*announcing* Cassie Kinoshi's seed. - gratitude /// LP/CD/Digi Album out March 22nd
*announcing* IARC0081
Cassie Kinoshi's seed.
gratitude
LP/CD/Digital Album out March 22nd, 2024
We are elated today to share new music by visionary Berlin/London based composer, arranger & alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi, alongside her flagship large ensemble seed. The album – titled gratitude – also features turntablist NikNak and the London Contemporary Orchestra in a stirring philharmonic performance recorded at Southbank Centre in 2023. It’s Kinoshi’s debut for International Anthem and her first album with seed. since 2019’s Mercury Prize nominated Driftglass.
((( photo by Keziah Quarcoo )))
Kinoshi is also known as a former member of Kokoroko; and even beyond her work as leader of seed., her compositional résumé extends deeply into orchestral work for concert hall, contemporary dance, film, visual art, and theater, with high profile collaborators including London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra. That depth of experience is on full display on gratitude, with the textural and dynamic flexibility of her large ensemble covering musical ground from groove-focused modal melancholia to anthemic brass and string themes. Striking upon first listen and even richer on repeat visits, gratitude scores the soul of contemporary Black London with philharmonic craftwork in the tradition of legendary jazz arrangers like Mary Lou Williams, Oliver Nelson, and Carla Bley.
Kinoshi says: “gratitude was written as a means of guiding my own healing. My mother told me that she keeps a gratitude book where she writes one thing, no matter how big or small, every day that helps to re-focus her mind on practicing gratitude. The examples that she gave were seeing the flowers that she'd recently planted in her garden bloom and a kaleidoscope of butterflies that she saw flitting about a tree in her garden. I find this way of looking for the small moments of beauty in everyday life a beautiful way of reframing one's experience of life and making sure to celebrate the communities, people, natural world and experiences that bring me joy. At this point in my artistic career, highlighting the often overlooked subject of mental health and what it means to move towards creating healthy, positive and introspective practices in regards to both understanding and regulating one's own mental health is of the utmost importance to me.”
Movements “i” & “ii”
Along with the album announcement and preorder, two pieces of music from gratitude are available for streaming on all digital music platforms today. Movements “i” & “ii” cover the exposition and initial peaks of the suite, vividly encapsulating the spectrum of Kinoshi’s composition. Movement “ii” is also highlighted by an electric guitar solo from Shirley Tetteh.
((( photo by Aurore Fouchez )))
About Cassie Kinoshi
Cassie Kinoshi is a Mercury Prize-nominated (2019) and Ivors Academy Award-winning (2018) Berlin & London-based composer, arranger and alto-saxophonist with a focus on creating multi-disciplinary and genre-blending performance work in various audio-visual contexts. As a bandleader, she writes for and performs with her ten-piece ensemble seed. which features many top London-based improvising musicians.
She is a composition graduate of the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where she studied with Andrew Poppy and Stephen Montague. An in-demand composer for concert hall, contemporary dance, film, visual art, and theater, her production credits including the Park Avenue Armory NYC (Euphoria), National Theatre (Top Girls), the Globe Theatre (The Tempest), BalletBoyz (England on Fire and Bradley 4:18) and the Southbank Centre (Drew McConie's The Nutcracker). She has been commissioned by orchestras and ensembles such as London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, London Contemporary Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, and initiatives such as Renaud Capuçon’s Festival Nouveaux Horizons in Aix-en-Provence, France.
With a keen interest in audio-visual, installation and combined-genre ensemble performance, in 2021, Cassie was Artist-in-Resident for London Unwrapped festival at King’s Place.
Her 2023 commission gratitude, accompanied by visuals by Birmingham & Belgrade-based artist GURIBOSH, was written for members of the London Contemporary Orchestra in combination with seed. and award-winning turntablist NikNak, and premiered to a sold-out Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre.
Performance at London’s Barbican March 7th
Kinoshi first entered the International Anthem sphere, publicly, in November 2022 on stage at London’s Barbican Centre, alongside Angel Bat Dawid, Theon Cross and Asher Gamedze, as part of our CHICAGOxLONDON 2022 co-presentation with London Jazz Festival.
And she returns to the Barbican on March 7th for her biggest headlining show to date. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Kinoshi will revisit and perform the full gratitude suite, again with visual art accompaniment from GURIBOSH; and she will also premiere a brand new composition, commissioned by Serious with funding from 14-18 Now Foundation and support from the Imperial War Museum. Her new piece, which also features seed., NikNak and the London Contemporary Orchestra, takes inspiration from women’s role in British music history in the Between the Wars Era.
*Deluxe Vinyl Package*
*** Smoke in the Sun color vinyl ***
gratitude comes on 140 gram vinyl (pressed at Pallas in Germany, with lacquers cut by Daniel K at SST) inside a heavyweight jacket, with insert sheet, IARC OBI strip and printed innersleeve.
And we have a limited edition color vinyl option for the first pressing only, available via our Bandcamp page, which is 333 copies of *Smoke in the Sun* color vinyl.
Spring Mondo Bundle
A beautiful new bundle for a new season of new releases!
For the fervent, faithful collector of our output.
Between mid-January and mid-April we will be announcing five (5) new albums - IARC0078 (Ruth Goller - SKYLLUMINA), IARC0081 (Cassie Kinoshi's seed. - gratitude), IARC0079, IARC0076, and IARC0080 - that will be available on CD, classic black vinyl, and limited edition color vinyl. The Spring Mondo Bundle combines all five titles into a single, beautiful parcel. Save money on shipping (they all come at once, as opposed to five individual shipments) plus an additional 5.5% discount on the retail value of the albums as an extra *thank you* for your trust in us.
Order the Spring Mondo Bundle on limited edition color vinyl here.
Order the Spring Mondo Bundle on classic black vinyl here.
Order the Summer Mondo Bundle on compact disc here.
Distribution via RedEye for USA, Canada, North & South America
Retailers in the United States or Canada or anywhere else inside of North, South and Central America... Please reach out to your sales rep at RedEye Worldwide if you are interested in making wholesale purchases of this album, or any other album in our catalog. Don't yet have a RedEye rep? Please just reach out to us and we'll get you hooked up!
Distribution via !K7 for Europe, UK, Australia, and ROW
This album will be distributed by our good friends at !K7 and their various territory partners in Europe, UK, Australia, and everywhere else in the world outside of North & South America.
If you are a retailer or store with questions about wholesale or are just looking to get some of our records... we'd like to make things as easy for you as possible, please do not hesitate to reach out!!!
((( Photos of seed. by Keziah Quarcoo and Daragh )))
((( collage with gratitude album cover art by GURIBOSH )))
