All In Time marks Joanna’s sixth full length album since her debut release, Wild Swan, in 2011.
Like so many artists striving to find their way through the shuttering of the world in March 2020, the
inspiration for these songs began flowing with the force of an underground river forging new tributaries.
The album opens with the vivacious and lyrically fantastical “Praying Mantis”. Led by Joanna’s
sparkling charango playing and multi-layered vocals, the band - including harp, organ, bass and drums -
effortlessly dances in 7/4 as Joanna sings, “I am reaching for a hand to hold me tightly as I gently go to
sleep”. All at once it is a song revealing the fear and uncertainty of the pandemic, mingled with a childlike
joy and curiosity of how to work through it. “Killer Whale” drops the listener into a nocturnal,
oceanic space. Directly inspired by Joanna’s recurring dream of being beckoned into the abyss by an
Orca, the song becomes a metaphor for a seductive romance with the unknown. “One Wish”, written in
April 2020, began as a meditation on Joanna’s longing to see her family again, especially her 96 year old
grandmother Anita, who survived the holocaust playing the cello in the women’s band in Auschwitz
Birkenau. Music saved her life, and has continued to be the core of the Wallfisch family and Joanna’s life
since.
“Desert Wind” reveals another side of Joanna’s sound world, with its lilting, groovy vibe,
surrounding the listener with the heat and mirage-like qualities of the desert itself. Written in the Mojave
during a solitary writing residency in May 2020, it simultaneously depicts Joanna’s experiences, while
turning the mysteries of the desert into a sensuous love affair. The title track, “All In Time”, opens with
the lyric, “whisper sweet silence in the darkest room, keeper of life itself as it softly blooms” - the only
way Joanna could begin to define her experience as a newly pregnant woman, her baby still so small, yet
so present inside of her, about to change her life as she has always known it. Joanna plays classical guitar
in a tuning of her creation, and delicately builds counter-melodic lines that weave intricately with the
vocals, glistening harp and other instrumentation. This is the most intimate and vulnerable song on the
album, and in Joanna’s entire song catalog to date.
The second half of the record begins with a crashing
Tom Waitsian song entitled “Sometimes I’m Sad For No Reason”. The lyrics are borderline ridiculous,
undeniably theatrical, yet poetically nuanced, fitting right in with Joanna’s background in theater and jazz,
and her childhood love of nonsense poetry. Joanna gave the band free rein in the studio, with only the
note of “go for your lives” at the top of each take, this song especially highlights Carey Frank’s (piano)
immense creative versatility. The only duet on the album is a raw and vulnerable track entitled “United
By The Rain”, illustrating the shocking state of the homeless crisis in Los Angeles and the horrifying
border control between Mexico and the USA during (and since) the former President of the United States’
charge. Joanna works with non-profit Urban Voices Project, bringing music classes and therapy to the
houseless community living in Skid Row. Joanna wishes this song be a reminder that everyone, no matter
their situation, is still a human. Nearing the end of the record we plough into the dizzying, up-tempo
“Uprise Skyward”. Tracked with 36 vocal parts, harp, bass, drums, piano, organ, and guitar, this is a gutpunch
song of hope. Inspired by the power of coming together in community against hate and racism,
Uprise Skyward was written with the intent of imbuing the listener with positive empowerment to make
the change that counts.
The album culminates with a mesmeric and cinematic journey in “Pont Louis
Phillipe”, that tells the tale of how Joanna’s career in music began; in Paris, in 2008, when she stumbled
across a street musician who invited her into his life to sing on the banks of the Seine. The repeated
chorus, a whimsical “la di da”, builds into a climax that sends the album off with a celebratory feeling:
the closing of one chapter, sure to soon open the next.
1Praying Mantis03:01
Music: Joanna WallfischLyrics: Joanna WallfischISRC: DENO2-23-10001
2Killer Whale03:42
Music: Joanna WallfischLyrics: Joanna WallfischISRC: DENO2-23-10002
3All In Time05:46
Music: Joanna WallfischLyrics: Joanna WallfischISRC: DENO2-23-10003
4Desert Wind (I Would Gladly Choose The Ocean)03:36
Music: Joanna WallfischLyrics: Joanna WallfischISRC: DENO2-23-10004
5Uprise Skyward04:18
Music: Joanna WallfischLyrics: Joanna WallfischISRC: DENO2-23-10005
6United By The Rain04:31
Music: Joanna WallfischLyrics: Joanna WallfischISRC: DENO2-23-10006
7Sometimes I'm Sad For No Reaso04:57
Music: Joanna WallfischLyrics: Joanna WallfischISRC: DENO2-23-10007
8One Wish05:29
Music: Joanna WallfischLyrics: Joanna WallfischISRC: DENO2-23-10008
9Pont Louis Phillipe06:56
Music: Joanna WallfischLyrics: Joanna WallfischISRC: DENO2-23-10009
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