Keep Moving Forward is certainly a fitting title for guitarist and composer Jan Esbra’s new EP. It’s a translation of a phrase Esbra’s father used throughout his childhood. In this context, it becomes “both mantra and mandate across the songs on the album,” according to the press notes, “reminding you to continue onward even when the ground below you is changing”. The Colombian-born, Brooklyn-based Esbra translated the pain and loss of the end of an eight-year relationship into five graceful, eloquent, mesmerizing songs. “All of this music was written from the weeds,” Esbra explained in the press materials. “These songs were how I processed what was happening in real time.”
Esbra’s complex compositional and performance skills serve the EP beautifully, with an abundance of interlocking notes and melodies that seem mathematically devised while still maintaining a yearning, emotional pull. Deft fingerpicking and odd time signatures combine with Esbra’s lilting vocals, and the musicians backing him are an embarrassment of riches, including André Sacalxot on flute and alto saxophone, Andrew Haug on piano, Dave Strawn on bass, and Daniel Rossi on drums.
Opening with the winsome “To Call Home”, Esbra’s acoustic guitar leads the way, and soon the band kicks in, and Esbra sings of uncertainty, hope, and resilience. “Falling into place, we stumble / Fearing all the things that we hide / We don’t know where things will go / Following each other as we grow.”
On “Schrodinger’s Cat for a Day”, the mood is lazy, woozy, and a bit playful. The song’s aimless shuffle is infectious and offers a dreamy respite from the EP’s overall mood of loss. Meanwhile, “I’m Not One for Superstition” is spacy, atmospheric, and more experimental. Esbra and his band show off some of their impressive jazz chops with an animated, swing-like middle section. On the beautiful, hypnotic title track, Esbra’s simple, repetitive guitar figure winds through the song as he sings in a croon reminiscent of 1990s singer-songwriter Eric Matthews (whose chamber-pop leanings are certainly similar to those heard here).
The chiming acoustic guitars and piano that kick off the closing track, “So Long”, bring the record to a low-key, expressive end, with musical avenues that explore an exciting hybrid of folk and fleet-fingered jazz. This unique, intoxicating blend brings to mind the genre-blending of mid-1970s Joni Mitchell, but when combined with the album’s chamber pop sensibilities and the lyrics’ themes of transformation and resilience, the five songs that make up Keep Moving Forward are at once daring, unique, and compulsively listenable.