Michael Arthur Holloway - Strange Cargo (2021)

Strange Cargo is the second full-length album by independent artist Michael Arthur Holloway, following up his 2016 noir-jazz (aka dark-jazz, doom-jazz ) debut, Guilt Noir.

On this sprawling sophomore album, Holloway hones his signature noir-jazz sound against the windswept environs of Astoria, Oregon, where the Columbia river meets the Pacific Ocean.

Strange Cargo is an atmosphere-drenched, instrumental narrative exploring Astoria and its surrounding landmarks, as told through dark-jazz: ubiquitous Rhodes electric piano, muted-trumpet and tenor saxophone leads, speakeasy piano and upright bass-- along with the wind, surf and rain of the Pacific Northwest.

Have an after-hours drink or three on Bond Street; take a stroll by moonlight through Uniontown; cross the river and seance with shipwreck spirits at Peacock Spit; meditate on life's long arrivals and quiet departures at Cape Disappointment, where Lewis & Clark's expedition reached the Pacific and turned around to head home.

This is urban noir-jazz taken to the coast-- a perfect marriage of noir melancholia and the solemn grandeur of the Pacific Ocean.