Janel Leppin's
Ensemble Volcanic Ash
• Ensemble Volcanic Ash - Best of Jazz Albums, Jazztimes
• Ensemble Volcanic Ash - Best of Jazz Albums, Bandcamp
• Ensemble Volcanic Ash - Best of Jazz Albums 2025, Popmatters
• Ensemble Volcanic Ash - Best of Jazz Albums, Capitol Bop
Janel Leppin is a picture of versatility. Not only has she been a pillar of the international creative music community for the last 20 years, but the cellist, composer, arranger, and singer has made significant marks in other scenes as well. She’s contributed cello arrangements to the Messthetics, played with punk outfit Priests, and records art-pop under the Mellow Diamond moniker.
Leppin leans into a jazz-centric vision on the majestic and occasionally abrasive Ensemble Volcanic Ash, which affirms her place as a boundless musician who constantly leaves the listener intrigued. It’s a puzzle in which jazz, chamber music, contemporary classical, and punk seamlessly coalesce with bracing results.
The epic album establishes Leppin as clear leader of this mighty troupe, her bows, scrapes, and clatter illuminating a wide range of soul-baring emotions while her band serves as a rhythmic beacon of light. ENSEMBLE VOLCANIC ASH runs the gamut of the meditative ("Her Hand Is His Score"), the spiritual-jazzy ("Clarity"), and the punkish freakout ("She Had Synesthesia") with near-effortless command on its dazzling debut.
- BRAD COHAN, JAZZTIMES EDITOR'S PICK
On The Web:
• Janel Leppin Official Website
• Janel Leppin on Facebook
• Janel Leppin on Instagram
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BJANEL LEPPIN
(Cello)
BRIAN SETTLES
(Tenor Sax)
LARRY FERGUSON
(Drums)
ANTHONY PIROG
(Guitar)
"An Absolute Virtuoso - 4 Stars!"
- DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE
"Leppin’s cello is expressive, and Pirog’s solo is a fiery, wild thing — with bits of John McLaughlin and plenty of Sonny Sharrock blending into overdriven electronics. The band has a wide range of gears, from ominous balladry that can move into sustained chaos to wide open spaces of shivering impressionism."
- WILL LAYMAN, POP MATTERS
"It’s rare to encounter a recording with the kind of melodic richness delivered by the latest from Janel Leppin. The magic of the melodies on Ensemble Volcanic Ash is in both their voicing and their motion, behaving like a river that marks the path and carries passengers along by the force of its currents. The mix of chamber jazz, art rock, contemporary classical, and electronic music are merely facets through which the melodies becomes focused, like glass soaking in sunbeams and spitting it back out in a prismatic light show. I’m pretty addicted to this record, and don’t anticipate that waning any time soon; your results may vary—but I doubt it. ...To March is to Love spent too long in my "to listen to" list, so please do not make the same mistake now that you are in the know. This is a fantastic album that will help you keep the fire burning during the coldest of times."
- FREE JAZZ COLLECTIVE