Release Date: Apr 30, 2021
Genre(s): Jazz
Record label: Western Vinyl Records
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Joseph Shabason has spent much of his career in service to others. Whether it's through his work as a member of synthpop group DIANA, sideman in Destroyer or session musician, the Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist Shabason is an ace at helping others realize their artistic vision. So it should come as no surprise that for his solo career Shabason tends to dig deep into his personal life for inspiration.
Joseph Shabason is a Toronto saxophonist best known for performing with Destroyer, memorably serving up those transportive sax licks that graced Kaputt a decade ago. But in his parallel career as a composer and solo artist, Shabason takes a different tack, minimizing the instrument's potential as a vehicle for scene-stealing solos and disguising it into what he has called a "dense chordal instrument"--a sound that, like much of Shabason's music, feels curiously suspended between '80s new age nostalgia and a more processed, alien cadence. Yet there is nothing alien about the emotional core of Shabason's music.
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