JAZZ

Maria Schneider Orchestra, "The Thompson Fields" (ArtistShare)

There's a grand naturalist compulsion in Schneider's writing for large ensemble, and it has led her toward a more potent expression of her art. "The Thompson Fields," the first album since 2007 to feature her namesake orchestra, teems with observant references to the pastoral world: prairies, exotic bird plumage, the dark gyre of a funnel cloud, the flutter of monarch butterflies.

Schneider, a composer and orchestrator of extravagant insight originally from Windom, Minn., has made these kinds of connections for a while. And as a conceptual device, it's not a new story in jazz: Duke Ellington set a precedent for capturing the rhythms of life that Wynton Marsalis has diligently adapted to his own uses. But Schneider has her own trademark way of using timbre and harmony to bring a tactile presence to the dimensions of sound — and more impressively, of applying the same tools to illuminate emotional terrain.

Because she works at her own pace, she has had time to break in most of the album's pieces, including the title track, a sweeping rumination featuring Lage Lund on guitar and Frank Kimbrough on piano, composed more than five years ago. "Walking by Flashlight," the album's overture, adapts a theme from her 2013 album "Winter Morning Walks," for chamber orchestra and soprano, which won three Grammy Awards in the classical field.

The orchestra, as a single breathing organism, is Schneider's instrument, but she also puts a great deal of responsibility on her soloists.

So a track called "Arbiters of Evolution" becomes a swaggering concerto for tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin, the ensemble surging and receding behind him. Something similar happens with alto saxophonist Steve Wilson on "Nimbus," an evocation of heavy weather; and with Gary Versace, playing accordion on "A Potter's Song."

Soak, "Before We Forgot How to Dream"

The album's deluxe packaging, with its handsome photographs, illustrations and text, amplifies its brilliant musical ambitions and serves as a statement of principle for Schneider, a vocal critic of music streaming services. Compensation is her main argument, but the physical experience of music also seems like a factor.

NATE CHINEN, New York Times

POP/ROCK

Soak, "Before We Forgot How to Dream" (Rough Trade)

Irish teen Bridie Monds-Watson took the name Soak to stand for a combination of soul and folk, which she says describes her distinctive musical style. The description may be accurate on a certain level, but it also misleads. There is nothing traditional here from either of those genres, except maybe in the sense of great music with a profound emotional edge. Soak drenches her album in reveries about growing up in an absurd world where things may not always make sense or be right. This realization grounds her songs.

Steve Horowitz, PopMatters.com