The Things We Always Think About
Alex Ellsworth delivers his debut album with aplomb and deft storytelling. The Things We Always Think About is filled with chatty lyrics that revel in contradiction and playful ambiguity. The tracks alternate between vocal ballads and instrumental character pieces, developing from almost childlike simplicity into mature intricacy and back again. It takes inspiration from folk, jazz, chamber pop, Latin, electronic, and orchestral textures, achieving a freshness that inspires listeners to return for comfort and vivification.
The album features compositions, cello, and vocals by Alex Ellsworth with contributions by Jerome Kava (violin and viola), Grayson Nye (piano), Hannah Frances (vocals), Matt Smalligan (percussion), Matty Witney (guitar and electric bass), Mark Tulk (audio engineering, mixing and mastering), Nathan Roseboom (audio engineering), Niika (vocals), Chet Zenor (guitar), Will Barnard (electric bass),and Zachary Good (clarinets and recorders). The album art is by Rob Kelsey.
Alex Ellsworth is a cellist-songwriter whose instrument sometimes evokes the sound of a guitar, other times a flute, a fiddle, bird calls, ambient electronics, or the human voice. Alex is originally from Plymouth, NH and came of age in Chicago, touring with the cinematic shadow puppetry company Manual Cinema and co-founding the artist collective Mocrep. He is a former member of Civic Orchestra of Chicago, former Music Director at Holderness School, and has performed on stages in nine countries and three continents. His music is imbued with a lighthearted spirit and the varied creative sensibilities of his collaborators.
