Lakecia Benjamin: We Dream auf CD

“Songs from my life, recently recorded, create a music montage with no beginnings or endings.” — NY On his new album, BEFORE AND AFTER, Young has approached a totally eclectic collection of mostly obscure songs like a painter with a new palette. Picking from a vast array of his originals, Young chooses favorites from his playbook like a trip into his music history and performs them mostly alone, taking a solo acoustic journey to a new place. Each of the songs blend and create one continuous flow, clocking in at a 48-minute pure and intimate listening experience. Produced by Lou Adler and Neil Young and mixed by Young and Niko Bolas, aka The Volume Dealers, this is unlike any other album he has released to date. Young describes BEFORE AND AFTER succinctly: “The feeling is captured, not in pieces, but as a whole piece — designed to be listened to that way. This music presentation defies shuffling, digital organization, separation. Only for listening. That says it all”. New versions of the songs themselves seamlessly move and morph with mesmerizing clarity, beginning with his earliest Buffalo Springfield appearance, "Burned," to the recent "Don't Forget Love" (from 2021’s BARN) and including the previously unreleased song “If You Got Love”. BEFORE AND AFTER will be available in four formats: vinyl LP; clear vinyl LP (Limited Edition)), Blu-Ray disc featuring Atmos mix, Binaural mix and Hi-Res 96 / 24 stereo; as well as Compact Disc. 1.046 „We Dream“ ist das neue Studioalbum der in New York lebenden Altsaxophonistin, Komponistin und Bandleaderin Lakecia Benjamin. Ihr sechstes Album und Debüt bei Artwork Records ist ein stark bandorientiertes Projekt und stellt Benjamins langjährige Weggefährten – die Pianisten Oscar Pérez und Miki Hayama sowie den Bassisten Elias Bailey – in den Mittelpunkt. Hinzu kommen neue Mitstreiter wie der Trompeter Sean Jones und der Schlagzeuger Jonathan Barber sowie eine Vielzahl von Gastmusikern aus Jazz, R&B, Hip-Hop und experimenteller Musik, darunter die Trompeter Terence Blanchard und Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, der Saxophonist Chris Potter, der Schlagzeuger Jeff „Tain“ Watts, die Pianistin Hiromi, Black Thought von The Roots, die Sänger Bilal und Tarriona „Tank“ Ball von Tank and the Bangas sowie der Schlagzeuger und Produzent Kassa Overall. Nach jahrelanger Zusammenarbeit mit Künstlern wie Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Prince, Missy Elliott, Anita Baker, Gregory Porter, Kool & the Gang und The Roots erscheint We Dream nach einer Phase erhöhter Bekanntheit für Benjamin und entfaltet sich als filmische, von Gedichten getragene Reise.