2 of 5 James Brandon Lewis 3 of 5 Damon Locks 4 of 5 Alexa Tarantino 5 of 5 Roxana Amed
Jen Shyu, Living s a Gift | Part 3: My Unsolved Regrets
Zero Grasses: Ritual For the Losses is the latest artistic statement from Jen Shyu, a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer with the blazing heart of an artist and the curious mind of an ethnographer. It seems unlikely that we ll encounter another album this year with a more striking balance of formal invention and personal revelation.
One of the losses ritualized in Shyu s album title refers to her father, who died in 2019. Another is poignantly realized on Lament for Breonna Taylor. And on a suite in four parts titled Living s a Gift, Shyu incorporates lyrics composed by middle school students, describing the surreal privations of their pandemic experience.