release date: 07.11.2025 on Obliquity Records
Sara Serpa & Matt Mitchell explore intimacy, trust, and sonic freedom in new duo album End of Something.
“Her subtlety and sureness command serious attention.” – Steve Futterman, The New Yorker
“A pianist of burrowing focus and an indispensable fixture of the contemporary vanguard.” – Nate Chinen, The New York Times
Groundbreaking composer and vocalist Sara Serpa and visionary pianist and composer Matt Mitchell present End of Something, a bold, intimate new duo album out November 7, 2025 on Obliquity Records. With 15 striking tracks weaving through composition and improvisation, the album captures the deep musical connection Serpa and Mitchell have cultivated over years of collaboration.
End of Something includes original pieces by both artists as well as settings of texts by poets/ writers Sonia Sanchez, Sofia de Mello Breyner, Virginia Woolf, and Luce Irigaray, plus a stunning rendition of Olivier Messiaen’s “Les Bergers.” The album’s sonic world unfolds with detailed interplay, harmonic richness, and fearless exploration.
Serpa and Mitchell first performed together in 2018 as part of Serpa’s Intimate Strangers project. “From the beginning, I felt I could count on Matt,” Serpa recalls. “There was no fear of getting lost. He listens so deeply—and understands the voice in a way that’s rare.”
Their partnership grew from fleeting duo moments into a dedicated creative bond. “Every time we improvised together, it felt like something special,” Mitchell notes. “It wasn’t just intellectually challenging—it was sonically beautiful.”
The music on End of Something feels simultaneously intimate and expansive—anchored in the trust and creative fluency that Serpa and Mitchell have developed over many years of collaboration. Known for their fearless and genre-defying work, they craft a sonic landscape that feels like memory in motion: layered, shifting, sometimes dissonant, and deeply human.
The compositions on End of Something include original pieces by both artists—some previously recorded in other contexts, others long unrecorded and brought to life for the first time. For Mitchell, the selections include micro-compositions from Snark Horse and pieces that hadn’t been written with voice in mind. “But I knew what Sara gravitates toward harmonically,” he says. “I trusted that it would work—and it did.” Mitchell’s “Trouvaille” marks a recorded premiere, a lush and melodic ballad originally written for a 12-piece band without vocals but sounding here as if it was intended for Serpa’s voice all along.
Serpa brings in compositions that had lived quietly in her archives—now finally voiced in full. “Some of my pieces were exercises that never made it to the stage,” Serpa notes. “But with Matt, they finally felt like they made sense—this mix of form, freedom, and sonic exploration.”
The album begins with “News Cycle,” a taut and urgent piece by Serpa that captures the overload and fragmentation of contemporary life. From there, Mitchell’s compositions—like the serpentine “Diction” or the shimmering “Gluey Clamor”—navigate angular rhythms and emotional complexity, while Serpa’s settings of poetry and prose bring a reflective, lyrical counterbalance.
© Mariana Meraz
Tracks like “Carry You Like a River” (with text by Sonia Sanchez) and “Dead Spirits” (from a passage by Luce Irigaray) create space for grief, care, and transcendence, all shaped by Serpa’s clarity of tone and refined expressiveness. The title track, “End of Something,” composed by Mitchell, offers a quiet meditation on dissolution and transformation.
The duo’s musical connection is rooted in trust, sensitivity, and shared curiosity. “Sara inhabits a very specific world,” Mitchell explains, “and I relish the kind of parameters she brings to improvisation. It calls for a different kind of intensity—more aired out, more patient, with a lower volume ceiling but a huge range of nuance.”
Patience and trust also manifested in how the duo took their time with the album, recording it over a year before release. “We weren’t in a rush,” says Serpa. “And when I listened back months later, I was struck by how beautiful and surprising it all sounded.”
End of Something stands as a document of two artists shaping a space that is entirely their own—refined, exploratory, and deeply attuned. “The theme,” Mitchell laughs, “is just that we do a good job.”
Obliquity Records is the label of Matt Mitchell and Kate Gentile, created for indulging their multifarious musical whims. The label releases a limited number of albums per year, featuring their own uncompromising music and art.
*** BIOs ***
© Ebru Yildiz
Sara Serpa is a Portuguese vocalist and composer whose music defies convention, blending jazz, chamber music, and experimental sound into a singular, emotionally resonant voice. Known for her pure tone, wordless singing, and fearless improvisation, Serpa has earned international acclaim for creating music that is both intimate and visionary.
Based in New York City, she has performed at iconic venues such as Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kennedy Center, Joe’s Pub, and the Village Vanguard. Since 2008, she has toured internationally with her own projects, and has also performed extensively with bassist Linda May Han Oh, contributing her voice to some of today’s most forward-thinking musical collaborations.
Serpa has worked with artists including Mark Turner, Ran Blake, David Virelles, Fabian Almazan, John Zorn, Erik Friedlander, Ingrid Laubrock, Danilo Perez, Kris Davis, Zeena Parkins, and André Matos, her long-time duo partner. Her work has been recognized by The New York Times, NPR, DownBeat Magazine, and The Wire.
Serpa is also the co-founder of M³ (Mutual Mentorship for Musicians), a pioneering initiative supporting women and gender-expansive artists. A dedicated educator, she teaches at The New School and continues to reshape the landscape of vocal music in the 21st century.
© Q. Bertram
Matt Mitchell is a pianist and composer whose creative practice exists in the nexus between myriad strains of acoustic, electric, composed, and improvised new music. He has released several forward-thinking, critically acclaimed, and influential albums as a leader on Pi Recordings, Screwgun Records, and Out of Your Head Records, and together with Kate Gentile he runs Obliquity Records. In addition to co-leading Snark Horse with Kate Gentile, he also fronts several ensembles featuring many of the foremost musicians on the scene, including Kim Cass, Jon Irabagon, Miles Okazaki, Mariel Roberts, Sara Schoenbeck, Brandon Seabrook, Andrew Smiley, Ches Smith, Chris Tordini, Anna Webber, and Dan Weiss. He is a member of several significant and acclaimed creative music ensembles, led by Dan Weiss, Miles Okazaki, Ches Smith, Kate Gentile, Anna Webber, Jon Irabagon. Ralph Alessi, and Yuhan Su. He has a longstanding association with Tim Berne, and he plays and has played extensively in the ensembles of many major figures in improvised music, including Dave Douglas, Steve Coleman, David Binney, John Hollenbeck, Miguel Zenon, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Linda May Han Oh, Jonathan Finlayson, Mario Pavone, and Darius Jones. Awards he has received include the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, the Doris Duke Impact Award, and grants from the Shifting Foundation.
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