Gift Songs
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma refines his cloudy, romantic signature sound on 'Gift Songs', following 2019's sublime 'Tracing Back The Radiance' with a warm, spiritually-locked set of environmental meditations.
The chase here is side-long epic 'The Milky Sea', where Cantu-Ledesma's vision of harmony with the natural world really ossifies. Set to watery field recordings, the track glistens with morning dew, sounding like an elongated, granulated reaction to Talk Talk's hallowed 'Laughing Stock' ambience. Cantu-Ledesma imagined 'Gift Songs' as a celebration of collaboration, and sounds as if he's working with a full band here, with Booker Stardrum's muffled, jazzy rhythms cutting through the fogged synths, Omer Shemesh's tidal piano runs and Joseph Weiss's restrained bass accents. And the track takes a spiritual turn in its final act; following 15 minutes of loping (but not looping) ambience, the atmosphere cracks to incorporate Clarice Jensen's harmonium-like cello drones.
The album was loosely informed by Cantu-Ledesma's work as a Zen priest and a hospice worker, and all this starts to make more sense when we reach the second side's triptych of "gift songs", musical nods to Shaker drawings that are seen as gifts from God. Cantu-Ledesma is more subtle with his invocation of nature here, playing organ alongside Shemesh's piano, but capturing the space's subtle incidental sounds to make the pieces feel lived-in. And on the lengthy finale 'River That Flows Two Ways', he uses a Hammond B3 and pump organs to power a blurry, euphoric tonal experiment that'll have the Stockholm set in a lather. Gorgeous stuff.
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Jefre Cantu-Ledesma refines his cloudy, romantic signature sound on 'Gift Songs', following 2019's sublime 'Tracing Back The Radiance' with a warm, spiritually-locked set of environmental meditations.
The chase here is side-long epic 'The Milky Sea', where Cantu-Ledesma's vision of harmony with the natural world really ossifies. Set to watery field recordings, the track glistens with morning dew, sounding like an elongated, granulated reaction to Talk Talk's hallowed 'Laughing Stock' ambience. Cantu-Ledesma imagined 'Gift Songs' as a celebration of collaboration, and sounds as if he's working with a full band here, with Booker Stardrum's muffled, jazzy rhythms cutting through the fogged synths, Omer Shemesh's tidal piano runs and Joseph Weiss's restrained bass accents. And the track takes a spiritual turn in its final act; following 15 minutes of loping (but not looping) ambience, the atmosphere cracks to incorporate Clarice Jensen's harmonium-like cello drones.
The album was loosely informed by Cantu-Ledesma's work as a Zen priest and a hospice worker, and all this starts to make more sense when we reach the second side's triptych of "gift songs", musical nods to Shaker drawings that are seen as gifts from God. Cantu-Ledesma is more subtle with his invocation of nature here, playing organ alongside Shemesh's piano, but capturing the space's subtle incidental sounds to make the pieces feel lived-in. And on the lengthy finale 'River That Flows Two Ways', he uses a Hammond B3 and pump organs to power a blurry, euphoric tonal experiment that'll have the Stockholm set in a lather. Gorgeous stuff.
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma refines his cloudy, romantic signature sound on 'Gift Songs', following 2019's sublime 'Tracing Back The Radiance' with a warm, spiritually-locked set of environmental meditations.
The chase here is side-long epic 'The Milky Sea', where Cantu-Ledesma's vision of harmony with the natural world really ossifies. Set to watery field recordings, the track glistens with morning dew, sounding like an elongated, granulated reaction to Talk Talk's hallowed 'Laughing Stock' ambience. Cantu-Ledesma imagined 'Gift Songs' as a celebration of collaboration, and sounds as if he's working with a full band here, with Booker Stardrum's muffled, jazzy rhythms cutting through the fogged synths, Omer Shemesh's tidal piano runs and Joseph Weiss's restrained bass accents. And the track takes a spiritual turn in its final act; following 15 minutes of loping (but not looping) ambience, the atmosphere cracks to incorporate Clarice Jensen's harmonium-like cello drones.
