Morning Music [LP]

Mia Doi Todd is known for her quiet, haunting songs, usually conveyed through her evocative andinstantly recognizable voice. With a deep body of work spanning twelve albums, and as a formidablecollaborator on records by Laraaji, Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio), Scientist, and more recentlywith André 3000 and Carlos Niño on New Blue Sun, Mia is an essential element in the richly wovenmusical tapestry of her native Los Angeles.Morning Music is an instrumental, ambient experience unlike anything else in her catalog. Originallyreleased as a CD in 2009 and now available for the first time on vinyl, Mia chose to forgo vocalexpression and give full range to the voices of her instruments and the sounds around them. It is agorgeous, softly stirring work of art that makes full use of it's minimal elements. Mia recorded and mixedthe tracks at her own Château des Chats Studio in Frogtown, Los Angeles, playing harmonium, piano, tinwhistle, tamboura, acoustic guitar, and drums. On the tracks "Samai'i" and "Emotion," she is joined bymulti-instrumentalist Andres Renteria on cajon, piano, wooden stool, and udu. Birds and traffic, heardsoftly in the distance, feel like a natural and comforting part of the proceedings. The small dramas of thepiano and tin whistle resolve themselves peacefully, like thoughts arising and falling in meditation.However one chooses to listen, Morning Music is a lovely and aptly named collection of musicto encourage even the weariest minds and bodies to quietly awaken.