Snarky Puppy and Metropole Orkest - Sylva

2016 Grammy Award winner - Best Contemporary Instrumental Album

Gatefold double LP

The Grammy Award-winning jazz collective and Holland's famous Metropole Orkest have created Sylva, a dreamlike cinema-concept-album dedicated to the forest, a place that enraptures bandleader/founder Michael League, who penned the songs. With graphic creations by Miraphora Mina ("Harry Potter"), the DVD companion is a feature length film on the making of this stellar opus. Sylva will be performed only in Paris and Rotterdam, but the movie will be screened in key U.S. cities.

Snarky Puppy is the inventive instrumental collective led by bassist, composer and producer Michael League. Formed in Denton, Texas in 2004, the band has been driving their own home-grown, creative endeavors through independent releases, a tireless touring schedule and an army of impressive musicians devoted to authentic and passionate music-making.

Sylva is a different direction from Snarky Puppy's previous projects, from joining together with an orchestra to the composition itself. Metropole Orkest — also known for their notable work with such eclectic artists as Elvis Costello, Tori Amos and John Scofield — joins Snarky Puppy for this dreamlike cinema-concept album dedicated to the forest. In the words of League, the forest is "at one and the same time innocent, frightening, inspiring, impenetrable, fragile, stoical, a revelation, a shelter, a labyrinth, a temple, a tomb, a sanctuary, a parliament and a prison."

Each of the six ‘movements' of this suite is about a different forest that League has encountered, from the languishing forest swamps of Louisiana to the towering Redwood Forest, to the gothic fairy tale forests of children's dreams. In keeping with this ‘organic' theme, Snarky Puppy decided to record this project live in front of an audience over a period of two nights. In a room transformed into a forest landscape made of metal and wood sculpted by Dutch craftsmen, a 300-person audience sat scattered amongst the musicians, listening to Sylva through headphones.

This incredible scenery is also reflected in the cover art for Sylva, which is the creation of Miraphora Mina, the graphic artist known for her work on the "Harry Potter" films. Her work beautifully compliments the layers and textures found in Sylva.