Poetica has just released its self-titled debut album via MPress Records, a musical spoken-word recording conceived, produced and engineered by six-time Independent Music Award-winner Rachael Sage. The cross-genre concept album – which was co-composed by 3x Grammy®-nominated cellist Dave Eggar – premiered in Wonderland. With its roots planted firmly in experimental and boundary-pushing genres, Poetica fuses poetry with jazz, classical and Americana musical elements and has been described by Music News UK as “John Lee Hooker meets Patti Smith meets Leonard Cohen meets Laurie Anderson.” Stream and order the album HERE.
Cinematic and stylistically expansive, Poetica is a creatively ambitious musical spoken word project distilling a poetic spirit through text, voice and music. Diverse contributors to Poetica include renowned klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer, jazz trumpet player Russ Johnson (Elvis Costello), violinist Kelly Halloran (Michael Franti), multi-instrumentalist Jack Petruzzelli (Rufus Wainwright), guitarists James Mastro (Patti Smith) and Gerry Leonard (David Bowie), 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, Paul Simon), 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 musicians from Tennessee to England. 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. The project was mixed by Grammy®-winner Andy Zulla (The Sweet Remains, Stephen Kellogg) and mastered by multiple Grammy®-winning engineer Alan Silverman.
Sage elaborates, “The music on Poetica is serving each poem just as a film score would do so with scenes in a film. The goal was to be as pure as possible in supporting the emotion of each piece…That’s how the project tagline became ‘fine art music.’ Between the musical eclecticism and the accompanying objets d’art-themed photography, it’s been a very liberating, collaborative creative process!”
Poetica Tour Dates:
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
