Sarah Clausen, With Many Hands
“I’m breaking one of my own rules by including With Many Hands. I mentioned it in passing in October as part of a Gossip Wolf item on Hannah Frances; Clausen is musical director of Frances’s band, in which she plays alto saxophone and bass clarinet. With Many Hands is outstanding enough to warrant the exception. Its slow-moving, almost ambient songs, built largely from reeds, electronics, and voice, span a kaleidoscopic range of moods and textures. On “Cry,” Clausen uses an effects pedal to stretch out a resonant woodwind note like a fitted bedsheet, providing a canvas for her somber singing to move across the song in a dramatic, elegant sweep.”
-Leor Galil, The Chicago Reader
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