New music

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This article was published 02/06/2023 (1199 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

POP/ROCK

Arlo Parks

My Soft Machine (Transgressive Records)

When Arlo Parks cancelled U.S. shows last autumn, citing burnout and feeling “dangerously low,” many wondered whether the 22-year-old performer from London was another victim of “too much too soon” syndrome. After all, her debut album, 2021’s extraordinary Collapsed in Sunbeams, thrust her into the limelight just when a pandemic-weary world was all too ready to groove to her low-key vibes and sympathetic lyrics about love and loneliness and friendship. She won the Mercury Prize, a Brit Award as best new artist, and was nominated for a pair of Grammys.

Thankfully, Parks wasn’t caught up in any kind of a clichéd, hedonistic downward spiral. She was just fried from all the work and her understandable desire to experience everything all at once. Taking the off ramp proved a wise decision, as the rest enabled her to refocus and finish her second full-length record, My Soft Machine, which she began writing even before the release of … Sunbeams.

Fans of that album may initially balk at this one, as My Soft Machine is a different sonic experience. But they’ll ultimately come to realize it’s not a departure. Arlo is still a mood — but this time she and her producers create it with indie-pop guitars and synths as opposed to trip-hop and neo-soul beats and grooves. Her lyrics here are more slices of feeling than they are slices of life, but they’re just as sharply observational, using the specifics of moments to magnify their emotional weight.

This album’s 12 songs explore the personal and emotional journey of Parks’s past couple of years. Bruiseless, the minute-long introductory track, sets the tone, articulating the singer’s poetic longing for the innocence of childhood, before she bravely forges on, starting with a trio of tunes — Impurities, Devotion and Blades — that describe the excitement of heart-pounding, pulsating new love. Things take a turn with the reminiscences of Weightless and, especially, Purple Phase, about a friend (or lover?) in distress, but then Parks brings in Phoebe Bridgers to join her on Pegasus, a sweet indie-pop song about the giddy flights of the heart.

There’s more time for bittersweet reflection on the likes of Room (red wings) and I’m Sorry, but Parks ultimately turns to the light of love because, as she sings on Dog Rose, “You got me feeling hyperreal and I wanna belong to ya.” ★★★★ out of five

STREAM THESE: Impurities, Pegasus, Dog Rose

On YouTube: My Soft Machine playlist.

— John Kendle

JAZZ

Artemis

In Real Time (Blue Note)

Artemis was the Greek goddess of nature, childbirth, wildlife, the moon, the hunt, sudden death, animals, virginity, young women and archery. Sounds like someone not to mess with.

This is the second release by the band Artemis, composed of some of the strongest women in the current jazz world. The sextet exhibits great power without being scary, but is absolutely not to be taken lightly.

Artemis is Renee Rosnes on piano, Ingrid Jensen on trumpet, Alexa Tarantino on alto, soprano and flute, Nicole Glover on tenor, Noriko Ueda on bass and Allison Miller on drums.

While listed as music director, Rosnes includes soloists who take equal time and energy; through a range of tight and fascinating arrangements, the music is uniformly terrific.

The opening track, Slink, offers a polyrhythmic dance with wonderful solos and ensemble work. From uptempo, swinging tunes to quiet ones, the transitions are flawless. Drummer Miller is not widely known, but she is the undisputed driver of many tracks, and her solos are wild. Tarantino’s alto is also a constant highlight.

Rosnes’s ballad Balance of Time is a simply beautiful track. Jensen’s trumpet is perhaps better known in Canada than Glover’s tenor, but each player brings terrific sound to her solos. Timber is a polyrhythmic tune, starting with a trumpet growl that leads into a complex and adventurous dance. The soloists contribute in tandem or simultaneously; this track is one of many standouts.

The last track is a Wayne Shorter tune, Penelope, played with real feeling.

In Real Time checks all the boxes for contemporary jazz — restlessly inventive without losing sensitivity or melodic foundation. If Artemis is goddess of the hunt, this sextet has successfully nabbed its prey. ★★★★1/2 out of five

STREAM THESE: Slink, Timber

— Keith Black

CLASSICAL

Igor Stravinsky: Violin Concerto & Chamber Works

Isabelle Faust, violin

Les Siècles, Francois-Xavier Roth (Harmonia Mundi)

Acclaimed German violinist Isabelle Faust joins French orchestra Les Siècles in six Stravinsky works, each bursting with the 20th-century Russian composer’s idiosyncratic instrumental colours and pulsing, rhythmic energy.

Francois-Xavier Roth skillfully leads the musicians through the unusually scored four-movement Violin Concerto in D major (1931), which evokes the contrapuntal music of J. S. Bach, their period instruments infusing their performance with greater historical authenticity.

Faust brings crispness to her solo passages during the opening Toccata, often in dialogue with the ensemble, with the following Aria 1 further showcasing her technical prowess. The Aria 2 is filled with lyrical longing as well as pungent dissonances, capped by a playful Capriccio that sees the artist’s bow skipping through her full register.

A highlight is one of the shortest — and oldest — offerings, penned in 1914. The first movement of Three Pieces for String Quartet, inspired by Russian folk songs, conjures village peasants singing and dancing over the lower strings’ hypnotic bass line, while the highly textural second movement exploits a full arsenal of string techniques colourfully depicting a “wretched juggler hiding his sorrow while performing his feats for a crowd.” The finale is akin to an incantation, with all four musicians performing sul tasto, ending this wonderfully appealing work on an introspective, hushed note.

Also included is Apollon Musagète — Variation of Apollo, extracted from Stravinsky’s Greek-inspired ballet Apollo and the Muses, and the Concertino for String Quartet, its compact single movement further showcasing Faust’s artistry. The players bring dramatic intensity to the tightly wound Double Canon for String Quartet, while the Pastorale for Violin, Oboe, English Horn, Clarinet and Bassoon, penned in 1907 and dedicated to Rimsky-Korsakov’s daughter, unfolds as a song without words, Faust’s fiddle bringing to life its intertwining, lyrical lines. ★★★★ out of five

STREAM THIS: Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for String Quartet

— Holly Harris