BrhyM (Bruce Hornsby & YMusic) Announce 'Deep Sea Vents' Album

BryhM, the collaborative project featuring Bruce Hornsby and the experimental chamber ensemble yMusic, has announced Deep Sea Vents.

The album is out March 1st via Zappo Productions/Thirty Tigers. To celebrate the announcement, BrhyM has also released the single “Deep Blue”- a funky meditative strut featuring electric sitar. The album was produced by Hornsby and Rob Moose and recorded in both Williamsburg, VA and in New York, NY. It features additional contributions from jazz legend Branford Marsalis, Mark Dover and drummer Chad Wright. 

Bruce Hornsby on “Deep Blue”:

In eighth grade we had a poetry section in English class, and Stephen Crane (“The Red Badge Of Courage”) was on the list. For some reason some of my friends and I thought two of his poems were a scream so we never forgot them, and I couldn't get them out of my mind after creating this track so just started singing them- voilà. The rest fairly much wrote itself, and Rob and CJ took over from there. yMusic may be the funkiest, groovingest chamber group in all the land!

Plus- I'm making my recorded debut as an electric sitarist on this piece- I have a limited range and not much ability, granted, but I feel it added a wry, exotic and soulful texture to the song, so why not?

CJ Camerieri of yMusic on “Deep Blue”:

Bruce started the writing process for "Deep Blue." When he sent sketches our way, we immediately fell in love with the vibe, and got excited about how this song would fit on the album. We love stretching the limits of our ensemble, working to sound like many different kinds of groups without changing instrumentation, and "Deep Blue" presented a great opportunity on that front. We ended up using the bass clarinet in a bass guitar-ish role, the trumpet as a Roy Hargrove-inspired rhythmic element, and the strings to take it home with a feature that goes to wildly unexpected, virtuosic, and contemporary places.

yMusic and Bruce Hornsby performed back-back sets before Bon Iver at the Eaux Claires Music and Arts Festival in 2016, and afterwards Hornsby reached out to ask them to play at his Funhouse Fest the next year.. A musical exchange began, with yMusic first appearing on Hornsby's 2019 album, Absolute Zero. Deeply inspired by the collaboration, the two outfits decided to head out on the road together.

The shows occurred in late February and early March 2020, ending right before the Covid shutdown, and planted the seed of what has become Deep Sea Vents. Each night they performed as an encore a song they had composed together which ultimately became the album's title track. With the lock-down freeing up everyone's schedules, yMusic and Hornsby resumed writing together remotely in the Fall. 

yMusic is a leading American chamber ensemble featuring Moose, CJ Camerieri, Nadia Sirota, Gabriel Cabezas, Hideaki Aomori and Alex Sopp. Now in its 16th year, the group explores work on both sides of the classical/popular music divide and has lent their instantly-recognizable sound to commissions and projects by a dizzying array of artists including Andrew Norman, Anohni, Missy Mazzoli, John Legend, Paul Simon and Caroline Shaw.

It's this same interest in collaborative and boundaryless genre exploration with which 3x GRAMMY winner and songwriting legend Bruce Hornsby has approached his career. With a staggering 24 albums and numerous groups, contributions and collaborations under his belt, the pianist and multi-instrumentalist continues to be a source of inspiration for young artists and an ardent collaborator. 

Bruce Hornsby and yMusic will hit the road as BryhM this spring. The shows will kick off on March 7th in Urbana, IL and wrap in Denver, CO on April 23rd. Hornsby will also appear at Celtic Connections on January 31st at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

Bruce also kicks of BBC Radio 2's Piano Room month, performing live from the Maida Vale Studios with the BBC Concert Orchestra on Monday 29th January in Vernon Kay's mid-morning Radio 2 show - the most listened to radio programme in the UK (Monday to Friday, 9.30am-12pm). He will perform a new song, a classic, and a cover version of a Don Henley track. As well as being on BBC Sounds, his session will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer from later that day.

Bruce Hornsby Tour Dates:

Jan 31 - Glasgow, SCOT - Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (Celtic Connections)

BryhM Tour Dates:

March 7 - Urbana, IL - Foellinger Great Hall

March 9 - Carmel, IN - Center for the Performing Arts

March 10 - Evanston, IL - Pick-Staiger Concert Hall

March 12 - Des Moines, IA - Hoyt Sherman Place

March 14 - Kansas City, MO - Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

March 15 - St. Charles, MO - J. Scheidegger Center for Saint Charles University

March 20 - Wilmington, NC - Wilson Center

March 21 - Newport News, VA - Ferguson Center for the Arts

April 4 - Carmel, CA - Sunset Center Theater

April 5 - San Francisco, CA - Herbst Theatre

April 7 - Santa Rosa, CA - Luther Burbank Center for the Arts

April 9 - San Luis Obispo, CA - Cal Poly Performing Arts Center

April 10 - Thousand Oaks, CA - The Bank of America Performing Arts Center

April 21 - Seattle, WA - Benaroya Hall

April 23 - Denver, CO - Paramount Theatre

Photo Credit: Graham Tolbert 

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