Subdued and quirky music is prevalent on Karen Mantler’s latest release. She sings with a fragile wisp, and teamed up with the simpatico support of Doug Wielselmann/g-bcl and Kato Hideki/b she tells fragrant stories with prismatic sounds. She herself plays the piano throughout, along with occasional harmonica, and creates a light and lightly somnambulistic mood of between sleep and alertness with tunes such as “Catch as Catch Can” and “My Solo.” Her topics are sort of like a female reading of Tom Waits, producing characters and subject matter that usually falls through the cracks, such as “I Can’t Afford My Lawyer” and “My Magic Pencil (Wrote this Melody).” Oozing with creativity.
ECM Records