“The New York–based Swedish singer Sophie Dunér is rooted in jazz but also studied with Stockhausen (who died in 2007), and found herself focusing on the set of songs during the CovID-19 lockdown. She eventually took the set of songs into the studio, and couldn’t have found a finer accompanist than Steven Beck (credited here as “Steve”—perhaps that’s his jazz name). Beck has worked and performed with Elliott Carter, George Crumb and Pierre Boulez, as well as Dave Soldier and John Zorn. The 12 songs (the album’s 13th “bonus” track is American composer Francis Schwartz’ The Neon Pterodactyl) are brief and full of character, more artful than the verse/chorus structure of generations of popular music, with traits of both the planetary personality types and their mythic representations. Dunér doesn’t overplay the sketches… Beck is heard exclusively on Fender Rhodes, taking tasteful advantage of the ringing upper register and the grumbling lower… the recording — his first time playing a Rhodes — is something special, setting the songs back in the odd, soft rock era from which they came.”
– New York City Jazz Record
Available on CD and for streaming/download!
“something special”
