Yumi Ito, YSLA

 

Singer-Songwriter Yumi Ito happily sent me her new album and hey, it sounds so good. It is called YSLA  (ENJA yeb7831). I am taken by her intonationally impressive, gifted, stylistically rangy and ultra-musical voice, which may remind you slightly and nicely of Byork or Imogen Heap or sometimes even Edie Brickell only more sophisticated but not in any obvious way. She can scat wonderfully well in a contemporary zone, What else? The Milk Eyed Mender, that artist, Joanna Newsom? Maybe, but just as an affine so to speak, perhaps not a sister per se, but most emphatically herself. Her new album has seven very tunefully advanced songs bursting over with originality, with a feelingful content and lyrically bracing presence one does not encounter the likes of often, but even so this is very much her own way about it, arrangements, compositions and artistry Zazzy Jazzy-ish in ways that will perhaps floor you like it did me. Ah, Madame Zazz, as Duke might have exclaimed!

Throughout she plays a nicely conceived set of piano and Rhodes parts, she is also well accompanied by a tastefully wrought set of accompanists that she arranges deftly for, and she produces it all with impressive sonic results. So what don't I like about the album? Nothing! The lyrics are often personal, poetically acute and amorously situated, which is cool. I will not say she is a new Joni Mitchell but she has a kind of vastness about her music here which does not diminish her in any way, and there is something there that you will probably like if you like Joni. Either way this is substantial fare.

She is Japanese-Polish if you wonder, and her music is her way through the world we live in today. The music is very contemporary, sometimes a bit riffy, with progression expression, and tangy, soundscape-y growths of musical sound. The vocals ride atop it all with a yodel and a yip, a nuance of phrasing that is a beauty to hear and a triumph of the wonderfully rangy perfection that makes you perk up and listen. Bravo.

To do a free stream of the album, to find out more details about the album,  and to order a copy go to https://yumiito.bandcamp.com/album/ysla-2 and to find out about the ongoing world tour this year go to her general site https://www.yumiito.ch/concerts