Katowice Culture Nature Festival / Melancholy, the Middle East, and Soul Music / Bill Laurance & Michael League - NOSPR

Until recently, Michael League, founder of Snarky Puppy, and Bill Laurance, one of its principal collaborators, were primarily associated with their work within this collective. However in 2023, when the two artists released their first album together, the remarkable Where You Wish You Were, it became evident that they possessed a wholly distinctive musical sensitivity and artistic dimensions hitherto unseen. While the hallmark of Snarky Puppy lies in groove-driven pulse, electronics, elaborate percussion parts, and the energy of a large performing ensemble, sometimes numbering more than twenty musicians, the League & Laurance duo project stands as a complete counterpoint to that world. This music is subtle and intimate, centred on the beauty of a simple melody infused with melancholy and references to musical cultures beyond the Western canon.

Both the duo’s debut album and their latest project, Keeping Company, offer a genuine feast for the senses: a collage-like blend of jazz, soul, and global musical influences. Michael League sets aside the traditional electric bass guitar and turns to a fretless acoustic bass and the Arabic oud instead, while Bill Laurance abandons electronic keyboards in favour of the natural, acoustic sound of the piano. Together, they follow a path of improvisation that leads to direct engagement with timbre and the shaping of refined musical textures. Each composition on the album has a strong foundation in dialogue and complete mutual understanding, achievable only between two long-standing friends and outstanding musicians.

Magdalena Stochniol

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