists participated in a “song a day” writing group — an idea Mitchell says is usually “totally opposite of how I roll. But it really helped me to gain access to some kind of trust and intuition and flow. I began a bunch of these songs while doing that.”

“It unlocked something that allowed me to finish a bunch of songs I’d been sitting on, and feeling a bit paralyzed about how to finish them,” she continues. “Because no one was touring, it’s not like I was playing them for anyone before we were in the studio. In other times, I’ve trotted things out in advance. Here, it was like, here’s all these brand new songs. Let’s discover what they can be. That was really exciting.”

That discovery process took flight at Dreamland Recording Studios outside Woodstock, N.Y., which Mitchell describes as “this weird, janky, beautiful church - it’s my favorite studio in the world.” Kaufman, Lewis and Big Red Machine drummer JT Bates formed a core band around Mitchell, while Aaron Dessner and Thomas Bartlett joined the sessions mid-week on guitar and piano, respectively.

After the appropriate COVID tests came back negative, “it was a pretty extraordinary feeling to hug, kiss and share the same space playing together,” Mitchell says. “We went into that world for a week and didn’t leave the studio for any reason. I felt very safe with all those guys. It was warm and joyful.”

Mitchell says this environment brought out unexpected details in the material, which was recorded almost entirely live together in the room. “Sometimes we tried separating things out, like vocals, but we always ended up back in the room together,” she says. Indeed, after spending the better part of a day recording overdubbed versions of “Little Big Girl” that nobody loved, the musicians gave up and tracked it again live. “We got so frustrated that we went in and I was like, I’m just going to sing this as hard as I fucking can. It felt like that’s what the song wanted to be,” Mitchell says. “It felt like all those songs wanted to be recorded as live as possible.” The exception to the rule was Nico Muhly's arrangements for strings and flute, which were added from New York City afterward.

Mitchell will debut the new material during various headline tours in the U.S. and Europe in 2022, at which she’ll be accompanied by players from the album. On stage, she can’t wait to further hone the sights, sounds and scenes that bring the songs to such vivid life. “I’ve spent a lot of time trying to write in the voice of other characters, especially with Hadestown. It’s fun for me, but these songs are not that,” she says. “Weirdly, they’re all me. The narrator is me. That’s why it felt right to self-title the album. It felt like after so many years of working on telling other stories, now here are some of mine.”

As funny as it may sound, Anaïs Mitchell has spent the past 15 years in some kind of hell. OK, not actual hell, but the multi-faceted world of Hadestown, a musical project she began in Vermont in 2006 that has grown into a Tony®- and Grammy®-award-winning Broadway phenomenon with touring editions now delighting audiences as far away as South Korea.

“I experienced so much joy working on Hadestown, but it just kept ramping up and up and requiring more and more attention,” Mitchell admits. “I had to become so single-minded and really put blinders on to my other creative life.” As it did for many artists, the COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly offered Mitchell a blank slate to reconnect with her own music. The result is a new self-titled album made with close collaborators from Bon Iver, The National and her own band Bonny Light Horseman, Mitchell’s first collection of all-new material under her own name since 2012’s Young Man in America.

“I was nine months pregnant when the pandemic reached New York, so we made an 11th hour decision to leave and have the baby in Vermont,” Mitchell recalls. “We left the city and had the baby a week later, and then like everyone, we were in the midst of this unprecedented stillness. It felt like I could see behind me: oh, there’s New York City. There’s Hadestown. There’s my life with just one kid. A certain kind of stress and expectations. In Vermont, we moved onto my family farm and lived in my grandparents’ old house, with a new baby. I’d look at pictures on my phone from a few months earlier and wonder, whose life was that? This record, and the songs that are on it, came out of that time. I got into a flow again that I hadn’t felt in a really long time.”

Dubbed by NPR as “one of the greatest songwriters of her generation,” Mitchell is a master of the worlds of narrative folksong, poetry and balladry. Those talents are evident from the first moments of the new album, as Mitchell narrates what she calls “an unbearably romantic” trip over the Brooklyn Bridge colored by Bon Iver member Michael Lewis’ heartstring-tugging saxophone accompaniment. “Having left New York, I was able to write a love letter to it in a way I never could when I was living there,” she says. “It was like, fuck it. This is how I feel. There is nothing more beautiful than riding over one of the New York bridges at night next to someone who inspires you.”

Produced by Mitchell’s Bonny Light Horseman bandmate Josh Kaufman, the album proceeds to chronicle Mitchell’s reconnection with the Vermont roots that have been so formative in her life and music. “Bright Star” finds her making peace with the idea of being at peace in the familiar setting of her grandparents’ house, while “Revenant” was inspired by paging through a box of journals and letters belonging to herself and her grandmother — “a very pandemic activity,” she says. “That house is literally my happy place. I can picture myself as a kid, in this house, laying on the carpet with a sunbeam coming through the sliding glass door. There’s something about it that is really connected in my mind to my childhood and a very free, imaginative, creative time. “Revenant” has a lot to do with that house and reconnecting with my childhood self.”

