Saloli - Canyon (2023) [Hi-Res]

Portland pianist Mary Sutton second's full-length for Kranky delves deeper into her roots as a Cherokee Nation citizen (Saloli, pronounced like 'slowly,' is the Cherokee word for 'squirrel'). The album is intended to evoke 'a day in the life of a bear in a canyon in the Smoky Mountains', with each track channeling a different emotion or experience in its daily explorations. As with her 2018 debut, 'The Deep End', the entirety of Canyon was composed and performed live on a Sequential Circuits MultiTrak synthesizer - but this time routed through a delay pedal. This refraction adds a lyrical spatial quality, as though 'echoing off canyon walls'. It's music both gentle and adventurous, curiously rooting through soils and streams, in a sustained state of discovery.