We're Creating a New Album!
We're Jacob's Ladder (Ariel Wyner, G Rockwell, and Sofia Chiarandini from left to right, comfortably positioned above in our natural habitat), and we're so ecstatic to be putting out "Hamakom", our 2nd full length album of Jewish music out to the world! While these recordings will be brand new, many of the songs themselves are ones we have been so lucky to share with the world over the last year.
It has truly been a blessing to bring our music, centered in rich, soulful, prayerful Jewish connection to a wide array of Jewish spaces. Our approach to this music (and if you've sung with us you know this) is rooted in our background in American roots music, folk, Americana, and bluegrass. To us, the marriage between these styles with communal prayer, nigun, and other Jewish musical influences is our truest and most authentic expression of our identities as American Jews. Since our inception, we have been on a mission to bring this sound and that feeling of authenticity and connection into Jewish spaces since 2022!
In order for us to continue to bring more of this music into the world (and into your bluetooth ear buds), we are counting on your support to help fund the rest of this album. This is our most ambitious project yet: it will feature 14 total tracks, including 2 covers, 12 original melodies, a vocal ensemble curated and arranged by the incredible Mayta Cohen of Berkalit, and 6 music videos (including 3 live recordings) to be filmed and edited by the masterful Athanasios Lazarou (check out our recent collab here).
In total, after we pay our incredible musicians, cover studio, production, engineering, mixing, mastering, video, and distribution costs, the project is estimated to cost over $35,000+. Thankfully, we have received more than half of our incredible donations and support from a number of sponsors already. All-in-all, we are still in need of about $15,000 to complete the album, and we are counting on your support!
Our first single off the album, "Nigun Hoda'ah / Pogo Big" is the epitome soundscape of this album-
up-beat, eclectic, soulful, spiritual, and rootsy. Watch above!
This album is very much a sequel to Beit El (which you can listen to here) in theme, purpose and soundscape. The concept of "space" continues to be a central theme in our music, and has inspired the name of our forthcoming album, Hamakom, or "The Place", the location in the Torah where Jacob had his famous dream (and yes, what our band is named after!)
On a musical level, this album really tries to capture both our authentic stage sound over the past year, most notably featuring the fairly prominent addition of drums and percussion to our core sound (thanks to Dor Herskovits our drummer extraordinaire), as well as our overall musical evolution and journey. As we continue to explore our own identities through music and Judaism, look out for more middle eastern musical grooves, lines and textures, Jewish simcha party vibes, jam-bandy instrumental sections, delicious harmonies and vocals arranged by the award-winning Jewish A Capella star Mayta Cohen, and free-form communal song. Not to worry- there will still be a TON of bluegrass and those sweet driving sounds of the banjo and fiddle.
We have had such a blast collaborating with so many Jewish musicians over the past two years, and we are thrilled to bring on a number of guests, including Zach Mayer, Yoni Avi Battat, Itay Dayan, Richie Barshay, and many more artists!
Spiritually, Hamakom is about finding a deep sense of belonging both in physical spaces (like synagogues), and spiritual homes (like community!) We have gotten to learn so much from our residencies about the many ways in which varying Jewish communities practice, worship, connect, and present in their beautiful sanctuaries and prayer spaces.
One of the central reasons we create and pour our hearts into Jewish music is to create a metaphorical, spiritual home that all of us can share and be apart of, no matter how different our Jewish expressions, prayer structures, culture, opinions, and politics can be. At the end of the day, we are all cut from the same cloth, and we all want to connect and be connected, to love and be loved. We hope our new album can do just that: to bring us together—not just as Jews—but as human beings.
We'd Love Your Support!
We would also like to express our utmost gratitude to Temple Beth-El and Congregation Beth Shalom of Providence, Woodlands Community Temple (NY), Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, Temple Sinai of Brookline, Mishkan Tefilah of Brookline, Central Synagogue (NY), Kehillath Israel of Brookline for your resources and incredible space, and the Wyner, Cairo-Sosnik, Winnick, Visser, Glasgow, and Terdiman families for your generous contributions to the album thus far.
Guess what?
You can be on our new album!
Wait, seriously? Yes, you read that right! We are offering a unique experience on August 7th (doors at 7:00 PM) at Kehillath Israel in Brookline, where you can come for a behind-the-scenes participatory live recording session. Over the course of the evening, you will get to join us for an opportunity to watch us rehearse, perform, and record 3 songs off this project. This session is an homage to the style of music-making we have highlighed through our Melave Malka series- all encompassing, inclusive, soulful, raw, and spontaneous sounds of communal song. For 2 out of 3 of these songs, we need your help! We will be calling YOU to add your voices.
Reminder that this is a recording session and not a concert. There will be many moments where we are working out arrangements and tweaking things, sometimes starting over in the middle of a song if needed. Spots are limited. Register below and learn more to participate! We will offer first come first serve, so sign up now:
This session, recording, musician, engineering costs and space has been generously sponsored by Kehillath Israel of Brookline.
