For their new album, the expansive jazz group Snarky Puppy collaborated with Metropole Orkest. The live recording is the band’s grandest feat yet.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
All right, y’all, it is Friday, and as always, we like to usher in the weekend with some new tunes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SNARKY PUPPY AND METROPOLE ORKEST’S “WAVES UPON WAVES”)
SUMMERS: Snarky Puppy, the five-time Grammy Award-winning band known for its thrilling live performances is back with a new album today. It’s called “Somni.” And the music was recorded during three nights of performances with Dutch group Metropole Orkest in the Netherlands earlier this year. Here today to talk with me about it is Justus Sanchez from NPR member station KNKX in Seattle and Tacoma. Hi there.
JUSTUS SANCHEZ, BYLINE: Hello. Thanks for having me.
SUMMERS: Thanks for being here. OK, Justus, so Snarky Puppy has made a name for itself over the years, but tell me, how would you describe the music?
SANCHEZ: Yeah. So over the last two decades, Snarky Puppy, they have made a name for themselves creating these rich, exploratory soundscapes that really encompass a whole bunch of different styles. And the main guy behind the sound is the bassist and composer Michael League. And he grew up playing jazz and lots of other different styles as well, so their sound is very expansive. And there – on this record, “Somni,” there is these incredible symphonic movements and great horn sections.
But at the same time, too, it’s incredibly funky in a lot of places. There’s plenty of world rhythms and big grooves. And also there’s plenty of space in the songs where musicians get to let loose on some solos, which is – coming from a jazz station, is one of my favorite things.
(SOUNDBITE OF SNARKY PUPPY AND METROPOLE ORKEST’S “AS YOU ARE BUT NOT AS YOU WERE”)
SANCHEZ: I like that you never quite know what to expect with this band and the record as you listen. I’d say that is one of the cornerstones of Snarky Puppy. Like the track “Chimera,” which takes a dark, ominous turn after a few songs that have a little bit brighter moods.
(SOUNDBITE OF SNARKY PUPPY AND METROPOLE ORKEST’S “CHIMERA”)
SUMMERS: I mean, you can totally hear that there. Justus, this music was recorded live. Tell us about those shows.
SANCHEZ: So back in January of this year, they did this in front of a live audience in the Netherlands for three nights with the Metropole Orkest, one of the world’s premier orchestras today. And they were conducted by Jules Buckley. And beyond this second project with Snarky Puppy, he’s worked with Tori Amos, Michael Kiwanuka and just so many more.
But Snarky Puppy – this is their biggest and most ambitious project yet. After they finished the concert, they posted some really great stats that illustrate kind of the vastness of the project. So there was, like, 74 musicians involved from the orchestra to the chorus. Snarky Puppy, which is 20 people on its own – they used 410 headphones during the performance, and there was 256 channels of audio.
SUMMERS: Wow.
SANCHEZ: And the crew in total was about 102 people. And that includes a film crew, as well. So you’ll be able to watch the video of the whole performance on YouTube at some point. So it’s a great feat. And just another standout thing about this record is the vastness of the project.
(SOUNDBITE OF SNARKY PUPPY AND METROPOLE ORKEST’S “BETWEEN WORLDS”)
SUMMERS: I mean, that sounds pretty impressive. Now, the new album is called “Somni.” Tell us about the title and, like, what’s the overall vibe that they’re going for?
SANCHEZ: Yeah. So the themes of the album come from a place within the mind of Michael League – quite literally because it is called “Somni,” which is the Catalan word for dreams. He moved to the Catalan region of Spain from Brooklyn in 2018, and the album explores kind of the peculiar, otherworldly, shape-shifting themes that happen in our dreams, and it’s kind of like if they had a soundtrack. So each piece is supposed to represent a different part of the experience of dreams and being asleep. And one of the themes is recurring dreams, and that is explored on the vast track “Recurrent.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SNARKY PUPPY AND METROPOLE ORKEST’S “RECURRENT”)
SUMMERS: The last time that Snarky Puppy and Metropole Orkest collaborated, I know that they won the Grammy for best contemporary instrumental album. I haven’t heard that album, so can you just tell me, like, how does this album compare?
SANCHEZ: Yeah. So 2016, they had a project together called “Sylva,” and sonically, though, I’d say that that album is a little bit more minimalistic. There are some smoother electric tones on that one. But if you end up liking “Somni,” you’ll enjoy that album, too, and vice versa because the grooves and the spectacular musicianship and the big arrangements are all there as well.
SUMMERS: That’s Justus Sanchez of KNKX in Seattle and Tacoma. You can hear more from Justus on the New Music Friday podcast from NPR Music. And “Somni,” the new album from Snarky Puppy and Metropole Orkest, is out now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SNARKY PUPPY AND METROPOLE ORKEST’S “RECURRENT”)
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