Treat your taste buds to these mouthwatering leftovers!
Keeping up with the daily flood of music is impossible. We try to share everything, but gems slip through the cracks. The Leftovers fixes that (a little): every Friday, we dig through the emails and drop five releases in bite-sized pieces we couldn’t ignore. This week, Cantrips, Blair/Huber, Tyler Sabbag, and more. Dig in and enjoy.
Cantrips, the project of Melbourne/Naarm artist Patrick Ryan, returns with ‘The Plan’, a piece that rises from a spare bass‑and‑drums pulse before slowly gathering keys, guitar, and melodic fragments that shift and shimmer without ever fully settling. Written and recorded at Dune Castle, it reflects Ryan’s habit of sketching ideas on synths with a cinematic, orchestral mindset, then handing them to a live band to rebuild from the inside out. The live band of Hudson Whitlock, Lachlan Stuckey, Tom Pettit and Jethro Curtin brings some serious talent to the table. Press play and let Ryan and his crew transport you to a world of cinematic bliss.
Saxophone and guitar duo Blair/Huber continue to impress with ‘PRISM BREAK’, their first release since dropping the magnificent IN A NEW ORDER EP. Just as spectacular as anything on the EP (see the review), the track subtly expands the duo’s minimalist sound. Teaming up with acclaimed German drummer Noah Fürbringer (Moses Yoofee Trio, Peter Fox, Petter Eldh), the result is one of the duo’s most dynamically and rhythmically intricate recordings to date, expanding the duo’s sound while remaining closely connected to its core. Listen below, and if you haven’t already, do yourself a favour and dive into their EP here.
Brilliant new jazz co-led by brothers Zac Burgenbauch (guitar) and Devin Burgenbauch (bass). Alongside the siblings, You, Me, + the Whales Sextet features David Otis (saxophones), Elif Dinçer (harp/electronics), M A Harms (vibraphone/percussion), and Lucas Lenny (drumset). On their debut album, You are in a Kitchen Filled with Plants as the Sun Streams Inwards, they wander freely through American‑primitive guitar, spiritual‑jazz, loose open‑form jams, raw field‑recorded fragments, microtonal drone, and a scatter of bells ringing out like distant signals. Five cuts, opening with a near‑15‑minute epic that sets the tone beautifully. ‘Simply‘ the closing track is my fave, an 8-minute spiritual jazz that weaves Alice Coltrane-esque delicacy with the frenetic improvisation a la the Cecil Taylor Unit. Dive in, an experimental, rewarding 46‑minute journey is waiting for you.
A new release and a new name for me. Emmy-winning composer Tyler Sabbag is known for colourful music that drifts between genres. His work with composers Duncan Thum and Steven Gernes won him an Emmy for ‘Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones’ (2024) and additional nominations for ‘Lost LA’ and ‘Chef’s Table’. Sabbag recently blessed us with his first EP, Novella, an enchanting release. Across the project’s 16‑minute journey, Sabbag and his ensemble craft a soundscape that is both irresistibly lush and deeply warm. Have a listen, a worthwhile sixteen minutes await you.
What do you get when you combine two voices with two double basses and electronics? You get Headwater, the new album by Finnish-Australian composer Helen Svoboda. Centred on double bass, voice, and electronics, the small ensemble (which at times sounds bigger) includes Selma Savolainen, Jacques Emery, and Tilman Robinson. It’s an experimental, genre-blurring album that moves between folk-like melody, drones, silence, and abstract textures. My current favourites are the more left-of-centre tracks like ‘Two Trees,’ ‘Morning Hepuli,’ ‘Solo’, ‘Pekki’ and Evening Hepuli’. Highly recommended.
