Sarah Neufeld teases upcoming album with third single ‘The Top’

With only a month to go until Detritus lands in all its resplendent glory, Sarah Neufeld has shared a third staggering single from her upcoming album called ‘The Top’. The marvellous composer and violinist had already enticed us with the poignant and beautiful lead single ‘Stories’, followed by the enchanting and bewildering ‘With Love and Blindness’. Save for a few ethereal vocal parts at the end of the track,  ‘The Top’ is the only solo violin composition on Detritus, and as she puts it, “it’s a fast, furious, trance like piece to play live.” The single comes paired with a striking video directed by Kaveh Nabatian. Here it is.

Detritus is out on May 14th through Paper Bag Records in North America and One Little Independent Records in the rest of the world.

Sarah Neufeld reveals video for new single ‘With Love and Blindness’

After enticing us with the poignant and beautiful lead single ‘Stories’, boundlessly inventive composer and violinist Sarah Neufeld has shared a brand new single, ‘With Love and Blindness’, taken from her upcoming third album, Detritus. Like the album, stemming from a collaboration with dancer/choreographer Peggy Baker, ‘With Love and Blindness’ was originally written for Baker’s choreography and performed live onstage by Neufeld and her Arcade Fire bandmate Jeremy Gara, along with “four women moving in meditative harmony, as if in secret communication”, as she explained. Neufeld re-worked and arranged the piece to what would become the album version with the addition of vocals. “The vocals on this track, and on other tracks on the album”, describes Neufeld, “are moments of catharsis, sweetness rising above pain, pushing forward into a sense of mystery.”

‘With Love and Blindness’ is offered with a video made by longtime collaborator Jason Last. Speaking about it, he commented:

“My ongoing creative collaboration with Sarah has always been an instinctive process. Because we know each other so well, and have worked together for so long, there is a lot of knowledge and trust that goes into the inspiration.
For With Love & Blindness we decided to shoot our experience in Corsica in June of 2019, where Sarah had been invited for a mini residency and to perform live. The video is an exploration of our time there, surrounded by the rugged nature of this Mediterranean island that lends so well to the energy behind her music.
Somewhere between documentation and fantasy, we captured Sarah in these environments, which later came together to visualize this powerful song from her new record.”

Detritus will land in all its resplendent glory on May 14th through Paper Bag Records in North America and One Little Independent Records in the rest of the world. Now wrap your ears around the enchanting and bewildering ‘With Love and Blindness’.


Sarah Neufeld announces third album Detritus, shares first single ‘Stories’

Sarah Neufeld has been a favourite of ours for a long time, first conquering our ears with her 2013 beguiling debut album Hero Brother. With two magnificent solo albums under her belt, and a staggering collaborative album with Colin Stetson, the extraordinary composer and violinist is ready to dazzle us again with her eagerly anticipated third full-length album arriving this May. Entitled Detritus, the album stems from a collaboration initiated in 2015 with dancer/choreographer Peggy Baker. The partnership carried on and saw Neufeld performing and composing to Baker’s choreography, and heading on tour in February 2019. Neufeld felt like this live performance music could take another form, “as a distilled set of songs, refined and developed beyond the versions performed on stage”, as the press release explains, and started working on arranging the material that summer. To help her bring the album to life, she invited her Arcade Fire bandmate Jeremy Gara, Bell Orchestre bandmate Pietro Amato and Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist Stuart Bogie. Neufeld commented on the tracks that make up Detritus:

“I was inspired by both a sense of interior aloneness, and a sense of deep intimacy. Within both, a profound questioning of identity and intention, and ultimately, a grieving over one’s former sense of self. The stories we’ve told ourselves that we can no longer believe. Nestled within deep layers of comfort, familiarity, and solace, I’m able to repeat myself again and again, never learning, never looking back. Simultaneously becoming wiser and more ignorant as the years wind on, beauty and grace exist even here, in this rift.”

Detritus will see the light of day on May 14th through Paper Bag Records in North America and One Little Independent Records in the rest of the world and ahead of it Neufeld has shared the poignant and beautiful opening track, ‘Stories’. The single comes with a visual accompaniment made by Jeremy Mimnagh.

Mixtape #119


One of the most extraordinary contemporary musicians out there, the staggeringly talented Austrian percussionist and composer Manu Delago got us under his spell a while back. So much so that his two previous beguiling studio albums, Circadian and Parasol Peak, both made it to our Album Picks of the Year. Highly in demand, he has garnered wide acclaim in recent years performing and recording with an impressive list of artists, including Anoushka Shankar, Björk, Poppy Ackroyd, the London Symphony Orchestra, and many others. A pioneer of the handpan, Delago‘s technical ability and creativity knows no bounds. So we’re over the moon to have him curating this month’s mixtape with an utterly sublime selection of tracks.

  1. Daniel Thorne – From Inside, Looking Out [Erased Tapes]
  2. Colin Stetson & Sarah Neufeld – Never Were the Way She Was [Constellation]
  3. Douglas Dare – Wherever You Are [Erased Tapes]
  4. Khushi – From Me [Warner Records]
  5. KÁRYYN – Ever [Mute]
  6. 5K HD – 10/15 [fiveK Records]
  7. S. Carey – Rose Petals [Jagjaguwar]
  8. Sufjan Stevens – Fourth of July [Asthmatic Kitty]
  9. Soap&Skin – Italy [PIAS]
  10. Pablo Nouvelle feat. Norma Jean Martine – We Ain’t Dead Yet [Bakara Music / Armada]
  11. The Cinematic Orchestra – Time & Space [Ninja Tune / Domino]
  12. Nirvana – Where Did You Sleep Last Night [Blue Moon Records]

Sarah Neufeld previews new album with ‘Where The Light Comes In’

Photo: Gesi Schilling

Photo: Gesi Schilling

Montréal based extraordinary composer and violinist Sarah Neufeld is streaming ‘Where The Light Comes In’, the latest track to emerge from her highly anticipated somophore album The Ridge. We were head-over-heels in love with the magnificent title track, ‘The Ridge’, and the new single makes us even more excited for what’s to come. ‘Where The Light Comes In’, is “…a piece I wrote in a moment of peace”, said Neufeld. “Those glorious seconds where all is quiet and open and green and the thoughts that form are snowflakes instead of lists of details and reminders. Pure deep water that never ends.”
Let yourself get immersed in the delicate and wondrous ‘Where The Light Comes In’.

The Ridge is out on February 26th via Paper Bag Records.

Sarah Neufeld announces new album and unveils first track ‘The Ridge’

Sarah Neufeld - The Ridge

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.