About a dozen years ago, I found myself in a cabin in Peterborough, New Hampshire, playing show tunes on a battered Steinway whose lid grew increasingly cluttered with empty glasses and beer cans as the evening progressed. Here were half a dozen writers, painters, choreographers, and composers, all letting loose after a day’s work at an artist retreat called MacDowell. On the piano bench beside me sat a young woman named Amelia, who sang in a sweet voice that belied the edge and wisdom beneath it. Before departing the next day (she’d been visiting a writer friend), she gave me a CD of her folk band, Mountain Man. We said we’d keep in touch, but didn’t.
Some time later, while cooking dinner back in Brooklyn, I heard a familiar voice on the radio. It belonged, I soon realized, to that same young woman who’d sung Cole Porter with such verve all those years ago, her voice now surrounded by swirling synthesizers and punchy electronic drums. The album was Sylvan Esso, the self-titled debut from the pop duo (comprising Amelia Meath and Nicholas Sanborn), which would become a sensation in the years that followed.
Eventually, Amelia and I reconnected over the internet, and then, through mutual friends, in person, at a festival in Knoxville in 2019. During the pandemic, we had a number of lengthy phone conversations which further deepened our friendship. When I was working on my album, Magnificent Bird, I asked if she would appear as a guest vocalist. She agreed, and, rather than accepting payment, requested that I write a string chart for one of her side projects, which in turn led to an invitation to make string arrangements for a live Sylvan Esso EP, to be recorded at Electric Lady Studios in Manhattan.
In January of this year, we gathered in the West Village to record six songs in a single day. In addition to Amy, Dominic, Nate, and Andrew (the four members of Attacca Quartet, who’d agreed to play), Nick and Amelia had put together an all-star live band to interpret songs from their most recent LP. The session turned out to be one of the most gratifying and joyful experiences I’ve ever had in a studio, if only for the simple fact that everyone was playing together in a room. Performances would be raw, unedited, and unadorned (no overdubs!).
There was an era when this method was the rule rather than the exception. But these days, sadly, much of what goes on in the pop recording industry happens piecemeal: you lay down drums, then bass, then guitar, then book an overdub session for strings or horns, and finally, you record the vocals. Of course there are times when a full band tracks together, but even then, there are almost always overdubs and edits.
When each element is captured on its own, it’s difficult not to lose sight of the forest for the trees. Too often, in such circumstances, we obsess over technical perfection to the detriment of the energy and spirit of the music. More to the point: when we record bit by bit, we may well lose sight of the fact that music-making is a social practice. Some might even go so far as to say that music is a means to an end, the end being the awakening and activation of community. Candidly, I think that my most recent album— recorded, by necessity, one musician at a time across a dozen cities and three countries — suffers from an absence of human connection. (I have plans to address that; stay tuned.)
By contrast, when you record with a group of musicians at once, the priorities are inverted. Yes, you’re still hoping that everyone plays the right notes at the right time, but those goals become secondary to a more salient set of questions: how did it feel? Did the music serve to connect the players emotionally and spiritually? Was a moment in time, worthy of documentation and preservation, captured? I’ll leave it for you to decide, with this, an arrangement I made of the song “Will the Night,” by the band Low, sung by Amelia as a tribute to Mimi Parker—Low’s drummer—who died last year. May her memory be a blessing.
(Stream the entire EP, which was released yesterday, here.)
Next week, I’ll be doing two shows in Milwaukee (5/31 & 6/1) with string quartet, presented by Present Music. Tickets are available here.
It made me cry too. Lovely.
Brought us both to tears. Thank you darling man