I love this record! A song cycle in the true sense or the word, with Emily Wittbrodt’s lyrics embedded in soft, warm melodies. Ten instrumentals and songs in total, carried by harpsichord, cello, drums, clarinet, accordion and a fragile voice of opera singer Sandro Hähnel. Emily’s strategy was composing the melodies while keeping the pitch based on her own voice which forced Hähnel to sing outside of his comfortable range.

“For Wearing Words Wittbrodt decided to write the melodies using a kind of dummy text, laying in words and syllables that fit the shape of the melodic forms she had composed. Having an empty imprint of a melody, Wittbrodt carefully searched for words to fill the melodic shapes.

In Wearing Words Wittbrodt is combining her lifelong fascination for language and poetry with her deep interest for unusual instrumentations and classical forms of composition, like Lied, music theater or baroque recitatives and arias.

“With precision, humor and grace Wearing Words is translating an almost baroque sensibility into pop music terrain, with the sort of pathos one expects from Rufus Wainwright or Anohni.” (label notes)

musicians on Wearing Words:
Emily Wittbrodt: cello/harpsichord/synths/guitar/theremin/piano
Jan Philipp: drums/synths
Sandro Hähnel: voice
Tizia Zimmermann: accordion
Shabnam Parvaresh: clarinet and bass clarinet
David Helm: Bass/Harpsichord