Leslie Uyeda - The Sex Lives Of Vegetables [Redshift Records]

Released via the ever active Canadian label named Redshift Records on July 26th, 2k24 is "The Sex Lives Of Vegetables", the first full length album recording conceived by Vancouver's Leslie Uyeda - acclaimed composer, conductor and pianist who is joined on her journey by author and poet Lorna Crozier as well as soprano vocalist Heather Pawsey and AK Coope and Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa on clarinet and piano as their respective instruments. The result of this joint venture is a 62 minutes spanning journey split into three main pieces - "The First Woman", "Hahawo Shinobite" and "The Sex Lives Of Vegetables" - of which two are devided into several subsections is a showcase of Uyeda's compositional versatility, pairing somewhat Jazz-infused pianos with clear references to Opera, both classical and contemporary, an extreme and extremely expressive dynamic range, echoes of echoes of vintage movie scores from the era of monochromatic cinema, playful and humor'esque episodes like "Carrots", the tense and ethereal drama of "Lettuce", the uplifting, in parts even dancey movements of "Watermelons" as well as the deep romantic melancholia of "Cabbages" just to name a few outstanding pieces on this longplayer. One for the Avantgarde-informed fan and follower of Modern and Contemporary Classical composition.

Album artwork on Instagram!