Photo by Hamzat Sani
By DCist contributor Hamzat Sani
After four years between projects, D.C.-native Janel Leppin treats us to a dual release of her much anticipated music—dropping Mellow Diamond and Songs for Voice and Mellotron today. For the lucky few of us at Songbyrd last night, the albums were available for purchase after the release show, which also featured D.C.-based Pree and Providence’s Roz and the Rice Cakes.
Leppin’s set featured music from both albums, which are jointly known as the Mellow Diamond Project, starting out with pieces from Songs for Voice and Mellotron. These songs are comprised of the artist’s lush voice and the electo-mechanical keyboard known as the mellotron, creating a restrained yet majestic sound. They rely on her voice as a dynamic instrument, creating incantation-like sounds by manipulating mic effects, and her masterful use of the mellotron. During her performance, the crowd was silent and watchful, in an entranced state and completely captivated by the artist’s control of voice and sound.
Standout track “Paris” is a political ode to the city in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks—calling on us to not forget Beirut, Palestine, and Syria. “Union Arts,” although devoid of any words, is as experimental as its New York Ave namesake, coming across as avant-garde art-pop with Leppin’s hypnotic voice pushing and pulling the instrumentation as she pleases. ‘Wedding Song” is probably the most stylistically accessible track, with stripped down lyricism allowing for the singer’s songwriting abilities to take center stage.
The second part of her Songbyrd set included songs from Mellow Diamond. The album was finished almost four years ago, but languished on the shelf while Leppin battled with record companies. The singer-songwriter finally decided to create her own label, Wedderburn, named after land owned by her family for centuries and, incidentally, her middle name.
Mellow Diamond takes inspiration from the scenery of Seattle and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale “The Little Mermaid.” In what she self describes as avant-pop dream music, the singer displays her multi-instrumentalist chops—playing the cello, guitar, harpsichord, organ, koto, pedal steel, radio frequency noise, and much more. To recreate the sound for the audience at Songbyrd, Leppin brought on an initial quintet that turned eventually to a septet, adding a jazz layer to her already mesmerizing sound.
Although trained classically as a cellist, the instrument only appeared prominently in her performance of the songs “The Past is Lo-Fi” and “Her Tail was Cut in Two” at Songbyrd. On the album, the instrument can also be found on the three Echo Location tracks, but its presence isn’t audibly missed.
To say Leppin’s work is hard to put a finger on is an understatement. With influences shining through from jazz, Bjork, Persian music, and synthpop, Leppin’s voice and manipulation of sound create a soundscape you are bound to get lost in.
