Gabriel Birnbaum

<a href="spotify:artist:1LcoIPdksQTaXcCDmESOR7" data-name="Wilder Maker">Wilder Maker</a> frontman Gabriel Birnbaum (co-producer of <a href="spotify:artist:0AUwa5xmiy57qdGlOksvea" data-name="Mutual Benefit">Mutual Benefit</a>’s <a href="spotify:track:7LLeuuh9o3z0VPISrNzWHc" data-name="Growing at the Edges">Growing at the Edges</a>, arranger and saxophonist on <a href="spotify:artist:68UA9076k6lewTq2slA1FN" data-name="Katie Von Schleicher">Katie Von Schleicher</a>’s <a href="spotify:album:4z6rDmeVMdpuMr5Ls9HYQo" data-name="A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night">A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night</a>) cuts straight to the spiritual essence of the characters he inhabits, painting affecting and lovingly drawn scenes bolstered by cathartic hooks. Like one of his own espoused patron saints, Paul Simon, Birnbaum sets new challenges for himself with each recording, honing the nuts and bolts of his songcraft and pinpointing unexpected new aesthetic contexts for it. The lush and psychedelic folk-rock songs on his new album Patron Saint of Tireless Losers (the follow up to 2019’s <a href="spotify:track:53eV2oVxJqT16sxsPX4nOT" data-name="Not Alone">Not Alone</a>) confidently cut to the essence of his artistry, highlighting a mature narrative voice, and a consistently surprising musical syntax. As much as anything Birmbaum has put into the world, it&#39;s a tour de force that thrives on both self-assuredness and restlessness--marks of a crucial and constantly evolving artist whose work it&#39;s impossible to turn away from once you tap into its frequency.