Emily Kuhn - LYDIALIEBMAN.COM

Feathered Things
Release Date: July 24, 2026
Label: Desafío Candente Records

Feathered Things, the new album from Chicago trumpeter Emily Kuhn and her quintet, is the follow-up to the acclaimed Ghosts of Us (2023), the record finds Kuhn and her bandmates pushing their sound into new territory while deepening the collective musical voice that has defined the group since its formation.

Kuhn wrote the album's eight compositions during a week-long residency at the OxBow School of Art, an artist colony tucked in the woods between the Kalamazoo River and Lake Michigan. The mid-winter landscape, with its picture-book snowfall and sweeping terrain, left a clear mark on the music. The songs use imagery of feathers, flight, fire, and snow to explore themes of hope and resilience, painting hope as something wild and fragile, tenacious and sometimes heartbreaking, but always essential.

Feathered Things carries forward the lush, spacious quality of Ghosts of Us, described by Matt Collar of AllMusic as "the kind of lyrical, spacious jazz that draws you deep within its cocoon-like atmosphere," while pushing in new directions. The album leans further into effected sounds and textures, introduces vocals, and experiments more boldly with structure and form through through-composed passages and odd-meter grooves. A folk sensibility runs throughout, shaped in part by the Appalachian old-time and klezmer music Kuhn grew up with, alongside the influence of contemporary artists like Brad Mehldau and Brian Blade.

The central suite of five songs spans a wide emotional arc. "For Those Left Behind," klezmer-tinged and prayer-like, opens with a meditation on heartbreak and loss. "Icarus," the album's vocal feature, retells the myth as an intimate conversation between a parent and child, exploring the tension between longing for freedom and the pull of connection and stability. "Wingspan," hard-edged and driven by a percussive odd-meter ostinato, channels grief and anger at the normalization of violence, and reaches toward hope. "As the Crow Flies" captures a moment of clarity, its melodic themes born from a ridge overlooking a vast snow-covered landscape on a trail in Western Michigan. The suite closes with "Gratitude," a hymn-like piece written after attending a concert and artist talk by Brad Mehldau, offering thanks for the capacity to make and receive art even in difficult times.

The quintet features Meghan Stagl on piano and vocals, Erik Skov on guitar, Kitt Lyles on bass, and Gustavo Cortiñas on drums. The five musicians have played together across Chicago's jazz and broader music scenes for over a decade, and the album reflects that shared musical language. Recorded shortly after a tour supported by the SouthArts Foundation, Feathered Things captures a band at ease with one another and willing to take risks.

Feathered Things was recorded by Andy Shoemaker in December 2024 at Rax Trax Recording in Chicago, with additional effects recorded and edited by Lyles in March 2025 at Saluda Records. The album was mixed by Shoemaker at Rax Trax and mastered by Anthony Gravino at High Cross Sound. Album art and design is by Marine Tempels Black. The recording was funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Kuhn composed the music during a residency at OxBow School of Art, sponsored by the Luminarts Cultural Foundation.