2023 Albums to Date: Ben Sloan + Spektral Quartet & Julia Holter & Alex Temple + Molly Joyce

2023 TO DATE

It’s been a terribly exciting year at Camp NewAm. Here are the albums we’ve released to date.

Ben Sloan • muted colors • Mar. 24, 2023

On March 24, 2023, percussionist and producer Ben Sloan, who has performed and recorded with The National, Moses Sumney, Beth Orton, Mouse on Mars, Rozi Plain, Serengeti, and WHY?, released his debut album, muted colors, a shapeshifting exploration of genre-fluid sound. And he brings a few of these friends on the journey. Featuring Sumney, Serengeti, Liz and Josiah Wolf of WHY?, and Felicia Douglass of Dirty Projectors, Sloan’s debut was culled from his digital scrapbook—old hard-drives, folders, field recordings, studio sessions, and countless voice memos—resulting in a time capsule-type album that feels frenetic, yet contemplative, betraying a heavy core beneath a flitting surface.

Spektral Quartet & Julia Holter & Alex Temple • Behind the Wallpaper • Mar. 3, 2023

On March 3, 2023, Spektral Quartet, a multi-GRAMMY-nominated ensemble “obliterating the dividing line between past and present” (The New Yorker), and Julia Holter, a “haunting,” “mesmerizing,” and “mysterious” singer (Pitchfork), released Behind the Wallpaper. Composed by Alex Temple, whose gender transition inspired this stylistically unpredictable and mysterious new work, Behind the Wallpaper is “atmospheric with ambiguous tonality, drawing chuckles along with hushed curiosity.” (The New York Times)

Molly Joyce • Open Arms EP • Jan. 27, 2023

On Jan. 27, 2023, Molly Joyce, an artist motivated by and through and because of disability, released Open Arms, the companion EP to her new critically acclaimed album, Perspective. Released on Oct. 28, 2022, Perspective is “a powerful work of love and empathy that underscores the poison of ableism in American culture” (Pitchfork), “a powerful ongoing project … charged by an intense composer/performer relationship” (The Wire).