We’re a little bit more than excited to hear about the upcoming new album from Montréal based extraordinary composer and violinist Sarah Neufeld. Her outstanding debut album, Hero Brother, came out in 2013, and she followed it earlier this year with a staggering collaborative album with sax wizard Colin Stetson. Comes February 26th, Neufeld will unveil her new album The Ridge via Paper Bag Records.

The Ridge “is a body of work that sees Neufeld moving away from Hero Brother’s classical minimalism and sepulchral ambience, and into the world of rhythmic pop minimalism”, says the press release. “The new album employs more emphasis on vocalizations than Neufeld’s previous works; the interplay between Neufeld’s voice and violin has become strongly integrated and narrative.”

We’re not sure Neufeld will be employing her incredible foot-stomping technique in any of the album tracks. Percussion is in good hands though, with Neufeld bringing in Jeremy Gara, her bandmate in Arcade Fire, to guest on drums.

The magnificent title track, ‘The Ridge’, opens the album and is now being offered as the first taster of what’s to come – it’s intense and fragile, haunting and calming, poignant and beautiful – a grand opus of a song. Here it is.