Various Artists - The Suzanne Langille Songbook (2025) [Hi-Res]

Myriad, notable blues, folk and avant-rock torch carriers engage Suzanne Langille’s oneiric nocturnes - usually heard accompanied by non pareil guitarist Loren Mazzacane Connors - across an in-depth and enchanting 2xCD highlighting her songs’ range and timeless appeal.

An overdue spotlight is shone on Langille’s solo work with this utterly absorbing set of covers, reworks and originals sifted from her more than 30 years of recordings, more often made with life and creative partner Loren Connors. Whilst her work is understandably usually considered in relief of her work with Connors, it patently holds to the light here within others’ hands and voices, from the likes of Kim Gordon & Bill Nace’s mean imitation on ‘Strong & Foolish Heart’, to Heather Leigh’s channelling of her ghostly country figure in ‘Old John’, to Jim O’Rourke’s creaking, warbling reset of ‘End of My Days’, along with original works by Suzanne & Loren that remind to the real thing in the spectral jazz-blues shimmer of a ‘Dream Ballad’ evoking comparison with Scott Walker.

Suzanne & Loren also light up other gems on board, proving a smoky mutability in free jazz quartet with Daniel Carter & William Hooker on ‘I Wish I Didn’t Dream’, and the martial tension of ‘It Will Only Continue’, whilst Byron Coley fills her role as narrator to the noir of ‘Nothing at All’. There is a clear highlight registered with Sarah Davachi & Sean McCann’s quivering slow music sublimation of ‘Return to the Waterfall’, and likewise Laura Ortman connects with the widescreen yet intimate American romance of Suzanne’s work most dearly in the decelerated drone folk of ‘Grip My Hand’, and it resonates similarly with Alison Farrell, another US folk outlier who imbues her own soul on ‘Millie’s Not Afraid’.

Tracklist:
1-1 Lee Ranaldo - Take Me Up [2:58]
1-2 Heather Leigh - Old John [3:29]
1-3 Tom Carter;Ronnie Yates;Gabriel Martinez - Come On, Come On [4:29]
1-4 Neel Murgai - The Dream Comes [3:30]
1-5 Alessandra Novaga - Crying Low [3:42]
1-6 Ras Moshe Burnett;William Hooker;Loren Connors - The Eagle [1:32]
1-7 Jim O'Rourke - End Of My Days [1:58]
1-8 John Kolodij;Jane Hesser - Let The Darkness Fall [3:34]
1-9 Alison Farrell - Millie's Not Afraid [3:15]
1-10 Zoh Amba - Morning Doubt [1:48]
1-11 Loren Connors;Suzanne Langille - Dream Ballad [2:58]
1-12 Kim Gordon;Bill Nace - Strong & Foolish Heart [7:07]
1-13 Andrew Burnes - A Sadness In Me [4:25]
1-14 Daniel Carter;Loren Connors;Suzanne Langille;William Hooker;Ras Moshe Burnett - I Wish I Didn't Dream [3:57]
1-15 Dean Roberts;Boris Hauf;Andrea Belfi - Turn Away [5:22]
1-16 Alan Licht;Angela Jaeger - Still Bound [2:10]
1-17 Laura Ortman - Grip My Hand [5:16]
1-18 David Grubbs - Child [2:05]
1-19 Sarah Davachi;Sean McCann - Return to the Waterfall [5:36]
1-20 Daniel Carter;Loren Connors;Suzanne Langille;William Hooker - It Will Only Continue [1:58]
1-21 David Daniell - End Of My Days [5:05]
1-22 Byron Coley;Loren Connors - Nothing at All [3:12]
1-23 Adam Casey & the Liminal Choir;Katherine Walsh - Day Is Slipping [6:26]