Mitchell concedes that she tends “to be someone who thinks it has to be hard in order for it to be good or beautiful,” but that feeling has changed, partly thanks to her deep connection with musicians she’s met through the 37d03d collective established by The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. During the pandemic, some of those artists participated in a “song a day” writing group — an idea Mitchell says is usually “totally opposite of how I roll. But it really helped me to gain access to some kind of trust and intuition and flow. I began a bunch of these songs while doing that.”

“It unlocked something that allowed me to finish a bunch of songs I’d been sitting on, and feeling a bit paralyzed about how to finish them,” she continues. “Because no one was touring, it’s not like I was playing them for anyone before we were in the studio. In other times, I’ve trotted things out in advance. Here, it was like, here’s all these brand new songs. Let’s discover what they can be. That was really exciting.”

That discovery process took flight at Dreamland Recording Studios outside Woodstock, N.Y., which Mitchell describes as “this weird, janky, beautiful church - it’s my favorite studio in the world.” Kaufman, Lewis and Big Red Machine drummer JT Bates formed a core band around Mitchell, while Aaron Dessner and Thomas Bartlett joined the sessions mid-week on guitar and piano, respectively.

After the appropriate COVID tests came back negative, “it was a pretty extraordinary feeling to hug, kiss and share the same space playing together,” Mitchell says. “We went into that world for a week and didn’t leave the studio for any reason. I felt very safe with all those guys. It was warm and joyful.”

Mitchell says this environment brought out unexpected details in the material, which was recorded almost entirely live together in the room. “Sometimes we tried separating things out, like vocals, but we always ended up back in the room together,” she says. Indeed, after spending the better part of a day recording overdubbed versions of “Little Big Girl” that nobody loved, the musicians gave up and tracked it again live. “We got so frustrated that we went in and I was like, I’m just going to sing this as hard as I fucking can. It felt like that’s what the song wanted to be,” Mitchell says. “It felt like all those songs wanted to be recorded as live as possible.” The exception to the rule was Nico Muhly's arrangements for strings and flute, which were added from New York City afterward.

Mitchell will debut the new material during various headline tours in the U.S. and Europe in 2022, at which she’ll be accompanied by players from the album. On stage, she can’t wait to further hone the sights, sounds and scenes that bring the songs to such vivid life. “I’ve spent a lot of time trying to write in the voice of other characters, especially with Hadestown. It’s fun for me, but these songs are not that,” she says. “Weirdly, they’re all me. The narrator is me. That’s why it felt right to self-title the album. It felt like after so many years of working on telling other stories, now here are some of mine.”

Question everything. Consider your sources. Be wary of ulterior motives, insidious media narratives and even your own unconscious bias. Trust sparingly and try to make smart, informed choices. As the world slides further into ruin, it’s more important than ever to be vigilant and fight back. Luckily, Hacktivist are back to help cut through the noise and bullshit, tooled-up and ready to attack with renewed vigour and reinforced ranks. With Jot Maxi and J. Hurley now sharing the vocal and lyrical load, drummer Rich Hawking and bassist Josh Gurner bringing the beats and rhythms, and guitarist and production don James Hewitt fleshing out the group’s genre-fluid muscle, new album Hyperdialect arrives less like a mission statement and more as a flaming musical Molotov, declaring all-out war. “Hyperdialect isn’t an album for people to just casually listen to,” J insists, “we’ve taken things to the next level, which I didn’t even think was possible. We spit the truth. *We are the truth.*” In 2016, when Hacktivist initially set sights on their enemies with debut album Outside The Box, the world wasn’t fully equipped to heed their warnings and pay attention to its timely rallying cries. They return into a very different one, however – a world that’s sadly now all-too-finely-attuned to the horrors they first forecasted four years ago. “It’s becoming clear that we are on the brink of some type of revolution,” says Jot, with no small dose of conviction or optimism. “Hacktivist are here to bring truth and positivity – the silver lining of a society clouded in poisonous fear. Hacktivist also represents a voice that isn’t afraid of saying what needs to be said. We’re already living in the future. We have the choice to either be shaped by it or to stand up and shape it ourselves. Which path will you take?” It was with those battle lines clearly drawn and ambitions duly set that Hacktivist entered into the creation of Hyperdialect. Starting almost two years ago and developing on the acerbic sonic filth introduced by 2019 singles Reprogram and Dogs Of War, the five-piece felt fired up by their new working dynamic and the collective process involved, with each member actively encouraged to contribute ideas until the best outcome was reached. Unusually, for such a group of bloody-minded insurrectionists, this democratic approach worked wonders – a testament to how much they were all on the same page on these 12 tracks.