Janel Lappin – PLUTO IN AQUARIUS

Description

Cellist-Composer Janel Leppin presents two stunning new projects that reflect her expansive vision – fuzztone and melody collide on the solo release Slowly Melting, while Pluto in Aquarius, by her long-running avant-jazz unit Ensemble Volcanic Ash, speaks to this precarious political moment. Over the past two decades, the cellist and multi-instrumentalist Janel Leppin has worked steadily to become one of the most compelling composers and improvisers of her generation. With her beloved Washington, D.C. scene as her home base, she has earned renown among fans of new and experimental music worldwide. Now at the peak of her powers as both a bandleader and a solo performer, she’s released two new projects of staggering beauty as well as vast personal and political insight. Slowly Melting is a riveting solo program that puts Leppin’s fuzz-saturated cello at the fore. These two albums also represent a triumph over adversity for Leppin, namely the physical hurdles she’s battled since college, when she severely injured her upper body and had to refrain from playing her instrument for more than a year. In the decades that followed, both setbacks and progress ensued, in addition to plenty of physical therapy. Along the way, she learned to fulfill her musical passions by discovering new traditions, learning additional instruments that wouldn’t cause her pain, and delving into composition and arranging.
Gorgeous melodies, and equally gorgeous improvisations spun out from those melodies, define Slowly Melting. But alongside those lyrical themes, the project’s major breakthrough is sonic and textural. Or, as Leppin puts it, “This is my love letter to fuzz.” That’s fuzz as in fuzzbox.