In nur neun Tagen, so erfährt man im Begleittext, entwickelten Lattimore und Barwick sieben Stücke, die eine gemeinsame Freude am Improvisieren mit einer sicheren Intuition verbinden. Lattimore spielte Harfen aus drei Jahrhunderten, während Barwick mit analogen Synthies wie dem Roland Jupiter und dem Prophet-5 arbeitete. Ihr Zusammenspiel aus Harfe, Stimme und Elektronik wirkt gleichzeitig intim und weit – getragen von einem Gefühl ruhiger Melancholie und stiller Zuversicht. “Tragic Magic” ist konzipiert als Meditation über Verlust, Freundschaft und die beständige Gegenwart der Schönheit. Das Album erscheint in den gängigen Formaten bei InFiné Éditions.

“Defined by its abundance of melodies, repeating figures and ecstatic improvisations, Soft Power exudes an enlightened and transformative spirit to empower the listener. Feinberg, a practising psychoanalyst and former founding member of the San Francisco psychedelic collective Citay (Dead Oceans / Important Records) resides in the artistic enclave of upstate New York’s Hudson River valley. Initial recordings emerged in the late summer of 2020, before added synthesis with collaborator John Thayer (Arp, Sunwatchers) during early 2021. Soft Power follows previous albums Recumbent Speech (2020) and Pentimento and Others (2018). [...] Feinberg artfully transcends the listener to an enriched place, his compositions distinguished by the deep humanity that lies at their core, plugging the listener into a state of wide eyed being, open and alive. Soft Power then is Ezra’s own mantra but also one of power giving – a colourful catharsis translated into music. Feinberg’s music always speaks to the listener, but Soft Power, in whispering, speaks loudest”. (James Toth)

“Much like everyday life, I wanted to convey these very plain, simple, tranquil, nearly quotidian aspects, but each piece contains this arc in which that form expands, is broken out of, so what starts out like a painting of flowers in a seaside motel turns into a riot of color and sound, or you feel slipped into a dream that feels like it could go on forever” (Ezra Feinberg)

Porträt © Brandon Schulman

Zu den Ideen hinter den Songs betont die Musikerin: “When I think of these songs, I think about fading flowers in vases, melted candles, getting older, being on tour and having things change while you’re away, not realizing how ephemeral experiences are until they don’t happen anymore, fear for a planet we’re losing because of greed, an ode to art and music that’s really shaped your life that can transport you back in time, longing to maintain sensitivity and to not sink into hollow despondency”. Immer wieder jedoch geht die Musik mit ihren Referenzen an den spezifischen Schauplatz zurück: “There’s a big old hotel there called the Hotel Arkada, and you could tell it had been hosting holiday-goers for decades in a great way”, so Lattymore. “I walked around the lobby and the empty ballrooms and it looked like a well-worn, well-loved place. My friend Stacey who lives there told me to ‘say goodbye to Hotel Arkada, it might not be here when you get back’ and I heard soon after that it was actually going to be renovated in a very crisp, modern way”. All die verschiedenen Eindrücke sollen in der Musik für eine Sekunde bewahrt und gehalten werden. Das Album erscheint in zwei Vinyl-Editionen, als CD und zum Download mit Artwork von Michael Cina bei Ghostly International.

@ Ghostly International