Metamorphosis

new album out on Colorfield records September 12!

Both unflinchingly experimental and undeniably listenable, Metamorphosis is a mid-career reinvention from masterful vocalist Holly Palmer. Conceived with producer / multi-instrumentalist Pete Min, and developed in the studio through improvisation and experimentation, the result is jazz-inflected art-pop, as warm, playful and inviting as it is uncategorizable, a record brimming with radiant supporting performances from heavyweights like Cuong Vu, Jeff Parker, Benny Bock, Jay Bellerose, and Blackstar rhythm section Mark Guiliana and Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie.)

Though the record contains no decipherable words, it speaks volumes about Palmer’s life and artistry as a professional singer with a Master’s in Vocal Arts and Opera, a vocologist, and devotee of voice science. This record explores and pushes the bounds of singing, with entirely new sounds. “Metamorphosis is an album about turning into the thing, the person, the force, the energy that you’ve been headed for all along,” Palmer says. “I thought my life was headed in one direction and at a certain point, everything shifted and took on a different shape. That’s the ‘metamorphosis’ that this album embodies. That’s the ‘metamorphosis’ that this album is singing about.”

It is crucial to note that however improvisatory and exploratory, Metamorphosis is not a recording of jam sessions. While each contributor had an indispensable role, Palmer and Min ultimately built and shaped tightly focused, art-pop gems that recall the groove and vocal world-building of Tune-Yards while being also akin to the avant vocal jazz of Jeanne Lee’s Conspiracy. There are notable parallels with Min’s recent collaboration with Joey Waronker, and other contemporaries Resavoir, and Carlos Niño. But this is a profoundly personal album overflowing with Palmer’s uniquely expressive sounds and a sense of her own forward-thinking outlook. “This marks a new phase of my musicianship and writing approach,” Palmer says. “We made this album for the love of making the music, and no other agenda. I had no idea that we’d end up with such a personal statement.” It is a record, Palmer says, which is “full of feelings I’d previously not found a way to express.”