Janel Leppin - Ensemble Volcanic Ash: Pluto In Aquarius (2026)

Tracklist

01. Mountain Pose
02. Pluto In Aquarius
03. Hope Marathon
04. Point Thy Sword
05. Susan Was a Warrior
06. Our Time
07. Old Guard
08. We See Dark Money
09. Jazz Is Resistance
10. The Collective
11. New Guard
12. Cruel Motherfuckers Explicit
13. Deerhoof is God

Pluto in Aquarius is the third album from cellist Janel Leppin's Ensemble Volcanic Ash. It follows 2024's aclaimed To March Is to Love. Fans of the quintet's sometimes chaotic weave of formal composition and improvisation are in for something different here. These compositions and arrangements are lower to the ground, more intimate, and spacious even at their most adventurous. The avant chamber group of their first two outings has given way to a rawer, looser approach by these Washington, D.C.-area luminaries that include guitarist Anthony Pirog, bassist Luke Stewart, tenor saxophonist Brian Settles, and drummer Larry Ferguson. Leppin plays cello and the Yamaha CP-70 electric grand piano.
There is tension here, but it's developmental not urgent. It exists in the interplay, not the composition. Opener Mountain Pose offers a nearly processional intro by cello, guitar, piano. As bass and drums enter the flow they pace the frontline's steps and wanderings creating a tune that walks between film music, folk music and progressive jazz. Leppin's electronically treated solo introduces Settles, who plays the margins. The title track is introduced by bass and snares in a noir-ish vamp before its theme emerges with droning electric guitar and saxophone. The cello paints the quartet from the back before she offers a soulful solo full of distortion. The band adds a shuffling pace and Settles joins her solo in the foreground. Hope Marathon follows a deliberate structure as the cello sings lyrically and modally above and through the ensemble in its solo. Point Thy Sword is introduced by a rockist vamp from cello, drums, and bass; it breaks down into a chamber music-esque equation with sax, cello, and bass tracing patterns off each other. Susan Was a Warrior is introduced as a shimmering 4/4 jazz ballad before Settles' tenor deviates from the changes to move afield aided by piano, bass, and drums. Leppin's solo shifts both cadence and harmony before she winds it down. Our Time is a rock song complete with a vamped progression, taut interplay between guitar, cello, and saxophone, and searing solos from Pirog and Leppin, while Old Guard is almost a free jazz interlude.We See Dark Money is essentially a chamber work with dissonant drones from guitar, cello, and bass coloring the foreground. It's answered by Jazz Is Resistance fueled by a prog rock vamp that introduces Pirog's squalling guitar break. New Guard is an exercise in mournful post-bop while The Collective and Cruel Motherfuckers are both canny, dissonant group improvisations. Deerhood Is God, marries a funky rock cello vamp to dirty guitar and rumbling upright bass before Leppin solos from the spaces between them. Pirog breaks out next, using distortion boxes in an overdriven solo framed by cello, bass, and drums until it abruptly ends, and closes out this bracing album, too. Pluto in Aquarius is a heady, adventurous listen, but it's colored by intimacy, haunting melodies, and soulful progressions that reveal a different, very welcome dimension in the quintet's powerful musical aesthetic.