For Anyone That Knows You, an album of mostly piano solos by Josiah Steinbrick, was recorded not for smoothness or posterity but to emphasize the piano as object, the person playing it, and the moment it sounds. On three of the pieces, the saxophone of Sam Gendel hovers over the piano like a faint change in the light, adding resonance and gentle reinforcement rather than counterpoint. Three others are delicate renditions: “Green Glass” interprets an untitled recording by Quechuan folk musicians Leandro Apaza Romas and Benjamin Clara Quispe; “Elyne Road” abbreviates one of Malian kora master Toumani Diabaté’s most tender compositions; and “Lullaby” is an arrangement of a traditional Creole song, originally recorded in 1954 by the Haitian-American guitarist Frantz Casseus.
Press
Music Tribune Tokyo (Japan), “For Anyone That Knows You” Review
“Although basically a work belonging to post-classical/modern classical, Steinbrick's piano music is heavily influenced by modern jazz. Along with the artist's delicate piano playing, Gendel's saxophone adds a jazzy, grown-up element to the breezy post-classical vibe…these performances are not intended to draw out only the goodness of the melody, but to create an elegant piano piece full of mood with a rich inner feeling.”
"Steinbrick nails what’s made [Erik] Satie’s music continue to thrive after so many decades: a sense of beauty both luminous and numinous that will continue to brighten the far recesses of your mind long after the last gently wily note has sounded."– Reed Jackson for Spectrum Culture
"'For Anyone That Knows You' consists mainly of piano and that's all it takes to express biting melancholy, passing hours, irretrievable moments. Here and there the God instrument saxophone appears, at the latest then 'For Anyone That Knows You' is one of the most beautiful albums of the half year."
– Pippo Kuhzart for HHV Mag (DE)
Track List
LP TRACK LIST
A1. Please, Sing a Little Longer (1:56)A2. Green Glass (1:58)
A3. It's Often a Mystery to Me (2:44)
A4. Elyne Road (2:37)
A5. Tomorrow (2:39)
B1. Meet Your Love Again (3:41)
B2. Signature (3:18)
B3. Lately / For Another Time (1:55)
B4. Every Night from Now (2:37)
B5. Lullaby (3:55)
Credits
About Josiah Steinbrick
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Josiah Steinbrick (b. 1981) is a composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist originally from Providence, Rhode Island.
On moving to Los Angeles, he met then up-and-coming producer Danger Mouse (Brian Burton). Burton hired him as a session musician, and inadvertently offered a unique view of an auteur in his exploratory prime. Soon after, he met another important collaborator, Devendra Banhart, eventually joining his band. A shared love for left-field pop and “music that sounds like nothing is happening” (in tandem with becoming instrumentalist of choice for Banhart’s producer Noah Georgeson) resulted in Steinbrick contributing bass, drums, percussion, and synth arrangements to Devendra’s album Mala (2013). That same year, he also began working with Welsh artist Cate Le Bon, convincing her to come to Los Angeles to record her third album Mug Museum, which Steinbrick and Georgeson co-produced. Over the following years, Steinbrick produced another album by Banhart (2016’s Ape in Pink Marble) and two more by Le Bon (Crab Day, 2016, and the Mercury Prize-nominated Reward, 2019).Steinbrick also formed the group Banana in 2014, with the Brazilian songwriter Rodrigo Amarante. Initially conceived as a way to play records in specific settings (its first event was as part of a three-week art series in an abandoned building) and with a performance element made up of members of Le Bon’s band, it developed almost accidentally into a forum for Steinbrick to explore his own compositional voice for the first time. A studio session was recorded for Dublab radio in Los Angeles and released by Leaving Records in 2017. That spirit continued in Steinbrick’s first solo release, Meeting of Waters (2017), a textural dream-suite consisting of “a lot of metal and wood” and a single synthesizer. In order to retain its impulse, he prepared little and worked almost spontaneously, capturing each layer in a single take. Produced by Le Bon, it was recorded in less than a week. His second solo record, Liquid/Devotion & Tongue Street Blue (2020) allowed elements of this process while exploring a wider range of bass, harmonic processing, and polyrhythm. Mouthfeel/Serene with Sam Gendel followed shortly after, comprised of reassembled 2018 improvisations inspired by Teo Macero’s editing techniques on Miles Davis’ Get Up with It and On the Corner.
