Hour - Ease The Work - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Subminiature, the new live album by Philadelphia instrumental chamber folk ensemble Hour, comes fresh off the heels of 2024's 'Ease the Work' and provides a capstone for the band's oeuvre to date, brandishing new material alongside longstanding arrangements of pieces from 2018's 'Anemone Red' and 'Tiny Houses', the inaugural releases of Dear Life Records.Across this collection of recordings harvested over two years of extensive DIY touring, bandleader/composer Michael Cormier-O'Leary demonstrates a deep understanding of the character of his shifting ensemble and it's players. Subminiature also serves as a hard worn tour diary, cataloguing concerts that were affectionally curated to highlight the strength of the music; at once adventurous and melodic and insistent upon spaces that encourage deeper connection. These tours saw the group performing in movie theaters, on islands, in machine shops and parking garages, crowded bars and living rooms, churches and theaters. Invariably, the music expands and contracts to match the space the ensemble is performing in. Recorded on a range of recording devices, this impressive live album highlights the focus and dynamism of a hardworking, fluid ensemble.

A beautiful new album of traditional folk from Meg Baird of ESPERS. Ten tracks of both traditional and original folk (plus a few choice covers), beautifully performed with Meg playing guitar, dulcimer and singing. Beautiful.

For their first album in the Cypres Open collection, the duo formed by Julien de Borman and Sébastien Willemyns unveils their sound universe full of dreamy and softly electronic sounds. Flygmaskin, literally flying machine. One can read in it the breath of the wind, the journey that ignores what the visible hides. One can hear the sensitive call of wandering. The machine is the sound, precise and fluid. The fuel? This singular mixture of keyboards, the essential dialogues between the accordionist, the keyboardist and the silence. A subtle invitation to breathe, to take time to get away.