Kathy Sanborn

Small Galaxy

Pacific Coast Jazz Records

www.kathysanborn.com

Singer-songwriter Kathy Sanborn sounds divine on her new CD Small Galaxy, emoting a chill out sonorous with glossy synth-swept sails and elevated passages of silky raptures and oasis-stoked phrasing. The velvety caress of her vocals arouse amorous sensations as she fondles the soothing rhythmic pulse of the music wafting hues of ambient, pop, R&B, and contemporary jazz. Produced, written, and arranged by Sanborn, Small Galaxy pervades an adult contemporary propulsion detailed in elegant swirls and softly jangling percussive beats. Sanborn moves through the songs with ease wielding a chill out vibe and a gentleness that is euphoric.

Sanborn’s vocals move with lounging breast strokes in songs like the title track and “More Than You” demonstrating a svelte, sirenesque persuasion in her timbres. The soft R&B coloring of “Oh So Real” has a smooth fluidity comparable to Lizz Wright leaving a reposing brandy libation on the palate. There is an escapist tint in Sanborn’s songs rafting the dreamy lifts in “Got Me Runnin’” and the soft, wavy, rhythmic pattering an intoxicating phrasing in the percussive beats which lightly ruffle up Sanborn’s gait. The oasis-like ambience of “Himalaya” is modulated by a series of silky synth-generated glides which move like weightless silhouettes in the balmy winds of Tibet, and the soothing Mediterranean aura of “Catalunya Breeze” is dotted by the languid trumpet twirls of Wayne Ricci which adjusts to a cool funky setting through the dance-inspired romp “Catch The Wave.”

Kathy Sanborn’s music and vocals meld into pacifying swells equip with dreamy suspensions and soft, rippling knolls that entice escapist urges in her audiences. The elasticity in her vocals produce curvaceous bends in the music, while embedding a sirenous intonation in her versing which meshes with the aquatic drools of the fluid synths. The result is an album that blends ambient prisms with a New Age glaze and modern jazz patinas to make for a pleasing emporium of blissful sonic swirls and meditative stroking. Small Galaxy is Sanborn’s follow up to her 2008 debut album, Peaceful Sounds. It is an album tempered to caress the body and comfort the human soul.

Tracklisting: Small Galaxy, Oh So Real, Be Coolin’, More Than You, Got Me Runnin’, Time To Shine, Himalaya, Lost At Sea, Catalunya, Breeze, Catch The Wave

Personnel: Kathy Sanborn (vocals, lyrics, music), Wayne Ricci (trumpet)

Learn more about this author, Susan Frances.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Album reviews: Small Galaxy, by Kathy Sanborn?
We want to hear your view. Write now!