Season 2 of Rearranged premieres
April 21, 2026

Episode 1: Sean O’Hagan, April 21

London-based High Llamas founder Sean O’Hagan is behind some of the best arrangements in the last four decades of indie music. O’Hagan has arranged for Sondre Lerche, Stereolab, and many other artists, and the mesmerizing sophistication of his High Llamas catalogue is an ever-evolving sound that evokes everything from 1960s California to Brazilian music to contemporary underground hip-hop.

​

The High Llamas song "Berry Adams" includes bass guitar, harpsichord, Clavinet, Wurlitzer, five strings, trombone, trumpet, tenor sax, "various synths," nylon string guitar, lead vocals, and backing vocals. Yet the song remains light. In this clip (right), I asked Sean O'Hagan how he keeps so much space in a song with so many instruments.

​

Episode 2: Brandon Ross and Georgia Anne Muldrow, April 28

New York City guitarist Brandon Ross has operated at the probing edge of jazz and rock for decades. Ross worked with Archie Shepp and Leroy Jenkins before joining jazz composer Henry Threadgill’s ensembles Very Very Circus and Make a Move and arranging for singer Cassandra Wilson. Harriet Tubman, Ross’s trio with bassist Melvin Gibbs and drummer J.T. Lewis, releases Electrical Field of Love on March 27. It’s a collaboration with Georgia Anne Muldrow, whose unclassifiable music spans from 2006’s Olesi: Fragments of an Earth to her recent VWETO instrumental albums.

​

Brandon Ross has worked with composer Henry Threadgill for decades. In this clip (right), Georgia Anne Muldrow tells Brandon what it was like to remix Threadgill's music, and Brandon Ross talks about the musical choices inherent in digital audio editing.

​​​

Episode 3: Gabriel Kahane, May 5

It’s hard to condense the activity of Portland, Oregon-based composer/songwriter/arranger Gabriel Kahane into one paragraph. His new album is a piano concerto written for his father, the conductor Jeffrey Kahane. His 2014 album The Ambassador is “a meditation on the underbelly of Los Angeles,” with each song title bearing a specific address. His 2018 album Book of Travellers started with a 9,000-mile train trip. His 2020 album emergency shelter intake form is an oratorio about housing insecurity performed by the Oregon Symphony. His 2022 album Magnificent Bird reflects on a year he spent off the Internet. He’s arranged for other artists, and he writes for magazines and on his Substack. On April 3, Kahane and Roomful of Teeth release their collaboration, Elevator Songs.

​

In this clip (right), Kahane discusses how choices about instrumentation can affect the listener's experience of the lyric.

​

Episode 4: Clare and Olivier Manchon, May 12

You might know the rich, thoughtful arrangements of Clare and Olivier Manchon from the charming and deeply observational songs of their group Clare and the Reasons. You might have unwittingly heard even more of their arrangements watching film and television. They’ve composed for documentaries, like Turn Every Page, about the relationship of biographer Robert Caro and editor Robert Gottlieb, as well as TV shows like Emily in Paris. Most recently, they scored Saved by the Beauty of the World, a documentary about the poet Mary Oliver, which will air this summer on PBS.

​

In this clip (right), Clare and Olivier "weep about MIDI" and discuss the value of paying committed musicians to play real instruments on their arrangements.

 

Episode 5: Judah Adashi, May 19

When Roomful of Teeth performed one of Baltimore composer Judah Adashi’s pieces in a large Colorado water tank during a strong storm, New Yorker critic Alex Ross wrote, “Music has never seemed closer to nature.” Adashi’s elegant compositions make room for soul and pop, and he composes with the injustices of his city and the world in mind. Adashi brings the street into the conservatory through a course, “Art and Activism,” that he teaches at the Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute. Adashi’s latest composition will be recorded by the Atlantic Guitar Quartet.

​

In this clip (right), Judah Adashi explains why he chose marimba for "Art and the Rain," a composition based on an unusual experience watching Yo-Yo Ma play Bach at Tanglewood.

 

Episode 6: Eblis Álvarez, May 26

Guitarist and composer Eblis Álvarez makes music for the body and the mind. He draws on heavily rhythmic Latin music styles like cumbia and salsa, but the result is anything but traditional. With his Meridian Brothers project, Álvarez embraces leading-edge music technology and heady concepts to create a new world with every album. Often Álvarez is the only Meridian Brother: he produces most of his projects solo in his Bogotá home studio. On May 22, Álvarez and Mexican Institute of Sound will release their collaboration Ruido Tovar, an exploration of Mexican tropical music.

​

In this clip (right), Eblis Álvarez details the organization and research that goes into writing songs for a Meridian Brothers album.

 

 

Lawrence Lanahan is an award-winning journalist, author, and radio producer from Baltimore, Maryland. The first season of his Osiris Media podcast Rearranged placed second for “Best Limited Series Podcast” in the 2025 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards. “The Lines Between Us,” his year-long multimedia series with WYPR Public radio, won a 2014 Alfred I. duPont Award. Lanahan is the author of the 2019 nonfiction book The Lines Between Us: Two Families and a Quest to Cross Baltimore’s Racial Divide (The New Press). A guitarist, producer, and songwriter, he plays in the bands Glad Pulses and Disappearing Ink. On May 30, Lanahan will present about Rearranged and host a podcasting workshop at the Baltimore County Public Library’s Catonsville branch.

 

Osiris Media is the leading music storyteller—informing and delighting passionate music fans by connecting you with great stories and the artists you love. Our 50 podcasts include Artist Spotlight shows with leading musicians; Original podcasts that tell compelling stories in music; Studios podcasts, shows built with leading companies; and Community podcasts, which cover a variety of music and cultural topics. Deepen the connection with the music you love at OsirisPod.com.