Albums Gabriel Kahane / Craigslistlieder / LA

Born at home in 1981 (midwife, Venice Beach), singer, pianist, and composer Gabriel Kahane was reared in medium-sized cities on both coasts of the continental United States by a psychologist mother (relational) and concert pianist father (unaffiliated). While a convenient and tidy psychological reading might suggest that his hybrid of blistering, chromatic counterpoint and traditional singer-songwriting belies some sort of defiance of the classical environment in which he was raised, Gabriel would no doubt argue that such theories are half-baked. "They were listening to Joni Mitchell too!" he retorts. And yet, Mr. Kahane's work defies classification through his sonically challenging, emotionally resonant, yet deeply accessible music.

After an uneventful childhood marked by the quotidien, in which Gabriel found himself singing in operas in Germany, competing in international chess tournaments, and obsessively compiling baseball statistics, the young man discovered a pair of rickety Martin guitars in the attic of his parents' Tudor home on Cobbs Hill Drive. Experiments ensued, though they would give way to a fascination with the piano toward the end of Mr. Kahane's high school years.

Fast forward to 2008. It's a historic moment in American politics, with a septuagenarian running against an African-American for the most hallowed office in the United States. In a more modest sense, it's also a historic moment because it is the year in which Gabriel Kahane's debut record will be released (September 16, to be exact).

Recorded primarily in March and April of 2008 in Seattle, Hoboken, and two Boroughs of New York City, the album is a testament to Gabriel's catholic musical pursuits. With twenty musicians supporting him, Mr. Kahane's debut offers snippets of string quartets juxtaposed with strummy strum folk song, brass chorales right beside jangly piano pop, and yet, he would argue, it's very much of a piece, an album meant to be heard as a whole.