Sarah Louise – Earth Bow
Independent – 30 April 2021
Rural Appalachia resident Sarah Louise Henson‘s musical output has always been difficult to compare to other artists. Her two solo instrumental acoustic guitar albums, Field Guide and VDSQ Solo Acoustic Vol. 12 were beautiful explorations into fingerstyle twelve-string guitar, using original tunings and unusual picking patterns that unselfconsciously refused comparisons with other solo acoustic big hitters. Later work like Deeper Woods and even Nighttime Birds and Morning Stars did perhaps bring in more Appalachian elements and inched closer to her work with Sally Anne Morgan as House and Land, but the music still felt unique.
Earth Bow follows on from Nighttime Birds and parts of last year’s Earth and its Contents by crafting its sounds using electronically manipulated instruments and synthesisers, this time utilising a Roland SP-404SX sampler to create a multi-layered collage of sound foraged and created. Different to Nighttime Birds in particular however is the scope of Earth Bow; whereas the former was a focused and honed album, sleek and minimalist, Earth Bow eschews restraint and fully illustrates Sarah Louise’s statement as a musician preferring to ’embrace the interconnections of many’ scenes, rather than existing in just one.
The result of her creative discoveries is an album of ten tracks woven together to exist as two suites. Although the sound throughout is diverse, immersive and sometimes intense and powerful, what shines through is Sarah’s unshakable belief in and love for our planet, which is the lifeblood of all of her music.
The vocals, which exist within the fibres of the arrangements as rhythms and refrains as well as narratives, evoke a sense of nature through descriptions like grass ‘sweet like cinnamon’ (Jewel of the Blueridge) as well as a timeless connectedness. Mossy Slope‘s ‘I lay on a mossy slope with tenderness, beside an oak’ demonstrates a surrender and dedication to nature, also coming through in Where the Owl Hums‘ repetition of ‘I lay my body’ while electronic fragments float around like blossoms or birds.
The beautiful Earth Wakes Up has our narrator espying a ‘deer at dusk, buzzard at dawn, big old frog singing in the pond’ while manipulated guitar helps a slow and meditative arrangement along. There are echoes of Sarah’s twelve-string acoustic music in Your Dreams, but conversely, Where Heron Fish at Dawn contains a more trance-like character, with throbbing bass and quick electronic percussion.
This splendid record is loaded with sound without feeling over-stuffed or self-indulgent. As I’m sure I’ve said before when talking about Sarah Louise’s music, although Earth Bow is an album crafted using electronic tools, there is something innately organic about it that benefits from its structure as a two part set. It is a multi-layered and textured musical experience that really could only have been made by Sarah Louise, but should be heard by everyone.
Order via Bandcamp: https://sarahlouise.bandcamp.com/album/earth-bow-2
Photo Credit: Katrina Ohstrom