Category Archives: Reviews

Kelly Moran’s Alternative Reality

Kelly Moran, Bloodroot (Telegraph Harp Records)
A review

From the opening notes of pianist/composer Kelly Moran’s new release, Bloodroot (Telegraph Harp Records), you may feel that you’ve wandered into an alternative universe, one in which Eric Satie was born in Indonesia and wrote music for a gamelan ensemble. With a prepared piano, an e-bow, plucked and strummed piano strings, and samples of plucked and e-bowed strings mapped to MIDI controllers, Moran creates an otherworldly sonic environment where Satie, Philip Glass, John Cage, and (I’ll have to take her word on this one) black metal all contribute to her inspiration. (There is a transition on the second track, “Celandine,” that eerily channels Satie.) Her performing pedigree is equally broad, stretching from the no-wave freak-out of Cellular Chaos, in which she played bass, to the cultured avant-rock of Voice Coils, where she (wo)manned synthesizers, to the contemporary piano repertoire. Continue reading →

Noah Kite Brings Fine New Album to Corrales

Noah Kite (right) with Laura Gershman

There is nothing sophomoric about singer/songwriter Noah Kite’s self-titled sophomore release. Deftly orchestrating eight songs that he built and often performs solo on an acoustic guitar, Kite has made a giant leap forward from his first release, Light by Light. Focused primarily on the complications of romantic relationships, the digital album Noah Kite excavates, with an admirable emotional honesty and wallop, the pain, accusations, self-recriminations, and disbelief left in their wake. He and English horn/oboe player Laura Gershman, who makes signal contributions to the album, are touring in support of it and will appear in a house concert at Frame-N-Art in Corrales on March 12.

(Full disclosure: Noah Kite is our godson, and the album really is impressive.) Continue reading →

Sosa and Keita: a Heavenly Pairing on ‘Transparent Water’

Seckou Keita and Omar Sosa. Photo by Thomas Kruesselmann.

Hypnotically beautiful and profoundly peaceful, Transparent Water (Otá Records), the new release from Cuban pianist Omar Sosa and Senegalese kora master Seckou Keita, invites you to step out of the hurly-burly and submerge yourself in its sacred space for spiritual refreshment. Continue reading →

CD Release Party Promises a Double Dose of hONEyhoUSe Live

hONEyhoUSe: Yvonne Perea, Mandy Buchanan, Hillary Smith

On February 19 at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, the magical trio hONEyhoUSe—Mandy Buchanan, Yvonne Perea, and Hillary Smith—will celebrate the release of their live album, Raw Honey. It’s a double shot of hONEyhoUSe love: a live concert, all but guaranteed to lift the spirit and open the heart, and a new album that captures the special energy of their live performances and cements their standing as one of the finest singing/songwriting groups in the country today. Continue reading →