Lara Solnicki runs the whole gamut of vocals ranging from poetry to indie with a flexible rotating team of Peter Lutek/wwinds, Hugh Marsh/vi, Jonathan Goldsmith/key-el-b-g, Rob Piltch/g, Scott Peterson/b, Rich Brown/b and Davide Di Renzo. She mixes and matches the supporting casts, getting folksy and dramatic on the spacy “Bit He Sweet Christopher Street” with a quintet featuring Lutek’s alto sax, while getting almost operatic on the free flowing “Idee Fixe”. Eerie tones are iterated on “The Embrace” while fuzzy electronics surround Solnici’s recitation on “Furling Leaf, Retrocede”. A King Crimsonish edginess is produced by violinist Marsh on the dark “Pass A Glass” while an intimate “Hollow The Need” includes some funky soul from the hands of Goldsmith’s keyboards. Vocal abstracts.
Meredith d’Ambrosio teams up with pianist Randy Halberstadt to compose the bulk of the songs on this album, supported by bassist Daryl Johns, drummer Steve Johns and guest horn man Don Sickler. Both singer and pianist are relaxed and calm, with d’Ambrosio using her leathered and at times fragile tone to relaxed perfection on “When Springtime Turns to Fall” and the subdued “May I Come In”. She does a bit of vocalese as she runs up and down the theme of “Feast Your Eyes” and with Sickler’s flugelhorn is personal for “ Sometime Ago”. Personal portraits.