Marc Saudade

Eliane Elias continues exploring Brazilian music on this latest release, doing both classics such as "The Girl From Ipanema" and a Milton Nasciemento medley, plus several Ivan Lins tunes. She uses alternating bassists and drummers, with Eddie Gomez, Marc Johnson, Jack DeJohnette, and Peter Erskine dividing time, plus Nana Vasconcelos on percussion, with Lins helping out on vocals.

Featuring tracks culled from eight of her albums, beginning fittingly enough with 1989's Eliane Elias Plays Jobim, Blue Note has compiled a strong collection of pianist Eliane Elias' Brazilian jazz cuts on Brazilian Classics. Elias' classically influenced touch is evident here on such standards as Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Chega de Saudade" and "One Note Samba," as well as her medley of Milton Nascimento works off her 1992 Fantasia release. While it would have been nice for Blue Note to include some rarities or alternate takes, as it stands Brazilian Classics works as a fitting representation of Elias' take on her home country's unique sound.

"My intention for this recording is not only to present some of the innumerable sounds and rhythms of North, Central and South America but also to capture the musical essence of each America and combine their various rhythms and sounds to beat as one heart." - Eliane Elias

Silencia is the latest collection of evocative and lustrous compositions by the Nashville duo Hammock. The band’s 10th LP, Silencia closes a trilogy that began with 2017’s Mysterium, and—in the tradition of works by Arvo Pärt and Georgy Sviridov, and writers such as Li-Young Li and Maggie Ross—it is a balm, gesturing at the healing that can ascend in silence. Slow-churning and contemplative, Silencia most prominently features strings orchestrated by Viktor Orri Árnason (Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds), mists of guitar by Hammock’s Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson, the hushed drone of horns, and 20 elegiac voices from the Budapest Art Choir. The record was mixed and mastered by Francesco Donadello (Winged Victory for the Sullen, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Ben Frost) in Berlin. Founded in 2003, Hammock’s music has appeared widely in film and television, and it has been praised by The Wire, NPR, Pitchfork, The Atlantic, and other major culture media.