American, Washington D.C.-based cellist-composer Janel Leppin released the debut album of her septet two years ago, Ensemble Volcanic Ash. The follow-up album To March Is to Love features a sextet (without harpist Kim Sator who played on the ensemble’s debut album), expanding the ensemble’s sonic terrain while honoring their musical ancestors and reflecting on our disquieting times. Leppin says she wanted to lean into «a message of hope» with this album.
Leppin’s concise yet dramatic and openly emotional compositions tend to blur the distinction between well-crafted, chamber music and intense improvisations that make full use of the distinct personalities of the ensemble. All the musicians in her ensemble are active in D.C.’s ferile scene – Leppin’s partner in life and music, guitarist Antony Pirog, bassist Luke Stewart, alto sax player Sarah Hughes, tenor sax player Brian Settles, drummer Luke Stewart and Leppin herself, on cello and piano. This ensemble operates like an organism that attacks and expands, swings and dances in multiple directions at once, but always opts for a collective dynamic, and sounds greater than the sum of its parts.
Leppin pays her respects to her formative influences. The album opens with an homage to one of her heroes, «Ode to Abdul Wadud», the great American cellist. The poetic «As Wide as All Outdoors» refers to a quote by sax player-composer Julius Hemphill: «Jazz is as wide as all outdoors», and Leppin was inspired by Hemphill’s iconic album Dogon A.D. (Mbari, 1972, with Abdul Wadud). The album closes with the playful «Casal’s Rainbow», dedicated to the great Spanish cellist Pablo Casals. Leppin mentions that Wadud and Casals were musical revolutionaries, and Casals was also a vocal opponent of Francoist Spain, and they acted as role models for us, who need to to have to step up.
Janel (Leppin) and Anthony (Pirog) have been working together now for twenty years. The double album New Moon In The Evil Age is only their third album as a duo, released 12 years after Where is Home (Cuneiform, 2012), highlighting their genre-binding aesthetics and mirroring their exploratory and dialogic working methods.
The 19 pieces are structured like an opus, flowing organically while embracing elements of contemporary music, free improvisation, prog-rock and imaginary folk music. The first ten pieces on the first album are instrumental and suggest intimate and introspective textures that cement the telepathic interplay of the duo, working as one inseparable sonic entity. Leppin colors these pieces with intriguing nuances and sonorities as she alternates on the Japanese koto, piano, hammered dulcimer and vintage mellotron. The remaining nine pieces on the second album. are layered of vocals and synths and electronics and flirt with songcraft of alternative rock and avant-pop as Janel and Anthony correspond with the work of Portishead (the dreamy «Fly Over Iceland») or Sonic Youth and Yeah Yeah Yeah («Surf the Dead»), now accompanied by bassist Devin Hoff and percussionist Dr. Ali Analouei.
Eyal Hareuveni
Janel Leppin (cello, modified cello, vocals, synthesizers, piano, koto, hammered dulcimer, bass), Anthony Pirog (electric and acoustic guitar, guitar synth, synthesizers, bass, percussion), Larry Ferguson (drums), Luke Stewart (bass), Sarah Hughes (alto saxophone), Brian Settles (tenor saxophone), Devin Hoff (electric bass, double bass), Dr. Ali Analouei (daf, tonbak)
