Experimental, spiritual American folk
Her previous work was mainly dominated by acoustic, 12 string compositions inspired by the work of the American Primitives à la John Fahey. But on ‘Nighttime Birds and Morning Stars’ (Thrill Jockey), the most recent album by Asheville (North-Carolina) resident Sarah Louise, we now hear a mix of Appalachian folk music, spiritual jazz, contemporary classical and new age. Armed with an electric guitar, a battery of (loop-)pedals and software, she creates a unique sort of experimental, meditative folk in which the influence of artists Alice Coltrane, Terry Riley and Henry Flynt is never far removed.
Sarah Louise will be accompanied by a percussionist in the AB Salon.
In the press
‘(Sarah Louise) displays the careful attention to craft typical of any great student of deeply rooted traditions, albeit tempered by an unconventional streak.( Pitchfork‘At times flush with the meditative air of Alice Coltrane, elsewhere like some whispered about 80s new age obscurity, this album both requires and justifies extensive attention.’ The Wire
‘There's a spiritual quality to these streams-of-conscious compositions, which sound open-ended as though she's posing questions to the woods around her’ Uncut