With all of the majesty of her violin playing in Arcade Fire and soaring into the stratosphere with ethereal soundscapes and wordless, soaring vocals, Sarah Neufeld carries us along on a mysterious journey in her sophomore solo album, The Ridge, just released today on Paper Bag Records. The music plays like a breathless soundtrack for an adventure movie set in windswept deserts and distant galaxies. She coaxes many different sounds and textures from her luscious violin, tastefully accompanied with percussion and her own angelic volcals to provide depth and additional colors without taking anything away from the focal point of the soaring, gliding strings.
She’s joined on the album by fellow Arcade Fire bandmate Jeremy Gara on drums and percussion. Saxophonist Colin Stetson, who collaborated with Neufeld on last year’s Never Were the Way She Was, contributes brief exotic interludes performed on a lyricon, a mouth-controlled synthesizer. Her debut solo album was Hero Brother, released in 2013. The Ridge is a gorgeously imaginative collection. It’s intriguing from beginning to end, but personal favorites are in the middle, starting with the starkly fresh, original and minimalist “The Glow,” moving through the otherworldly, hypnotic “Chase the Bright and Burning” and ending with “A Long Awaited Scar,” which to me sounds like a symphony of joyously fluttering birds, slowly developing into a woodland cacophony. The album concludes on a somewhat somber and wistful note with “Where The Light Comes In.”
Neufeld will be bringing her stunning new music across the U.S. and Canada for a spring tour.
Tour Dates
March 22: San Francisco, CA – Swedish American Hall
March 24: Portland, OR – The Mission Theater
March 25: Seattle, WA – Columbia City Theater
March 28: Golden, BC (CA) – Civic Centre
March 30: Saskatoon, SK (CA) – The Bassment
April 1: Winnipeg, MB (CA) – West End Cultural Centre
April 3: Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Center
April 5: Milwaukee, WI – Colectivo Coffee
April 6: Evanston, IL – Space
April 7: Chicago, IL – Virgin Hotel Chicago
April 9: Toronto, ON (CA) – The Rivoli
April 10: Montreal, QC (CA) – La Sala Rossa
April 11: Quebec City, QC (CA) – Anti
April 13: Portsmouth, NH – 3S Artspace
April 14: Boston, MA – Cafe 939 @ Berklee
April 15: New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
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