Press
Praise for Where are the Arms:
“Where are the Arms conveys emotional intelligence along with its extravagant poise. It’s an album of empathy and reverie, with slippery complexities…” — The New York Times • full review
“On September 13, the composer/singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane unleashes what is typically considered one of the trickiest of musical creatures — the sophomore album. Conventional thought might dictate that an artist has two options: one, continue with the proven dynamic of the first album, but with added compositional devices or embellishments that reveal a deepening of the craft, or two, make an album that to a certain extent disregards the particular expectations brought by the debut in favor of a more liberating sonic palette. Kahane’s new album Where are the Arms succeeds at doing both.” — The Huffington Post • full review
[Gabriel Kahane has] made a beautiful record in Where are the Arms that seeks to bridge the gap that generally opens up between audience interest and attention when the songs get a little complicated. It’s a gap that he covers well. The “pop” element on Where Are The Arms is crisp and at moments incredibly intricate, but the melodies are singable and the story-songs fascinating studies in emotional and physical geography… Herein lies the success of Where Are The Arms: Gabriel Kahane pushes the musical envelope but only does so to compel his audience towards more sophisticated – and therefore rewarding – listening. — American Songwriter (four stars) • full review
also regarding the new record…
Village Voice profile
Studio 360 profile
LA Times Pop & Hiss profile
General press:
“AN ALL AROUND DAZZLING PERFORMANCE… THIS IS MUSIC WITH SOMETHING TO SAY.”
- The Los Angeles Times
“MR. KAHANE WRAPPED HIS STRONG CATCHY melodies and stylish piano playing in arrangements for strings, winds and brass that revealed a composer’s ear for color, balance and counterpoint. Mr. Kahane’s singing, comfortable and nuanced in past encounters, was a revelation here; at times he combined a pop balladeer’s directness with a jazz singer’s fluid phrasing, reaching new heights of expressiveness.”
- The New York Times
“[T]HERE IS NOBODY ELSE WITHIN THE POP-MUSIC sphere making music even remotely as sophisticated as what you’ll hear on [the self-titled debut from] Gabriel Kahane. This is music for the ears, the intellect and the soul, and an auspicious debut LP from one of the most prodigious talents we’ve got.”
- Prefix Magazine
“HIS MUSIC ABSORBS EVERYTHING FROM NINETEEN- twenties neoclassicism to blue-grass and modern indie pop with potent melodies bridging the disparate styles…in a setting of [Robert Lowell’s] The Drinker Kahane hit a vein of desolate beauty, dwelling obsesively on the phrase “foundering down.” His greatest asset is his sonorous, mesmerizing baritone; he brings to mind Sinatra in his wee-small-hours mood.”
- The New Yorker
KAHANE HAS ESTABLISHED A REPUTATION AS A musical chameleon producing works in a variety of genres from musical theater and pop songs to concert works. Orinoco Sketches is his largest orchestral work to date, but still takes the form of a song cycle, one of his preferred and most successful formats… It’s powerful stuff packaged in some fascinating music that mashes a kind of singer-songwriter confessional à la Nick Drake with the orchestral writing of Alban Berg. It is music that seems familiar but blooms periodically into something dark and wonderful… it was a starkly moving piece filled with the rhythms of Cuba and New Orleans before ending up on Fairfax Blvd. wondering about a hellish world on the other side of the earth. It was certainly the high-point of the program.”
- OutWestArts.blogspot.com
“THE INSTRUMENTAL PARTS, AT TIMES, MIGHT BE purely classical compositions all by themselves, thoughtful, and above all wrought—carefully balanced, with contrasting melodies coexisting with each other, along with complex rhythms, and little strains of music that register like sharp, sure thoughts, or like images in a carefully crafted short story…
- Wall Street Journal
“GABRIEL KAHANE IS AN NPR PROGRAMMER’S WET dream…From a sonic standpoint, Kahane’s restlessness and ingenuity match the precociousness of his words, the album often abandoning pop’s expected patterns of build and release with a less-predictable approach that comes closer to musical theatre.”
- Pitchfork
“GABRIEL’S EVOCATIVE WORKS, WRITTEN WITH A contemporary singer-songwriter sensibility, contain sophisticated, classical-tinged accompaniments that seem to echo the Schubert at times. Gabriel has a light, buoyant voice with an air of vulnerability that suited these songs, as well as four classical art songs, including his poignant, transporting take on Charles Ives’ “Tom Sails Away.” Other highlights included two selections from the younger Kahane’s witty and wonderfully inventive Craigslistlieder. (How soon can he come back to perform the work in its entirety?).”
- The Denver Post
