Sarah Neufeld: With Love And Blindness
Haunting violin and an atmospheric soundscape have a transporting quality.
By Kerry Doole
Sarah Neufeld - With Love And Blindness (Paper Bag Records). Juno Award-winning, violinist, composer, long-time member of Arcade Fire and founding member of Bell Orchestre, Sarah Neufeld recently announced that her third solo album, Detritus, will come out on May 14, via Paper Bag Records.
This week she has offered up a new single and video for album track, With Love And Blindness, with the video shot by director, Jason Last on the picturesque Mediterranean island, Corsica.
“I knew that Jason and I would work together again on some visual aspect for my third solo release, and it so happened that before I even began recording the album, we were presented with the opportunity to do a mini residence on Corsica with Providenza; an amazing collective with a farm, cultural laboratory, festival and residency program," recalls Sarah in a label press release
"I was doing a short solo tour in Europe in the summer of 2019 in order to re-work some pieces from the dance collaboration to begin to find a shape for the album that was to be recorded in the fall. In the middle of that tour, Jason and I travelled to Corsica for several days. Besides performing in Providenza’s outdoor amphitheatre, we were immersed in nature, literally staying in a treehouse perched on the side of a mountain, overlooking the dramatic coastline. I found that the pulse of the landscape resonated with the essence of the music, especially With Love and Blindness; a sense of rawness, of sensuality, of a strange gravity intensified by the hypnotic summer heat and the general other worldliness of the place."
Her haunting violin and the atmospheric soundscape have an ethereal quality. If the music alone doesn't transport you to exotic climes, the eye-catching video certainly will.
Detritus came to life after an extended collaboration between Neufeld and the legendary dancer/choreographer Peggy Baker. Neufeld worked throughout the album process with her Arcade Fire bandmate Jeremy Gara, whose drums, synths and ambient electronics co-anchored the Peggy Baker shows and helped shape the reimagined album versions. She would go on to add her signature foot pedal bass synth and ethereal vocalizations, with Bell Orchestre compatriot Pietro Amato and Stuart Bogie also contributing.
Though still best known as a member of Arcade Fire and Bell Orchestre, Neufeld has found critical acclaim for her solo work. In 2015 Neufeld released the Juno- winning Never Were The Way She Was with celebrated saxophonist and collaborator Colin Stetson, and in 2016 released her second solo album, The Ridge. Detritus is now eagerly awaited.
Links
Publicity: Julie Booth, Freshly Pressed
Management and Booking: Shaun Bronstein | shaun@danagement.net
