Washington D.C.-based cellist
Janel Leppin introduces her stylistically wide-ranging and experimental collective
Ensemble Volcanic Ash on their 2022 eponymous debut. An impressively hard-to-pin-down artist,
Leppin is a conservatory-trained performer whose music has often straddled the line between ambient pop, edgy, guitar-based indie rock, and avant-garde improvisation. With
Ensemble Volcanic Ash,
Leppin leans heavily into the latter, bringing together her ear for classical composition with spiraling, free jazz improvisation and cinematic soundscapes. Joining her in the group is her husband, guitarist/keyboardist
Anthony Pirog, with whom she first became known for their equally genre-crossing duo albums. Also featured are bassist
Luke Stewart, harpist
Kim Sator, drummer
Larry Ferguson, alto saxophonist
Sarah Hughes, and tenor saxophonist
Brian Settles. Together, they play a deeply textural and atmospheric brand of instrumental music that feels like it could be a soundtrack for an art film. The opening "Children of Water" has a mournful quality, like a film noir theme for a movie set in the Middle Ages. Equally compelling, "Woven Forest" has a roiling, minor-key cello groove over which the group trade twisting, harmonically adventurous solos. Yet more languid, "I Pose" is a shimmering tone poem in which
Leppin's darkly attenuated cello is offset by fairy-wing flute and harp accents before crashing together against waves of saxophone and electric guitar. The rest of the album follows suit, much of which sounds like a fever-dream collaboration between chamber string ensemble
Bang on a Can, saxophonist
Roscoe Mitchell, and noise-rock outfit
Sonic Youth. ~ Matt Collar
