Devra Hoff

Baile as Baile is a deeply personal work by the bassist, composer and arranger Devra Hoff, played on several acoustic double basses, at times multi-tracked: original pieces inspired by traditional music and her own arrangements of traditional songs, with a longing lyricism and a meditative, centering sound.

The music comes from bass-as-primary-voice recordings Hoff had shared on her Bandcamp years ago, which the label hears as a companion to her Voices From the Empty Moor (Songs of Anne Briggs), a sort of inner dub of that album that came before it. Tara Jane O'Neil on prepared autoharp and Julia Holter on harmonium join her on two tracks. Hoff has played on more than a hundred records and co-leads Mendoza Hoff Revels with Ava Mendoza, whose Echolocation was among the best albums of 2023 for NPR, The New York Times and The Wire.

In her liner notes she writes of a search for an elusive sense of home, one that in the end has to be found, or built, within oneself. Released by AUM Fidelity (AUM121) in an edition of 500 CDs, six-panel digipak with photographs and liner notes by Devra Hoff.