Sample the Sky

Sample the Sky is the debut long-player by musical polyglot Laura Misch. A composer, saxophonist, vocalist, producer, and creative director, shes amassed a considerable body of work since releasing the Shaped by Who We Knew EP in 2016, examining genres from left-field pop and ambient textures to skittering EDM, contemporary jazz, and lithe, 21st century funk. Most of her work was solitary until recently; she worked at home assembling all her sounds on a laptop. During the pandemic, she let filmmaker Greg Barnes follow her with a portable performing rig (preamps, looper, and effects pedals) around the English countryside accompanied by the sounds of nature. In 2021 she collaborated with the amazing drone choir NYX on Songs of Epping Forest: Dreamscapes for Voice, Saxophone and Trees to accompany an immersive outdoor installation by Matthew Rosier, conjuring the ancient trees of Epping Forest in the heart of London. Mischs engagement with the natural world continues on Sample the Sky. Her collaborators include concert harpist Marysia Osu and guitarist/electronicist Tomaš Kašpar, with synthesist William Arcane as her producing and composing partner. In the press materials, Misch stridently points out that each sound here was generated from scratch. Her tracks are crafted with myriad interconnecting melodies, electronic beats, and sonic adornments as vocals alternately instruct and are guided by the carefully conceived musical tapestry. Set opener "Hide to Seek" emerges from ether as string sounds from harp, guitar, and synth meet Mischs alto saxophone, and a cut-time rhythm track bubbles up, framing an enchanted song about desire, wanting the other to draw out those parts of ourselves weve hidden away. She also uses the forest undergrowth as an apt metaphor for the human unconscious. "Portals" is slower; its central characters are Mischs warm, multi-tracked contralto and a circular, arpeggiated synthesizer that mimics human patterns of breath as guitars and percussion frame the singer, who seems to open herself to immersion and transformation inside the downy mix. "Light Years" weds grand piano, a trip-hop shuffle, finger-snaps, theremin, and subtly layered saxophones in a nocturnal-sounding vocal articulation. "Listen to the Sky" has a slow, abstract intro. A minute in, it becomes an elegant, danceable left-field pop song. The glorious "Widening Circles" is a startlingly romantic yet impressionistic ballad populated primarily by concert harp and Mischs laconic elocution. The rhythmic invention in "City Lungs" weds Latin and Brazilian rhythmic traits to jazzy neo-soul. The instrumental "Sax Rise" joins warm, undulating synth waves to multi-tracked saxophone patterns before field recordings of insects, wind, and birds claim the exit. "Wild Swim" is a hooky weave of lullaby and jazz balladry. Mischs vocal phrasing hovers, creating an elastic sense of space and time. The song unfolds according to internal direction rather than dynamic flow. Sample the Sky is different than everything else out there. Misch and her collaborators offer an impressionistic aural tapestry that reflects nature, the human psyche, spirituality, desire, and awe in a sparkling collection that inspires with wonder and delight. ~ Thom Jurek

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