lex korten at close up, nyc, sep 18 - canopy album release show - first set

• photography by ©Clara Pereira / text by Filipe Freitas

The up-and-coming New York pianist and composer Lex Korten led his quintet — vocalist Clair Dickson, alto saxophonist David Leon, guitarist Tal Yahalom, and drummer Stephen Boegehold — on Thursday at Lower East Side’s Close Up, in celebration of his debut album Canopy, a 14-track plunge into modern composition and hovering experimental soundscapes.

They opened with “Abyssal Sleep”, eruptive at the start and ethereal by its close, before sliding into “Air Below Sky”, an intergalactic exploration driven by a samba-like pulse and shifting passages that alternated between quiet reflection and forward momentum. Yahalom added sharp, tension-filled improvisations that pushed the piece further into orbit. 

Korten’s piano — sometimes tracing abstract shapes, sometimes running through dynamic cyclical patterns — often entwined with Yahalom’s guitar, which painted in atmospheric sweeps. Leon’s saxophone shadings ran in the background, adding extra color to the textures, while Boegehold’s rhythmic pulses infused the music with variable yet richly calibrated energy.

Highlights included “A Sunshower Vignette”, a charming waltz that landed on sturdy, memorable riffs, and the indie-rock tinged “Oasis Without”, the album’s opener, saved here for a striking finale. Before closing the night, the pianist thanked his bandmates and Lee Meadvin, in attendance, for his extraordinary post-production work on the record.
Combining surrealism and grittiness, Korten’s compositions establish him as an artist whose next steps are well worth following.