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
,
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
'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