Poetica Announce Debut Self-Titled Full-Length Album

Today, Poetica announced their debut self-titled album, due out October 22nd via MPress Records. What began as a remote duo collaboration between poet/vocalist/producer Rachael Sage and three-time Grammy nominated cellist Dave Eggar, Poetica eventually evolved into a full-blown spoken word concept album, with musicians contributing from around the globe.

"My collaborator and cellist Dave Eggar hand-picked 'Thanksgiving' from over 200 I shared with him during lockdown, because he felt it was especially resonant right now," Sage told Guitar Girl Magazine. "Regardless of whether you may have had a 'professor of calm' during isolation, everyone can relate to the concept of finding gratitude in even the most basic freedoms. By the time I finished arranging the track I was certainly grateful for all of the incredible musicians who contributed their talents to help transform the written page into a living, retro-tinged celebration of life itself."

Cinematic and stylistically expansive, Poetica is a creatively ambitious musical spoken word project distilling a poetic spirit through text, voice and music in the spirit of Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith and Laurie Anderson. Adventurous yet familiar in its intimacy, Sage's voice is perfectly at home in the absence of typical song structure, while her musical arrangements fuse elements of jazz, classical, and Appalachian folk with surprising agility. Only rarely does Sage enlist her more widely-known singing voice to punctuate these recordings, from which her signature piano playing is notably - and intentionally - absent.

Additional contributors to Poetica include renowned klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer, Spooky Ghost guitarist (and longtime David Bowie bandmate) Gerry Leonard, jazz trumpet player Russ Johnson (Elvis Costello), guitarist Jack Petruzzelli (Patti Smith), UK-based blues harmonica player Will Wilde, violinist Kelly Halloran (Michael Franti), and drummers Doug Yowell (Suzanne Vega) and Quinn (Janelle Monáe).

Photo Credit: Tom Moore