Esperanza Spalding announces new album 'Songwrights Apothecary Lab,' shares new song

Jazz bassist, vocalist, and composer Esperanza Spalding has announced a new album, Songwrights Apothecary Lab, due September 24 via Concord Records (pre-order). Here’s some background on the album, via press release:

SONGWRIGHTS APOTHECARY LAB features 12 pieces of music, created and recorded over the past several months in her traveling laboratory, in collaboration with a host of musicians, researchers and practitioners. Each song was designed to have an intended effect for the listener, from grounding yourself in a moment of chaos and de-escalating interpersonal aggression to addressing the feelings of grief and loneliness brought on by the pandemic.

The Songwrights Apothecary Lab is a curated portal of new work that is growing out of spalding’s collaborative practice over the past years, exploring how songwriters might meaningfully incorporate therapeutic practices and knowledge into their process and production. The researchers and practitioners that partook in the labs specialize in fields ranging from neuroscience and music therapy to psychology and ethnomusicology.

She’s already released the first six songs (or, “Formwelas”) from the album, and along with the announcement comes a seventh track, “Formwela 10.” The intended effect of this song is: “For grieving the consequences of, becoming more alert to, and dissolving one’s own romantic-entitlement tendencies.” You can read about each Formwelas intended effect at songwrightsapothecarylab.com.

The new song clocks in at a concise three and a half minutes, and it’s more indebted to traditional vocal jazz compared to some of the more explorative work Esperanza has done lately. She’s great at this kind of thing too, and she puts a fresh spin on it. Watch a YouTube playlist below with the video for the new single, as well as the six previous ones.

Tracklist
1. Formwela 1 (Feat. Ganavya Doraiswamy)
2. Formwela 2
3. Formwela 3
4. Formwela 4 (Feat. Corey King)
5. Formwela 5 (Feat. Corey King)
6. Formwela 6 (Feat. Corey King)
7. Formwela 7
8. Formwela 8
9. Formwela 9
10. Formwela 10
11. Formwela 11
12. Formwela 13