HYMNS FOR PRIVATE USE | NIGHT AFTER NIGHT: ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Night After Night

For the Record: Nov. 4, 2022.

Steve Smith

Last Friday, Akropolis Reed Quintet issued a new album titled Hymns for Private Use,comprising appealing new compositions by Nico Muhly and Annika K. Socolofsky. Muhly's work, which lent its title to the album, is a set of five lovely, human-scale devotionals, sung by Shara Nova in her characteristically arresting manner.

Socolofsky's so much more also features the voice: specifically, spoken testimony from seven small business owners who live and work in four states, interviewed during the long months of pandemic shutdown in 2020. Full disclosure: In addition to being an excellent composer and performer, Socolofsky is a friendly acquaintance who I tapped several times to write some of the most popular and engaging essays published by National Sawdust Log—so I'm not at all surprised by her ability to identify and illuminate common threads among disparate narratives of pride and perseverence, and then weave them together with infectious music.

Turns out, the music is just half of the story. The project also includes a video by filmmaker Xuan, who similarly strikes an elegant balance among the various elements at play. Speech and music combine with documentary video and colorful design, resulting in an irresistibly optimistic hymn to community.