Joka
New record from Kyle Morton and Gidon Carmel. Out now.
Dear Reader,
JOKA, my new record with Gidon Carmel, is out now.
Berlin, in the summer of 2023, Gidon and I started recording this very special project. Gidon had reached out to me initially as a Typhoon fan (specifically Offerings, to give you an idea of the aesthetic) with an idea for a concept record. He wanted to tell the story of his late grandmother, Joka—a Hungarian Jew who survived Auschwitz—through a song-cycle of eleven songs, each one told through the perspective of different characters based on real people from her life.
When Gidon approached me, he had already mapped out the broad concept—the characters, the arc, the ending—all of it. He had translated the diary of his great-grandmother (Joka’s mother) which informed much of the record. But Gidon also wanted the lyrics to be in English: his third language. So there was my opening.
Initially, we workshopped a bunch of rough demos and sent them back and forth remotely. In June, I flew to Germany where we finished writing the music while tracking all the instrumentation. But the bulk of our time was spent working on lyrics. In taking on this project, there was immense pressure to get it right. In making art about atrocity, there’s the inherent risk (perhaps inevitable) of trivializing the subject matter. The general paradox is as follows: the more the artist tries to capture the full scope of the horror, the more disingenuous the art becomes. So we tried to hem as closely to the specific, personal details as possible; locating the memory of an ordinary person amidst the extraordinary cruelty.
A project like this is impossible without a good deal of trust. I am so grateful to Gidon for inviting me into his life and trusting me with his family’s memory. We spent so much time together—pouring over historical records, reading philosophy and fiction, going over the same one lyric for hours and hours, trying to understand what it meant to live during such times, what it means to be alive now—that we became ourselves like family.
Most of the album was recorded at Lone Pine Berlin, the studio run by Gidon and his studio partner Lucas Laufen. Strings by the brilliant Jean-Louise Parker were recorded at the legendary Funkhaus Berlin. Final vocals were recorded at my home in Portland.
The record features three guest vocalists: Lena Minder (Gidon’s wife) sang “Gitta the Mother - 1945,” my good friend, Jordan Bagnall, sang “Aggi the friend - 1970,” and my lovely wife, Danielle Sullivan, sang on the last song, “Joka.”
Mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman // Mastered by Adam Gonsalves.
We hope it stays with you.
Yrs,
k
“Bundy the Husband - 1956” Acoustic (Filmed & Edited by Matthew Thomas Ross)
Available now from Pop-Up Records on all streaming services (with the exception of spotify)
Adorno and how you take the "after" . . .
This is such a great collaboration. Kudos to every one of you! I’m finding myself coming back to Robi the Brother often this week