etnobofin

Laura Veirs – Ether Sings
From Carbon Glacier: Nonesuch [Buy] [emusic]

Some of the most memorable books from childhood were Tove Jansson‘s Moomin stories. First read to us by parents, and then by ourselves as we grew older, the books instilled a long-lasting fascination in all things Nordic.

The endless forests of pine trees, weatherboarded fishing houses clustered beside stormy seas and a world covered in ice seemed especially magic and strange to Kiwi kids, reading by torchlight under bedclothes on summer holidays.

It’s a similar magical, snow-streaked landscape that appears in the songs of Laura Veirs. She grew up in Colorado and now lives in the Pacific Northwest (Portland, OR). According to wikipedia Veirs studied Geology at University, and her lyrics tend to dig beneath the scenery around her, filling songs with icy starlight, sea monsters and Pacific swells breaking on lonely beaches.

It all sounds slightly whimisical, but Laura Veirs makes a strength of those flower-child tendencies. Her strong tunes are underpinned by interesting structures (check the 18-bar verse length on Ether Sings), and on her last three albums on Nonesuch (Carbon Glacier, Year of Metors and Saltbreakers), she’s been supported by great arrangements from producer Tucker Martine and some very intelligent musicians in her band Saltbreakers.

Veirs earlier, pre-Nonesuch work (1999-2003) trends towards the “folky”, but is well worth exploring. Bill Frisell even played on Laura’s 2003 album Troubled by Fire on Bella Union records. Like Lewis Taylor, I’m becoming obsessed with Laura Veirs and quite enjoying the sensation of drowning among the icebergs.