Low Leaf is the long-running and multivalent project of Los Angeleno and multi-instrumentalist Angelica-Marie. Riding the wake of 2023’s Microdose—melding/channeling free jazz, astrology, hip-hop, eco-spirituality, and geo-political anger—Red Moon is a tight, three-song release, a snapshot of Low Leaf during an especially dynamic period. Having received training in classical piano as a child, Low Leaf is equally adept as a self-taught guitarist, harpist, and producer. Indeed, these four elements (piano, guitar, harp, and beats/sound design)—their balance, fusion, and occasional clashings—constitute the project’s essential ingredients, though notably there is no guitar featured in Red Moon.

Fittingly, Red Moon begins with a live rendition of “Blue Nile,” a song written by fellow polymath, searcher, and harpist, thee late, great Alice Coltrane. In this, the Alice Coltrane bumper sticker revival era, Low Leaf’s “Blue Nile” enfolds the listener like a well-worn, well-loved overcoat of indeterminate origin. How is it that we’ve come to be blessed by this strange and beautiful old thing? Who knows…but it fits perfectly. A recording of a live performance at NeueHouse Hollywood, and with the backing of a drummer, bassist, and flautist, “Blue Nile” is a swirling, ecstatic, intermittently improvisational, and ultimately apt take on a new cosmic standard.