Join Eve Essex and Soap Library to celebrate the release of The Fabulous Truth. Essex's second solo album sets jewel-like portraits of rebellion against a velvet-black background of stormy electronics and uneasy minimalism. Featuring her first music for ensembles and big-band, the record showcases a host of performers from NYC's underground and beyond, including features by guitarists jenghis and Luke Moldof, and legendary trombonist Peter Zummo.
Streaming + Download
Pre-order of The Fabulous Truth. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
Purchasable with gift card
releases June 21, 2024
$7USD or more
Cassette + Digital Album
Includes digital pre-order of The Fabulous Truth.
You get 1 track now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
shipping out on or around June 21, 2024
edition of 100
$10USDor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Includes digital pre-order of The Fabulous Truth.
You get 1 track now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
After a misspent youth
The hammer came down
I gave up my grudges
I nipped them in the root
And I got lost in the crowd
When you drop your illusions
You’ll recognize the sound
Take haste, preserve them
You’ll come down
And you’ll come around
Oh the fabulous truth
You’ll come down
Oh the fabulous truth
You’ll come around
What is a want
I’m addicted to your security
How can I not be a burden to your needs
How can I not present my identity
A view to the past is also a path
2.
Disturbing Absence
3.
Soft Cage feat. Luke Moldof
4.
Virginia Reed
5.
Room With A View
6.
The Lieutenant Nun
7.
Orlando
8.
Honeypot feat. Peter Zummo
about
The Fabulous Truth is an homage to the anti-hero — an eight song suite that explores moral ambiguities, life in the shadows, and the possibility of escape from social expectations. The second full-length album by composer and multi-instrumentalist Eve Essex, The Fabulous Truth is both an ecstatic paean to liberty and an intense look at the psychological prices paid for seeking independence in an unforgiving world.
Drawing on influences as diverse as trip-hop, outlaw country, kosmische, spiritual jazz, avant-garde classical, and—yes—musical theater, Essex sets jewel-like portraits of rebellion against a velvet-black background of stormy electronics and uneasy minimalism. The album treats genre with a freewheeling attitude, and Essex’s confident sound is augmented by musicians including guitarists jenghis and Luke Moldof, and downtown New York music legend Peter Zummo on trombone and euphonium. Intimate lyrics—confessional in tone, literary, striking in their bold mutations of classic songwriting genres—are contrasted with brooding compositions that evoke long journeys across vast landscapes and continents; wagon trains and ship voyages taken in pursuit of a new life, the view from a satellite orbiting the Earth at high speed. The Fabulous Truth is an album about freedom and boundaries, intimacy and security, raising questions about who you let into your life and why.
Eve Essex is a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Brooklyn, NY. She performs with woodwinds and voice, accompanied by instrumental ensembles, and by arrangements that use synthesizers, drum machines, live processing, and other sounds. Her work slides easily from structured electronic pop to open-ended melodic improvisation and big-band arrangements. She has scored film soundtracks, written music for installation and performance art, and explored prog, jazz, and electroacoustic ideas with groups including The Fabulous Truth, Das Audit, and a host of other collaborations. Essex’s debut solo album, Here Appear, was jointly released by Soap Library (cassette) and Sky Walking (LP) in 2018. In the summer of 2024, she will be Composer In Residence at Crosstown Arts in Memphis, TN. As a featured instrumentalist, she has contributed to works by The God In Hackney, Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra, James K, Kevin Kenkel, Liturgy, Colin Self, Mike Shiflet, UCC Harlo, and Peter Zummo, among others.
The Fabulous Truth releases on June 21, 2024 via Soap Library in digital, cassette, and LP formats — a first for the label. Cassettes are accompanied by an embroidered patch that mirrors James J.A. Mercer’s cover artwork.
credits
releases June 21, 2024
Music written and produced by Eve Essex
Text by Eve Essex except Orlando, adapted from Virginia Woolf's Orlando
Mastered by Adrian Morgan, Timeless Mastering
Mix and vocal recordings by Al Carlson, Gary’s Electric, Brooklyn, NY
Piano recorded by Jason Borisoff at Conveyor, Brooklyn, NY (4, 7, 8)
Drums recorded by Vishal Nayak at So Percussion Studio, Brooklyn, NY (4, 8)
Band for The Lieutenant Nun recorded by Andrew Sheron at Conveyor, Brooklyn, NY
Piccolo (5) and alto sax (3) recorded live at KAJE, Brooklyn, NY
Cover art by James J.A. Mercer
Design and layout by J. Compolo
Additional design support from Justin Q. Martin
Project management by Kerry Santullo
CAT#: SL021
Performed by Eve Essex (winds, voice, electronics) with:
Francesca Caruso, violin (4, 5, 7, 8)
Dan Fox, bass (6)
Sarah Galdes, drums (4, 8)
Anne Garlid, viola (4, 5, 7, 8) and backup vocals (4, 8)
Lee Gauthier, pedal steel (7)
Max Gordon, piano and organ (4, 6, 7, 8)
Gretta Johnson, backup vocals (4, 8)
Kevin Kenkel, drums (6)
Jenghis Manning-Pettit, guitar (1)
Luke Moldof, guitar (3) and pedal steel (6)
Hazel Rigby, bass (4, 8)
John Swartz, cello (4, 5, 7, 8)
Peter Zummo, trombone, euphonium (8)
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Eve Essex performs with winds, voice and electronics, harnessing elements of distorted pop, avant-jazz, chamber music and drone.
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