Rhiannon Giddens’s album there is no Other, recorded with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, was produced by Joe Henry and tracked over five days in Dublin.
Tracing the overlooked movement of sounds from Africa and the Arabic world and their influence on European and American music, there is no Other illuminates the universality of music and the commonality of the human experience. It primarily features only Giddens and Turrisi playing one or two instruments together. The album comprises a mix of original songs penned by Giddens and a diverse set of interpretations ranging from Ola Belle Reed's "Going to Write Me a Letter" and Oscar Brown Jr.'s "Brown Baby" to the Italian traditional song "Pizzica di San Vito" and the aria "The Black Swan" by Gian Carlo Menotti.