On her 2011 debut Outside My Door, Lori Henriques exhibited a taste for brainy wordplay to go along with her jazzy and occasionally melancholic pianoplay, wrapped in packaging designed by her brother Joel Henriques. How brainy? Her contribution to the 2012 compilation Science Fair dealt with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.
Henriques is now getting ready to release her follow-up album The World Is a Curious Place To Live on June 4, and I'm pleased as punch to debut the first video from the album. It's for "When I Look Into the Night Sky," a nifty reworking of the classic "St. John's Infirmary." Rather than wowing us with scientific fact, this new track is a wide-eyed and wondrous appreciation of the infinite expanse outside our planet and its connection to the individual. Lori once again gets an assist from her brother Joel, who put together the video featuring the tiny paper puppets. "Sparkle" and "marvel," indeed.
Bonus tidbit: Did you know that yesterday (98 years ago, at least), the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics -- the predecessor to NASA -- was founded? Even almost a century ago, people were actively trying to figure out how to connect more closely with the stars and planets around us.
Lori Henriques - "When I Look Into the Night Sky" [YouTube]
