Aaron Diehl - The Bespoke Man's Narrative - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Aethermead, the newest offering and 20th full-length album from Of Montreal, finds the band revisiting sounds from their early years, while still pushing artistic boundaries with their iconic style of pop & indie rock. Celebrated for their unique and prolific output, frontperson and primary songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Kevin Barnes recorded the album at Brooklyn's Honey Jar studios with audio engineer, Drew Vandenberg (Faye Webster, Toro y Moi), with basic tracking done live to a 16-track tape machine with Barnes' longtime live band. InchI wanted to capture a quick moment together and to make on-the-fly, spontaneous creative decisions,Inch says Barnes. InchIt felt very liberating and exhilarating to have to start and finish an album in a month's time.Inch The result shimmers with indie pop elements of their 2004 , Satanic Panic in the Attic, as well as the raw, live energy of 2013's Lousy With Sylvianbriar. Inspired partly from a recent move to Brooklyn, NY and a yearning for community, the album marks a shift in Barnes' daily routines, with the album's title referencing a section of Prospect Park called the Nethermead, where Barnes walks their dog every day. InchI started a meditation practice soon after moving to help me self-regulate,Inch says Barnes. InchI began to imagine I was sending all my destructive and useless thoughts/energies into the ether.Inch Barnes' beautiful and melodic chord progressions are on full display with tracks like InchAlready Dreaming,Inch as well as the straight-up rock & roll banger InchTake The Form.Inch Other highlights include the loungey InchMy Zhe Zhe,Inch as well as the bluntly sexual lead single, InchWhen.Inch From the breakthrough brilliance of 2007's Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? to a steady run of boundary-pushing releases, Of Montreal have remained fearless sonic shapeshifters-equally at home crafting hook-laden

Widely lauded for his 2012 Mack Avenue debut, The Bespoke Man's Narrative, 29-year-old pianist-composer Aaron Diehl follows solidly with the 2015 Space, Time, Continuum. On The Bespoke Man's Narrative, Diehl presented original music drawing on antecedent bandleader-composers like John Lewis and Duke Ellington for strategies that facilitated individualistic performances from his unit of A-list peers. On Space, Time, Continuum, Diehl assembles a pan-generational ensemble of masters. Joining his core trio of bassist David Wong and drummer Quincy Davis in different configurations are the iconic tenor saxophonist-composer Benny Golson and the magisterial baritone saxophonist Joe Temperley, both 85 years young; the 39-year-old underground tenor saxophone giant Stephen Riley, and the rising star trumpeter Bruce Harris.

2023 . Critically acclaimed pianist/composer Aaron Diehl's penchant for the past influencing the future has come full circle with his fully realized suite of Mary Lou Williams' Zodiac Suite - the first fully-fledged professional recording of this incredible music. Solely paying tribute to Mary Lou Williams was not the goal; as Diehl's mission is to give honor and praise to one of the greatest composers of the 20th century and the forgotten rich history of Black Classical Music.