which pays homage to jazz tradition and weaves tales of the human experience in and around tasteful accompaniments, like the dusty old speakeasies of the past. POETICA is a project which simultaneously looks back and forwards, drawing on the past to speak about the present and future.
POETICA is out 22nd October 2021.
YOU CAN LISTEN TO SELECTED POETICA TRACKS HERE
With its roots planted firmly in experimental and boundary-pushing genres, MPress’ newest project, Poetica, consistently calls to mind artists such as Laurie Anderson, Leonard Cohen and Patti Smith. It began as a long time lockdown project between alt-folk-pop act Rachael Sage and cellist Dave Eggar, but quickly progressed far beyond something made just to pass the time. The cinematic spoken word album is full of beautiful and heartfelt words which are delivered with effortless intimacy. Neobeat, neoclassical, spoken word, jazz – all these genres collide together to give Poetica a stately sort of weight as a product of creative minds working together to overcome physical barriers and distance.
“Writing song lyrics is very different for me than writing poems,” says Rachael Sage. “Poems come from a much more subconscious, mysterious place that I would almost describe as a kind of soul-searching. It’s a very spiritual process for me and I usually learn something after the fact, once each poem is written. I’ve been really enjoying the absence of any kind of song structure while creating these arrangements, and I also greatly credit Dave Eggar for supporting this vision, and my writing, unequivocally.”
Produced and engineered by Sage herself, “Poetica” aims to create connection and shared experience via the unifying power of words. Adventurous yet familiar in its intimacy, Sage’s voice is perfectly at home in the absence of typical song structure, while her musical arrangements fuse elements of jazz, classical and Appalachian folk with surprising agility.
In addition to three-time Grammy® nominee Dave Eggar, contributors to Poetica include renowned klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer, Spooky Ghost guitarist (and longtime David Bowie bandmate) Gerry Leonard, jazz trumpet player Russ Johnson, drummer Quinn (Janelle Monáe) and UK-based blues harmonica player Will Wilde. Frequent musical partners Kelly Halloran (Michael Franti), Doug Yowell (Suzanne Vega), Jack Petruzzelli (Rufus Wainwright), and James Mastro (Patti Smith) contributed violin, drums, and electric guitar, respectively.
For this new endeavour, Rachael Sage has chosen to partner with young person’s creative agency BEATFREEKS, a company whose work has roots in creativity and spoken word in particular. Beatfreeks’ General Manager, Amerah Saleh, says, “We are delighted to be partnering with Rachael and supporting her beautiful new album, Poetica. Our story here at Beatfreeks began with storytelling, when our founder Anisa created ‘Poetry Jam’ back in 2013 – an open-mic event to give young people in Birmingham, UK a space to have their voices heard, to express and to be free in the space. Since then, thousands of young people nationwide have walked through our doors with something to say, and Poetry Jam is still just as popular to this day. It’s such an important place for young people to be able to express themselves, and I have no doubt seeing Rachael reach such incredible heights with her work will inspire the many talented young people we have in our network to feel empowered to share their story.”
Rachael Sage adds, “I am delighted to have been asked to be an ambassador for BeatFreeks, who are doing exceptional work enabling diverse youth to have their voices heard in creative as well as corporate spaces. The origins of Beatfreeks and focus on spoken word and poetry as a way to bring young community together is so moving to me because it also reminds me of my early days in NYC’s East Village, where I would regularly attend open mics, debut new songs and poems in a shaky voice that gradually became more confident, nurtured by the mutual support among my peers. An environment of collective respect and reverence for individual perspectives that can strengthen the collective creative scene is such a powerful, vital space, and I look forward to lending my voice and experience as an artist to the Beatfreeks mission of inclusivity, mindfulness and positivity around issues that truly matter.”
Compelling, elegant and refreshingly unique, POETICA is released on the 22nd October 2021.
WEBSITE INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK
TWITTER SOUNDCLOUD
