more eaze is the moniker of Brooklyn-based composer, orchestrator, and multiinstrumentalist, mari maurice. A renowned collaborator both in performance and on recordings, maurice’s own work is a fantasia, a reflection of her curious and explorative musical mind, encompassing entire spectrums of sound from a wide sonic pallet of electro-acoustic textures, folk traditions, and pop forms that pirouette into fully realized ecosystems. sentence structure in the country is a definitive statement of the matchless quality of more eaze’s skill as player and musical thinker. The album relishes the ecstatic in performance and collaboration with an inviting wit and incisive compositions, imbuing tenderness, frustration, and joy into each passage.

The title is an acknowledgement of the vernacular that shaped maurice’s musical production. As Coltrane said, “It all has to do with it.” maurice grew up playing fiddle in traditional folk and country tunes, and while playing on her album is entirely different, her reverence for the evolution of folk forms and her playing remain integral to those performances. Informing her production choices were maurice’s well-chosen collaborators: Wendy Eisenberg on electric guitar, piano and voice, Henry Earnest on electric guitar, Alice Gerlach on cello, Jade Guterman on acoustic guitar, and Ryan Sawyer on drums. maurice explains how her collaborators helped sculpt the album’s sound: “There are ways Jade or Wendy choose to voice chords that are not how I’d play them in this context, but that’s kind of the point. Their voices redefine what I’m making but also help me define my own.”

sentence structure in the country centers on using the vernacular of all of these revelations and perspectives through experience in a new context. The album’s compositions evolved over a number of years. Each iteration is informed by both the context of maurice’s performances and the musicians she elected to perform them with. With variable speeds, the piece’s structure developed into their recorded arrangements. The pieces equally took new shapes based on maurice’s own evolutions, her perspectives altered by a cross-country move and work or relationship changes. New perspectives personally or musically proved fertile ground for creative evaluations. maurice’s reflections on the work evoke the personal: “It’s hard to reckon with the big changes in the moment and so it takes alot of reflection and working through that after the fact” and the musical: “I couldn’t let go of the heart of the material and what it was trying to tell me. Playing with these different combos helped me determine what the very core elements of the pieces were and then the songs also took on a life of their own this way. It’s like a feedback loop: as we continue to perform them, there’s this precedent that is set with what the piece could be.”

sentence structure in the country is a collection of compositions, each beautifully realized, self-contained worlds. maurice’s dexterous, tasteful arranging lays bare her influences and obsessive fascinations with remarkable congruency while foregoing any sense of indulgence. Her music holds a density not only in the lush compositions and embellishing flourishes, but also for those moments of spare, minimalist beauty. sentence structure in the country is a textural marvel, a mosaic of ethereal electronics and loamy acoustics sculpted around deeply moving, enduring songs.