Joseph Shabason‘s Anne, released last November, was one of our 15 Album Picks of the year and it remains a beguiling, affecting and reflective listen from start to finish, encompassing jazz and ambient. So we’re very pleased to know that the talented composer and multi-instrumentalist is following it up with a five-track companion piece, The Anne EP. As with the album, the EP features contributions from Destroyer’s Dan Bejar and Thom Gill, amongst other musicians.
The Anne EP arrives on May 10th through Western Vinyl, and we can already hear the first gentle and beautiful single, ‘1517’. “1517 is the feeling of lying in a park and watching kids play on the first real day of spring”, described Shabason. “It’s knowing that life is gonna fuck you down, but consciously giving yourself permission to get lost in an afternoon”.
Let yourself immerse in the subtle beauty of this song.

A year on from the release of Aytche, Toronto based composer and multi-instrumentalist Joseph Shabason is back with a second album called Anne. Named after his mother, the album is a personal affair and reads like a musical essay on Parkinson’s Disease, which his mum suffered from. The album is is centred around interviews Shabason had done with her on how the disease affected her and how she viewed herself. Shabason, as the album’s blurb describes, “unwraps these difficult themes with great care and focus revealing the unseen aspects of degenerative diseases that force us to re-examine common notions of self, identity, and mortality.”

Anne will see the light of day on November 16th through Western Vinyl and we can already hear the poignantly beautiful first single ‘Forest Run’.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Joseph Shabason is well known for his longtime membership in Destroyer and DIANA. Shabason also keeps himself busy producing, playing and recording with several other bands, mainly lending his talent on the sax and flute. This year will see him release his debut album, Aytche, an effort inspired and following the work of artists like Pat Metheny who recorded Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, and John Hassell’s collaboration with Terry Riley and Brian Eno.
Marrying minimalism and jazz, on Aytche, and as the press release describes, “Shabason builds a bridge off of the precipice his forbears established, skirting jazz, ambient, and even new age with the same deliberate genre-ambiguity that made their work so interesting.”
Shabason explains his approach to the sax on the album:

“So much sax music is about chops, and being able to solo really fast. I feel like robbing the sax of the ability to shred by effecting it and turning it into a dense chordal instrument really helps the instrument become something that it’s not usually known for.”

The album’s gentle title track is the first single to emerge and you can stream it below.

Aytche is out on August 25th via Western Vinyl.