Sam Gendel wasn’t aware that one afternoon while lounging around his Los Angeles home would evoke a creative journey.  He significant other/creative partner Marcella Cytrynowicz were gathered around the backyard.  Cytrynowicz’s sister Antonia improvised a somewhat whimsical composition and the melody struck something within Gendel.  He quickly pulled out his cell phone and requested that Antonia sing within the voice memo application.  Later Gendel went to work, fleshing out instrumentals that enclosed Antonia’s vocals.  This would quickly become the start of the impressive album between the duo that is titled LIVE A LITTLE. Today, Sam and Antonia share the first song off their album, entitled “WONDERING, WAITING.” The full-length album is set to release on May 13th, 2022 via Sylvan Esso’s label, Psychic Hotline.

“Sam came out last summer around the block party and we spent a blissful rainy week just improvising in the studio with friends”, says Nick Sanborn of Psychic Hotline/Sylvan Esso. “One of those nights we’re both sitting in the main room just going back and forth playing each other unreleased stuff we’re working on and he puts on this vocal record that just floors me, unlike anything I’ve ever heard, it’s so pure and immediate and free, one of those albums where you can’t tell where or when it’s from. Finally after like the fifth track and me pestering him for more context he tells me the singer is his partner’s 11-year-old little sister Antonia, and that they improvised the whole thing together. I think I just sat there for the rest of the night with my mouth hanging open, listening to the whole thing. I’ve been listening to it ever since.”

LIVE A LITTLE is a stand-out amidst Gendel’s extensive and varied catalog. Over the years, the multi-instrumentalist has been known for his prolific musical output as both a sought-after collaborator and as a solo artist. During 2021 alone he collaborated with Vampire Weekend, Maggie Rogers, Moses Sumney, Laurie Anderson, and Mach Hommy, as well as released Notes With Attachments with Blake Mills & legendary bassist Pino Palladino. In the same year he also released the 52-track Fresh Bread, as well as the follow-up to the acclaimed Music for Saxophone & Bass Guitar with Sam Wilkes. Then Mouthfeel / Serene, AE-30, Valley Fever Original Score, and singles “Isfahan” and “Neon Blue.” LIVE A LITTLE, though, exists on its own island. For one, the majority of Gendel’s work under his own name skews instrumental, but here the playfulness of his saxophone and nylon-string guitar work alongside the twinkle of Cytrynowicz’s voice. It’s the sound of unapologetic imagination running amok – and really, more than anything, the sound of having fun.

Cytrynowicz is the ideal collaborator for Gendel, who throughout his career has remained largely unconcerned with the pageantry and presentation of the music business, instead focused solely on the music-making itself. Here, he found the purest sort of writing partner – he admires Cytrynowicz’ “supreme openness,” explaining: “Whatever is happening, she’s there with you. We really meet right where we are. She’s all ears, I’m all ears. I don’t even know how to explain what it is. It just works out somehow.”

 
LIVE A LITTLE is a series of “what ifs” cascading into one another, off-kilter and experimental, a kaleidoscope of spontaneity and imagination.  It’s a sweet distillation of the musical present, of daring to follow through on an impulse – what happens when a project is helmed by someone who doesn’t have time for second thoughts or self-doubt.
 
“That’s why she and I can make music I think, because I don’t think I ever deviated from that approach – or at least, I hope I didn’t,” Gendel says. “I really think that’s the best way that works for me musically – that ‘no mind’ sort of thing.” And here they both decisively follow that intuition, chronicling the way an idea blossoms and moves through you. The moment is the thing, and LIVE A LITTLE just happens to capture it.

Photo Courtesy: Marcella Cyntrynowicz