Laysongs

Nowhere has master mandolinist Thile’s formidable artistry been more fully realized than on Laysongs. Urged on by Nonesuch Records honcho emeritus, Bob Hurwitz, and coincidentally inspired by pandemically induced isolation, Thile embarked on an introspective spiritual journey, ultimately returning with six covers and three originals. The fourth movement of Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin is in the mix, along with ‘Ecclesiastes’, an instrumental take on a familiar Old Testament passage; a swinging, multi-keyed exultation of ‘Dionysus’, god of wine and ecstasy; and ‘God is Alive, Magic is Afoot’, a wildly energetic performance of a Leonard Cohen poem popularised by Buffy Sainte-Marie on her 1969 album, Illuminations. Thile describes ‘Salt (In the Wounds) of the Earth’, a three-part mini-suite premiered during a fall 2018 composer’s residency at Carnegie Hall, as ‘the first (and so far only) music I’ve made specifically to perform alone, which felt like an opportunity to sing some words that it wouldn’t necessarily be fair to put in a collaborator’s mouth.’ Recorded in a studio in an old church in Hudson, New York, Laysongs is an intimate gaze into the soul of a preternaturally gifted musician.