Jupiter Nights: Emily Ritz // Jackie West // Shana Falana
DOORS 7PM, MUSIC 8PM
At the Basilica Gallery Building
108 South Front Street, Hudson, NY 12534 (right next to the main building on our campus)
JUPITER NIGHTS – Basilica Hudson’s new weekly series of arts events in our Gallery Building – continues with an evening of dreamy singer-songwriter bliss featuring local artists Emily Ritz, Jackie West and Shana Falana.
Emily Ritz
Musician and multidisciplinary visual artist, Emily Ritz lives a life immersed in creativity. Emily makes tender, exploratory work which draws as much on the harmonious swells and hollows of the natural world, as on personal experience and internal work around self-acceptance and love.
Arranged and produced in Northern CA by Here We Go Magic’s Luke Temple, her sophomore album In Love Alone is a record of roomy and expansive neo-soul with a psychedelic pop twist. While classic elements of jazz and R&B can be heard, Ritz’s sound is enticingly off-kilter due to her subtly unusual melodic choices and inventive use of electronic manipulation. She uses her voice to weave complex harmonies and avant-garde patterns while delivering poignant and romantic lyrics. Now based in Los Angeles, Emily is releasing some new singles she produced in quarantine and working on her third album.
JACKIE WEST
Jackie West is a singer/songwriter from Brooklyn whose music explores deep inner landscapes, depicting them through song as a means to find freedom within self and clear insight in life. Her use of magical realism, dream-like non-linearity through story-song emphasizes playfulness within emotional depth. West writes on classical guitar and transfers arrangements to play as a fully electric band which creates the opportunity to experience her songs in different setups. West’s debut EP was released in early ’22 on Westernnesse Records and was compared to early Nick Drake compositions. Jackie West will release her first full-length album in early ’23.
Shana Falana
The latest from NY psych/shoegaze rocker Shana Falana, Darkest Light (Arrowhawk Records) explores extreme contrasts and the process of conversion. From anthemic pop (“Go Higher”) into gutsy sludge rock (title track) and moments of elegant, minimalist beauty (“Come and Find Me”), Darkest Light is described by Falana as “druggy music by sober people.” In her 40s and owning it, the veteran of the San Francisco and Brooklyn experimental pop scenes finds themes of rebirth and empowerment in the darkest materials. Falana worked for the third time with producer D. James Goodwin (Kevin Morby, Wand) to craft a record of great sonic and thematic substance. Shana combines live looping of reverb-drenched vocals and guitar with tribal drums and stunning visual projections. Her live experience has often been described as transcendental.
“Psychedelic dream pop dashed on the rocks of goth defiance” -Stereogum
“If you want to zone out, Shana Falana’s alluring debut LP gives many opportunities to do so.” -Pitchfork