MPress Records has just released “Magenta and Blue”, the third track from Poetica, a spoken-word concept album conceived, produced and engineered by six-time Independent Music Award winner Rachael Sage. A companion lyric video for the song has also been released. The track premiered in Parade (US) and Just Listen To This (UK). With its roots planted firmly in experimental and boundary-pushing genres, Poetica is a cinematic, stylistically expansive odyssey. Its fusion of poetry with jazz, classical and Americana musical elements calls to mind such poets/musicians as Leonard Cohen, Laurie Anderson, and Patti Smith. Poetica’s self-titled album releases on October 22nd (pre-order the album HERE).
“Magenta and Blue” is a string-laden soundscape that blurs the lines between classical, Americana, jazz and cinematic music genres. Sage and Eggar recorded the song with Appalachian folk fiddler Evie Andrus.
“‘Magenta and Blue’ puts words and music to the moment when love becomes ego-less, where walls come down completely, and honesty and acceptance are givens,” Sage told Parade. “The piece captures a peaceful, uplifted place where each person is embraced by the other with an expressiveness akin to the watercolor painting process, where colors and lines blur into something dreamlike, becoming more beautiful in the process.”
Cinematic and stylistically expansive, Poetica is a creatively ambitious musical spoken word project distilling a poetic spirit through text, voice and music in the spirit of Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith and Laurie Anderson. Adventurous yet familiar in its intimacy, Sage’s voice is perfectly at home in the absence of typical song structure, while her musical arrangements fuse elements of jazz, classical, and Appalachian folk with surprising agility. Additional contributors to Poetica include renowned klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer, jazz trumpet player Russ Johnson (Elvis Costello), violinist Kelly Halloran (Michael Franti), guitarist James Mastro (Patti Smith), and drummers Doug Yowell (Suzanne Vega) and Quinn (Janelle Monáe).
Beginning as a duo collaboration under lockdown between Sage and her longtime cellist Dave Eggar (Esperanza Spalding, Duncan Sheik, Corinne Bailey Rae), Poetica soon evolved into a full-blown, cinematic spoken word album, with Sage producing and engineering the project in isolation with limited gear she happened to have with her while on tour while sending files back and forth to bandmates and guest musicians from every genre; the project was mixed by Grammy® winner Andy Zulla (The Sweet Remains, Stephen Kellogg). From over 200 poems written both during and prior to lockdown, Eggar – whose parents are both poetry professors – volunteered to help Sage select the 18 spoken-word pieces that eventually comprised the album.
Poetica Tour Dates:
9/30 – New York, NY – Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3 (album release show)
10/2 – Beacon, NY – Towne Crier Cafe
10/13 – Spring Lake, MI – Seven Steps Up
10/14 – Chicago, IL – Uncommon Ground Lakeview
10/23 – Charlottesville, VA – The Garage
10/26 – Knoxville, TN – WDVX Blue Plate Special
10/28 – Nashville, TN – Cabana Taps
10/29 – Duluth, GA – Red Clay Music Foundry
11/9 – New York, NY – The Loft At City Winery
