I’ve been moved by local artist Frank Bango’s The Truth Fox. It’s a beautiful and sometimes sobering set of songs that speak right to where I am at in life. My bandmate Jesse Doherty of Battle Ave turned me on to the band Alvvays. They sound like a lot of other lush hybrid electronic indie pop projects to me, but their command of harmony is arresting and beautiful. Everything about it is. I liked it so much that I immediately looked for things to dislike. Defensive listening is a thing sometimes.
I am always into solo piano music. Brad Mehldau’s album of Beatles songs is deliriously good. Even more to my liking is Dan Tepfer’s Inventions/Reinventions, in which he plays Bach’s famous inventions and fills out the sequence with his own deep, tonal improvisations. It’s an idea he first explored on The Goldberg Variations Variations a decade ago. Contemporary classical has been on my mind. The Icelandic composer Anna Porvaldsdottir and her geologic forms. The amazing Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who just passed away. Every week, I’ve been listening to Sustain, an orchestral piece by Andrew Norman recorded by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. I think it might be the most mysterious and transporting concert piece I’ve ever heard. Get yourself in a good frame of mind (wink, wink) and in a comfortable chair in your best listening space and give yourself to it for half an hour. It is incredible.
This article appears in July 2023.
