Artemis return with their second album In Real Time, the highly anticipated follow-up to the jazz ensemble’s widely acclaimed self-titled debut.
The collective features a new lineup, with the founding members — pianist and musical director Renee Rosnes, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda and drummer Allison Miller — joined by newcomers Nicole Glover on tenor saxophone and Alexa Tarantino on alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, and flute.
The new album, which arrives three years after the group’s first release, “highlights the improvisational strength of its members as well as their respective gifts as composers,” according to a media release. The eight-song set presents originals along with arrangements of pieces by Lyle Mays (“Slink”) and Wayne Shorter (“Penelope”).
Listen to the lead single “Lights Away From Home”:
Composed by Ueda, “Lights Away From Home” was inspired by a meteor shower on a small, isolated island in upstate New York. “I made a sketch of the piece the next morning while sitting on the same rock where I saw the shooting stars, remembering the excitement of the experience,” Ueda recalls. “My aim was to write something with a positive, upbeat vibe.”
Artemis’s debut was met with wide critical acclaim, including being named one of the best albums of 2020 by JAZZ.FM91.
“The new album is an authentic representation of the collective and the individual,” Miller says. “Our growth as a band is clear from the downbeat. There is a trust that has become more solidified since our first recording and the chemistry is palpable.”
Here’s the track listing:
- Slink
- Bow and Arrow
- Balance of Time
- Lights Away from Home
- Timber
- Whirlwind
- Empress Afternoon
- Penelope
Artemis’s In Real Time is out May 5, 2023, via Blue Note.
