Revolutionary Etudes by Curt Sydnor

For his third album release, Sydnor joins forces with Miramar vocalist Laura Ann Singh, bassist Adam Hopkins and drummer Scott Clark to bring forth a collection of songs mysterious and mournful, calling upon a congregation of spirits that includes Walt Whitman, Ornette Coleman, Chopin, Borodin, and Stereolab. In a break with Sydnor’s past recorded efforts, Revolutionary Etudes is a mostly acoustic exploration highlighting the musical sympathies between Singh, Clark, and Hopkins, whom Sydnor heard perform in late 2019 and engaged for a recording date just before the virus made in-person recording impossible. Prior to the recording date, several of these arrangements came quietly to life in sparsely-attended evening services at a small Virginia church where Sydnor has served as music director since leaving New York City in 2017. The result blends the ambience of sacred music, where market forces have no sway, with the freedom and spontaneity of the jazz club— that American sacred space whose loss to airborne pathogens we are only beginning to mourn. The album’s title is a nod to Chopin’s famous op. 10 no. 12, whose harmonies form the basis for the album’s second track.

either side of divided mind

curtsydnor.com