Seishin Takeno's "Echoes," a sonic postcard from Kanagawa. Nine instrumental pieces, I've been told. Not nine songs, mind you – more like nine shaded windows into a particular kind of quiet. This isn't music that yells; it leans in, like a friend confiding a secret you half-hear on a summer porch. Immediately, you're not so much listening as remembering. Or maybe anticipating. It feels...

After a lengthy career of working with others, Grey Tower Heights was created as a solo effort. Melancholy permeates the tracks, which deal with the loss of love, fragility, and our frail sense of self. https://soundcloud.com/grey-tower-heights Songs with haunting voices and rich harmonies boost the piano-driven, lyrically sombre, and narratively oriented compositions. In Grey Tower Heights, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave are among the...