Devra Hoff – Baile as Baile

Baile as Baile is a luminous, deeply personal work that features bassist-composer-arranger Devra Hoff on acoustic double basses; often multi-tracked. To the fore and at its core is a longing lyricism; a centering/meditative sonic embrace is offered throughout. The programmatic range is original compositions inspired by traditional Celtic music, and original arrangements of traditional songs. There are additional contributions on two tracks by friends Tara Jane O’Neil (prepared autoharp) & Julia Holter (harmonium).

Devra Hoff (she/her) has worked in a wide array of cultural contexts and musical settings. She has recorded & toured extensively throughout the past three decades on over one hundred recordings & thousands of shows with artists such as Julia Holter, Yoko Ono, Sharon Van Etten/Attachment Theory, Sean Ono Lennon, Nels Cline/Singers, Vijay Iyer, Cibo Matto, Mike Watt, and many more.

Devra’s own previous records include Solo Bass (self-released, 2008), which was named by avant-pop icon Laurie Anderson as one of her top 5 favorite records of all time, Voices From the Empty Moor (Song of Anne Briggs) (Kill Rock Stars, 2021), a gorgeous album to which Baile as Baile is akin, and Echolocation (AUM Fidelity) with Mendoza*Hoff*Revels – a punk/jazz unti co-led with guitarist Ava Mendoza, and featuring James Brandon Lewis and Ches Smith. Echolocation went on to be chosen among “Best Albums of 2023” by NPR, The New York Times, and The Wire.

As Hoff writes in the liner notes for Baile as Baile: “This music reflects a search for an elusive sense of home, for belonging that transcends place or scene, and the eventual realization that this ‘home’ must be found, or built, within oneself. Baile as baile; home away from (or in search of?) home” [ baile in Celtic languages translates to “home”, rather than “dance” as it translates from Spanish. -ed. ]

Baile as Baile is a priceless gem.

More from Devra’s liner notes for this work:

“These pieces were written and arranged during the course of a few years in a period of unrest and exploration over a decade ago. The tracks were recorded via various mediums in a living room in Chicago, bedrooms in Philadelphia and Queens, a clocktower in Brooklyn, a studio in Los Angeles, and were played on three different double basses. As a body of work, their underlying commonality is that they mark a time when I was single-mindedly intent on expressing very specific emotional and spiritual impulses through the double bass. The focus of every piece here is the extra-musical information being felt or aimed at, the things that I couldn’t—or wouldn’t— articulate in words.

“It is also a record made in the closet. I can hear the tension of hope and sadness, a yearning for a deeper connection with the cosmos, with myself, in every track. My own speaking and singing voice has been a source of dysphoria for many years, as often happens to trans-feminine people whose voices are affected by testosterone. So it was no accident that I first threw myself into voracious instrumental study and practice in my early teens. I channeled my desire to express myself musically into the ironically low-pitched but magically sonorous double bass. And after decades of work, I eventually discovered—through listening to recorded inspirations of vocalists like Anne Briggs, Oum Kolthoum, Elizabeth Fraser, Sara Carter, Chavela Vargas, and through playing with great singers such as Faye Carol, Jewlia Eisenberg, Jesse Quattro, Tara Jane O’Neil, and Julia Holter—an expressive ‘singing voice’ of my own on the instrument.

"Though this music reflects intensive dedication to the instrument, I hope that it is not heard merely as ‘bass music’ (a genre rarely heard, if at all). The hope was to transcend the instrument by attempting to master it, rather than to use it as a platform for virtuosity. To make something so personal that it could maybe be felt by others, something more meaningful than a novelty act on an archaic instrument. These pieces are also made with magical intention. Music is a form of magic, and hopefully these sounds have some power to help heal and transform, or at least to soothe (the album title references an Enya song, after all)." –Devra Hoff

And more from Steven at AUM Fidelity:

I first heard Devra Hoff’s work with the album Voices From the Empty Moor (Songs of Anne Briggs), From the first, that album became a treasured listening experience, and so it remains. The sense of lyrical longing, loss which engenders newly found sense of self, and with it perchance deliverance, is palpable every time. Baile as Baile is fully akin, and a beautiful companion to Voices; a kind of “inner dub” iteration of that impeccable creation. I first worked together with Devra on the AUM Fidelity release of Echolocation by Mendoza*Hoff*Revels – a formidable unit co-led by Hoff and guitarist Ava Mendoza. That process was a joy from jump.

During the time just prior to and following its release, I spent countless hours listening to bass works which Devra had put up on her Bandcamp page. That listening always offered a calm, sonically embracing space that proved a solace from the turbulence & unabated ugliness on rampant display in the outside world; especially since fascism became the way in this country. Listening to these beautiful works was a centering experience for me as well – offering a sonic center from the imbalance and turmoil prevalent in my personal life at that time, too.

It is the nexus of that bountiful work which is presented here anew on Baile as Baile, and I do consider it a priceless gem. The beautifully evocative photos & liner notes which adorn the album are by Devra as well.

Perhaps, as I have, this work is best enjoyed listening alone; allowed to rise from silence, or maybe with a trusted intimate, as Devra created it with her basses, manifesting a singular singing voice full of lived wisdom.

It brings me great pleasure to be re-releasing this work (thank you Devra for being into the idea!), and we both hope you will enjoy and similarly derive sonic sustenance from it. –Steven Joerg, AUM Fidelity