Janel and Anthony

New Moon in the Evil Age

Cunieform

There’s a lot to unpack here as we describe three albums. The first two, Janel and Anthony – New Moon in the Evil Age, is cellist Janel Leppin and guitarist Anthony Pirog (Messthetics) delivering an instrumental and a vocal album. The third is Leppin’s Ensemble Volcanic Ash, a sextet that includes Pirog, as well as several notable musicians we have covered on these pages. All these musicians are vital in D.C. music scene. Leppin is a renowned cellist, steeped in classical, world, and jazz music, who has recorded a solo cello album and been a collaborator with folk singer Marissa Nadler and rock-oriented Rose Windows and PRIESTS. In addition to Pirog’s work with the Messthetics, he is a jazz and avant-garde improviser, carrying on the legacy of D.C. guitar icon Danny Gatton. The two are partners in life and in music.

Let’s take New Moon in the Evil Age first. At first blush, just a cello and guitar may not seem all that interesting but other instruments such as piano, koto, and Mellotron are employed as well as some advanced production techniques. Also, Dev Hoff plays bass on several tracks. Opening “New Moon’ is an ambient, atmospheric track that may surprise those used to Pirog’s punk and rock tinges in the Messthetics. The cello breathes classical, but when fused with Pirog’s guitar the harmonics become totally engaging, and oft head spinning. Yes, headphones are a really good idea! On “Boom Boom” the two combine with Pirog on acoustic guitar and Leppin doing triple duty on cello, koto, and Mellotron as the explore the sounds and scales of the Japanese koto. “Fog Curls Around Cypress” runs with demonstrative piano chords around which the two weave guitar and cello in a grand tapestry of sound. “Slight Sense” blends acoustic guitar with alternately mournful and gleeful ascending cello lines, together forming haunting and dramatic sonics, ideal for mystery film soundtrack. Pirog goes John Fahey like on his guitar while Leppin delivers the floating melody on cello in “Pacific Grove Monarch.” Throughout producer and engineer Mike Reina paints beautiful sound design with the final track, “Crystal Wish” serving almost as a bookend to the opener in terms of harmonics.

The second disc charts a totally different course as the two become multi-instrumentalists, employing synths and rendering the sounds of popular bands. Opener, synth heavy “Surf the Dead” has a driving beat and sonics emulative of Broadcast, Sonic Youth and Yeah Yeah Yeahs punctuated by Leppin’s mystical vocals. The eerie “Evil Age’ with its commanding chorus is straight out of the Trump/pandemic era while standout “Flyover Iceland” evokes strains of Portishead as Leppin’s expansive vocals express yearning while Pirog’s sustained, soaring guitar lines convey the feeling of flight underpinned by Dev Hoff’s electric bass. “Hearts Hearth” has Leppin slowing down a home recorded on a reel to reel such that careful listening reveals the tape fluttering, just one more element of experimentalism. Closer “Dripping Prisms” is the kind of piece one envisions hearing in heaven or another otherworldly environ.

Here are the complete credits for the two albums that comprise New Moon in the Evil Age:  Janel Leppin – cello, modified cello, vocals, synthesizers, piano, koto, hammered dulcimer, bass Anthony Pirog – electric and acoustic guitar, guitar synth, synthesizers, bass, percussion Devin Hoff – electric and acoustic bass, Dr. Ali Analouei – daf, tonbak

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Janel Leppin’s Ensemble Volcanic Ash

To March is to Love

The lineup for this ensemble, EVA, has Leppin on cello and piano with Pirog on guitar alongside saxophonists Sarah Hughes and Brian Settles, with Larry Ferguson on drums and Luke Stewart on bass. You may recall both Settles and Stewart as vital members of the latter’s Silt Trio, which we covered on these pages. Stewart is also the bassist for David Murray’s new quartet.  These Leppin compositions were workshopped in front of packed houses during a 2023 residency at the D.C. venue Rhizome. (which is also the name of a track on Disc One of New Moon in the Evil Age). The album was recorded live at Reina’s studio in Richmond, VA and is, as you may have guessed, wondrously intense, unlike the more ambient sounds of the other project. Leppin pays her respects to her two major influences on cello, citing the late Abdul Wadud, a pioneer of the avant-garde approach to the instrument in “Ode to Abdul Wadud” in the opener and progressive Pablo Casals in “Casals’ Rainbow” in the closer, which rather cleverly is primarily a piano piece, with Leppin’s left hand and sustain pedal emitting cello-like sounds.

The album that serves as a loose blueprint is Julius Hemphill’s 1972 Dogon A.D. from which the track “As Wide as All Outdoor,” a quote from Hemphill (“Jazz is as wide as all outdoors) inspired Leppin to render a boisterous introduction and a most explorative, emphatic cello solo. “Union Art” plays to a funky, stomping beat, a trademark of bassist Stewart as the two saxes blend thickly and sumptuously with Leppin and Pirog in melodic refrains with searching solos from the guitarist, high end cello flourishes, over a tornado-like groove from the rhythm section. Listen to this one and you’ll surely agree that “Volcanic Ash” is a great name for the group. Even the descending, fading ending is apropos for ash. “Oh Johnny Dear’ is an off kilter call and response sequence first from cello to the saxophonists, then from the guitar to the reeds paving the way for aggressive saxophone solos and kinetic kit work from Ferguson.

As the album title implies, the theme is D.C. political, inspired by Wadud and Casals, the latter of which Leppin deems especially political.  Hence, the centerpiece of this album, “To March Is to Love. Parts 1 and 2.” “Part 1” is rather solemn while the lengthier “Part Two” builds slowly to a march-like cadence developed by Ferguson and Stewart over which the ensemble states the emphatic theme with each lead voice stepping forward with defiant, expressive statements, often clashing with each other rather than blending in barely controlled chaos, brought to a rousing finale. Leppin says, “This is the moment where people are going to have to step up.”

Get lost in this music. You’ll appreciate the wide-ranging talents of Janel Leppin and Anthony Pirog, who prove they can go in many directions at once. All three of these albums, though different, are ‘ear candy’ of the first order.

• Jim Hynes

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