The album was loosely informed by Cantu-Ledesma's work as a Zen priest and a hospice worker, and all this starts to make more sense when we reach the second side's triptych of "gift songs", musical nods to Shaker drawings that are seen as gifts from God. Cantu-Ledesma is more subtle with his invocation of nature here, playing organ alongside Shemesh's piano, but capturing the space's subtle incidental sounds to make the pieces feel lived-in. And on the lengthy finale 'River That Flows Two Ways', he uses a Hammond B3 and pump organs to power a blurry, euphoric tonal experiment that'll have the Stockholm set in a lather. Gorgeous stuff.
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma refines his cloudy, romantic signature sound on 'Gift Songs', following 2019's sublime 'Tracing Back The Radiance' with a warm, spiritually-locked set of environmental meditations.
The chase here is side-long epic 'The Milky Sea', where Cantu-Ledesma's vision of harmony with the natural world really ossifies. Set to watery field recordings, the track glistens with morning dew, sounding like an elongated, granulated reaction to Talk Talk's hallowed 'Laughing Stock' ambience. Cantu-Ledesma imagined 'Gift Songs' as a celebration of collaboration, and sounds as if he's working with a full band here, with Booker Stardrum's muffled, jazzy rhythms cutting through the fogged synths, Omer Shemesh's tidal piano runs and Joseph Weiss's restrained bass accents. And the track takes a spiritual turn in its final act; following 15 minutes of loping (but not looping) ambience, the atmosphere cracks to incorporate Clarice Jensen's harmonium-like cello drones.
The album was loosely informed by Cantu-Ledesma's work as a Zen priest and a hospice worker, and all this starts to make more sense when we reach the second side's triptych of "gift songs", musical nods to Shaker drawings that are seen as gifts from God. Cantu-Ledesma is more subtle with his invocation of nature here, playing organ alongside Shemesh's piano, but capturing the space's subtle incidental sounds to make the pieces feel lived-in. And on the lengthy finale 'River That Flows Two Ways', he uses a Hammond B3 and pump organs to power a blurry, euphoric tonal experiment that'll have the Stockholm set in a lather. Gorgeous stuff.
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Jefre Cantu-Ledesma refines his cloudy, romantic signature sound on 'Gift Songs', following 2019's sublime 'Tracing Back The Radiance' with a warm, spiritually-locked set of environmental meditations.
The chase here is side-long epic 'The Milky Sea', where Cantu-Ledesma's vision of harmony with the natural world really ossifies. Set to watery field recordings, the track glistens with morning dew, sounding like an elongated, granulated reaction to Talk Talk's hallowed 'Laughing Stock' ambience. Cantu-Ledesma imagined 'Gift Songs' as a celebration of collaboration, and sounds as if he's working with a full band here, with Booker Stardrum's muffled, jazzy rhythms cutting through the fogged synths, Omer Shemesh's tidal piano runs and Joseph Weiss's restrained bass accents. And the track takes a spiritual turn in its final act; following 15 minutes of loping (but not looping) ambience, the atmosphere cracks to incorporate Clarice Jensen's harmonium-like cello drones.
The album was loosely informed by Cantu-Ledesma's work as a Zen priest and a hospice worker, and all this starts to make more sense when we reach the second side's triptych of "gift songs", musical nods to Shaker drawings that are seen as gifts from God. Cantu-Ledesma is more subtle with his invocation of nature here, playing organ alongside Shemesh's piano, but capturing the space's subtle incidental sounds to make the pieces feel lived-in. And on the lengthy finale 'River That Flows Two Ways', he uses a Hammond B3 and pump organs to power a blurry, euphoric tonal experiment that'll have the Stockholm set in a lather. Gorgeous stuff.