Multitudes by Nadje Noordhuis + James Shipp
“We’re thinking of an ensemble, but it’s an ensemble made of us.” That’s how James Shipp describes the conception behind Multitudes, the latest collaboration by the duo of Shipp and longtime musical partner Nadje Noordhuis. The album contains a many-layered mix of acoustic instruments and programmed synthesizers. Imagine Depeche Mode recording for ECM.
Noordhuis and Shipp split the writing duties, making use of several workshopping sessions at which they’d rehearse with pre-made tracks in the digital audio workstation Pro Tools. Those tracks came from music written by both Noordhuis and Shipp. The two would play along with the tracks, figure out what worked and what didn’t, then Shipp would edit or in some cases completely redesign the tracks. In February 2022 they went to Bunker Studio in Brooklyn and recorded the acoustic instruments. That led to more editing of the synth tracks from Shipp, and a final studio recording session later in the year.
“It was like we were sending a letter back and forth to ourselves through time,” said Shipp. “And we kept seeing this evolution of the music through me recording at home and then us reconvening in the studio a second time over the summer. It was many layers of us, and us revising the way we were accompanying ourselves.”
This is an expansive album that sounds like the work of many rather than two. It’s unlike anything you’ll hear this year, and it rewards repeated listening. But more than that, it’s the clear result of two composers and performers who understand one another at a molecular level, and who are willing to create music using their entire hearts.
Or, as Shipp put it beautifully, “It’s like a galaxy of stars of Nadje and me.”
Tracklist
| 1. | Snow Line | 3:49 |
| 2. | These Days | 3:53 |
| 3. | Multitudes | 4:04 |
| 4. | Lumino | 3:13 |
| 5. | Candlestick Carol | 4:46 |
| 6. | Encantamento | 3:04 |
| 7. | Run Together | 2:54 |
| 8. | Flanked | 4:16 |
| 9. | Rainbow | 3:08 |
| 10. | To Say Goodbye | 3:35 |
Credits
Nadje Noordhuis - trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals, piano, mellotron, recorder
James Shipp - vibraphone, marimba, synthesizers, percussion, piano, mellotron
1. Snow Line (Shipp)
2. These Days (Noordhuis)
3. Multitudes (Shipp)
4. Lumino (Noordhuis)
5. Candlestick Carol (Shipp)
6. Encantamento (Noordhuis and Shipp)
7. Run Together (Noordhuis)*
8. Flanked (Shipp)
9. Rainbow (Noordhuis)
10. To Say Goodbye (Noordhuis)
Recorded at Bunker Studio in Brooklyn
Recorded and mixed by Aaron Nevezie
Produced by Nadje Noordhuis and James Shipp
Mastered by David Kowalski
* Commissioned for Anne Pirie by Liz Firth
License
All rights reserved.Tags
Combining cinematic sweep, transportive emotion, and rich melodic grandeur, Australian-born trumpeter/composer Nadje Noordhuis possesses one of the most unforgettably lyrical voices in modern music. Her deeply-felt, clarion tone and evocative compositional gift meld classical rigor, jazz expression, and world music accents into a sound that is distinctively her own.