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The Continuing Adventures of Janel & Anthony

By Jerome Wilson
July 29, 2024
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Cellist

Janel Leppin

cello

" data-original-title="" title="">Janel Leppin and guitarist

" data-original-title="" title="">Anthony Pirog are both sturdy pillars of Washington, DC's creative music scene. Musical and life partners for over twenty years, the couple have spent a long time working together as a duo as well as pursuing individual projects. The universe of their combined work encompasses spiritual jazz, folk song, surf rock, jazz-rock fusion, ambient, and modern classical among other genres.

In 2024, their talents became more exposed to the wider world than ever before. In March, Pirog's prog-fusion trio, the Messthetics released an acclaimed album with saxophonist

James Brandon Lewis

saxophone, tenor
b.1983

" data-original-title="" title="">James Brandon Lewis on the Impulse! label. New albums from the Janel & Anthony duo and Leppin's group, Ensemble Volcanic Ash have now followed that.

Janel & Anthony
New Moon in the Evil Age
Cuneiform
2024

This is a 2-CD set, with the first CD consisting of instrumentals and the second featuring vocal pieces. On the instrumental disc, the music is built up in gauzy layers of strings with Pirog's guitar often settling into drifting rhythms that Leppin's weeping cello cuts through on tracks like "New Moon" and "Pacific Grove Monarch." On "Boom Boom" Pirog's electric playing spirals up over a

Ralph Towner

guitar
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Ralph Towner-like acoustic backdrop and "Rain Falls in San Francisco" is a chilly bit of noirish atmosphere. "Crystal Wish" is the most expansive track, combining ambient synthesized waves and buzzing electric guitar energy into a grandiose fanfare that sounds like

Robert Fripp

guitar
b.1946

" data-original-title="" title="">Robert Fripp sitting in with Tangerine Dream.

The vocal half of this project has the same dreamy aura as the instrumental half but contains tightly focused songs that feature Leppin's singing. Her voice has a noble purity in the tradition of singers like Sarah McLaughlin and Natalie Merchant that nicely offsets the swirling electronic tread of tracks like "Sweet and Sour" and "Flyover Iceland." She sounds particularly forceful over the hypnotic guitars of "Dreams Come Alive" and really endearing on the haunting, acoustic folk melody, "Heart's Hearth."

Janel Leppin
Ensemble Volcanic Ash: To March Is To Love
Cuneiform
2024

Leppin's band, Ensemble Volcanic Ash, includes her husband on guitar along with

Brian Settles

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Brian Settles and

Sarah Hughes

saxophone

" data-original-title="" title="">Sarah Hughes on saxophones,

Luke Stewart

bass, electric

" data-original-title="" title="">Luke Stewart on bass, and

Larry Ferguson

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Larry Ferguson on drums. The group's previous album, (Ensemble Volcanic Ash, Cuneiform, 2022) was balanced between peaceful spiritual jazz leanings and dense prog-fusion sounds but this one leans more towards the denser side. The guitar and saxophones scale the walls together like the early King Crimson on the likes of the ominous "Tennessee's A Drag" and "As Wide As All Outdoors" while Leppin's cello keeps the pace with simple but authoritative rhythms. These pieces build off simple cello riffs in a way very reminiscent of

Julius Hemphill

saxophone, alto
1938 - 1995

" data-original-title="" title="">Julius Hemphill and his work with cellist

Abdul Wadud

cello
b.1947

" data-original-title="" title="">Abdul Wadud, one of Leppin's big influences.

There is plenty of room for solo exploits on this album. Settles' tenor sax spits fire on "Tennessee," Pirog goes full electric freakout on "Union Art," Hughes snakes her alto wildly through the twists of "Oh Johnny Dear," and Leppin herself goes on a wild bowed tear on "All Outdoors." There is a prominent air of menace and anxiety in this music but it is relieved a bit by lighter passages like the pretty waltz, "Sateatime," and the slow piano rhumba, "Casals' Rainbow" where Leppin pays homage to another influence, Pablo Casals. This is a heavy but exhilarating album that shows just some of the musical wonders Janel and Anthony can create.

Tracks and Personnel

New Moon in the Evil Age

Tracks: Disc One: New Moon; Boom Boom; Bells Ring in the Distance; jamie's Song; Fog Curls Round Cypress; Slight Sense; Rain Falls in San Francisco; Rhizome; Pacific Grove Monarch; Crystal Wish. Disc Two: Surf the Dead; Evil Age; Sweet and Sour; Dreams Come Alive; Innocent Human; Flyover Iceland; Heart's Hearth; Dripping Prisms.

Personnel: Janel Leppin: cello, modified cello, vocals, synthesizers, piano, koto, hammered dulcimer, bass; Anthony Pirog: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, guitar synth, synthesizers, bass, percussion. Devin Hoff: electric bass, acoustic bass; Dr. Ali Analouei: daf, tonbak.

To March Is To Love

Tracks: Ode to Abdul Wadud; Tennessee's a Drag; A Man Approached Me; As Wide As All Outdoors; Union Art; Oh Johnny Dear; Sateatime; To March Is To Love Pt. I; To March Is To Love Pt. II; Guidance Received; Casals' Rainbow.

Personnel: Janel Leppin: cello, piano; Larry Ferguson: drums; Luke Stewart: bass; Anthony Pirog: guitar; Sarah Hughes: alto saxophone; Brian Settles: tenor saxophone.

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