Esperanza Spalding has announced a new album. Songwright’s Apothecary Lab launches September 24th through Concord. The LP contains 12 pieces of music that were created and recorded in several locations over the past few months. Each song, a press release, is designed to have an intended effect on the listener and to answer the question, “What do you need a song for?” Today Spalding released “Formwela 10,” which was created “to help mourn to become more attentive and to dissolve one’s own romantic inclinations ”. To do this, watch the video below and scroll down to see the album art and track list.
Songwright’s Apothecary Lab was produced by Spalding, mixed by Fernando Lodeiro, and mastered by Oscar Zambrano. This is followed by her Triangle project from that year. The tracks “Formwela 1”, “Formwela 2” and “Formwela 3” from this release also appear on the new album. Her previous studio LP, Twelve Little Spells, came out in 2018.
The first half of Songwright’s Apothecary Lab was recorded in Oregon, with contributions from Wayne Shorter, Phoelix, Raphael Saadiq, Justin Tyson, Ganavya Doraiswamy, and Corey King. The second half was recorded during a 10-day live set in New York in June. These recordings include drummer Francisco Mela, pianist Leo Genovese, guitarist Matthew Stevens and saxophonist Aaron Burnett.
In addition to the aforementioned musicians, the Songwrights Apothecary Lab also included researchers and practitioners specializing in neuroscience, music therapy, psychology, and ethnomusicology. “The source of this interdisciplinary type of music creation is deep,” said Spalding in a press release. “We dive and dive and draw and draw and pour the best of what we can find into every Formwela.”
Songwright’s Apothecary Lab:
01 Formwela 1 [ft. Ganavya Doraiswamy]
02 Formwela 2
03 Formwela 3
04 Formwela 4 [ft. Corey King]
05 Formwela 5 [ft. Corey King]
06 Formwela 6 [ft. Corey King]
07 Formwela 7
08 Formwela 8
09 Formwela 9
10 Formwela 10
11 Formwela 11
12 Formwela 13
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Esperanza Spalding: Songwright’s Apothecary Lab
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Songwright’s Apothecary Lab was Esperanza Spalding’s full successor to 2017’s Exposure. Spalding’s previous album is 12 Little Spells from 2018.
