San Fermin

San Fermin—the band, not the Spanish town that hosts the annual Running of the Bulls—is a lot of things. It’s a dramatic, operatic vehicle for supreme vocalists like Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig (from the luscious pop group Lucius) and the rich-throated Allen Tate (who evokes Bill Callahan and Crash Test Dummies’ Brad Roberts). It’s a stunning testament to the writing talent and vision of Yale music program grad and pianist/composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone. San Fermin creates a Dirty Projectors/Fiery Furnaces–flavored burst of young adult angst. It’s a brainy and moving and introspective piece of art, and it’s chamber pop at its finest. From the somber opener, “Renaissance!” (with Tate’s dry, hard-baked baritone pushing up against the formidable Laessig-Wolfe united front and a phalanx of horns and strings), to the eerie denouement of “Altogether Changed” (a gorgeous, early choral music–inspired piece that floats into the good night), Ludwig-Leone examines our yearning for meaning as we choose a path into adulthood. It\'s visceral, relatable, and breathtaking.

The 22-year-old classically trained composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone's chamber pop debut was inspired by working closely with Nico Muhly, his time at Yale and the Banff Centre, and the sounds of Sufjan Stevens and Dirty Projectors. It’s a loose concept album that dives into the complexities of young love.

Ellis Ludwig-Leone delivers a record of elegant folk-pop that exists only on the grandest of scales.

San Fermin is the brainbaby of Brooklyn composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone, who wrote this ambitious debut record while holed up for six weeks in a studio in a Canadian mountain range.

San Fermin's debut self-titled debut album reviewed by Heather Welsh. The album comes out 9/17 on Downtown Records. The first single is "Sonsick".