Of The Sun - Still Rising (2022)

That Marian van der Zon’s debut album as Of the Sun is actually being released is little short of miraculous. As I detailed in my review of her ultra-lowkey comeback performance back in 2018, the Cedar, British Columbia-based alt. folk singer-songwriter’s life was turned upside-down by a terrible vehicular accident in 2013. Causing a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and other serious issues, it ended her career as a university professor, putting paid to any kind of work-life at all, requiring spinal surgery and years of cognitive therapy. Suffering from debilitating migraines and a permanent state of exhaustion, van der Zon could not even listen to music with a beat without pain, and she still struggles in this regard.

An album of lyrically poignant folk and alt. country with a couple of forays into Julia Easterlin-esque loop-driven vocal material, its title mirrors the fact that van der Zon’s dogged recovery continues to this day. However, the elation she will surely enjoy as a consequence of finally ushering this affecting collection of songs into the public realm will hopefully assist in aiding her ongoing rehabilitation. Indeed, van der Zon describes Still Rising’s quietly momentous release as “a big stepping out.”

Although her solo bow, this album follows a decade on from Square Pie, the second album (after 2009’s Farewell to Gerald Fitzella) by Puzzleroot, van der Zon’s idiosyncratic folk act with her former partner, and my introduction to her music. While sonic elements from those days remain, the lyrics are understandably markedly different, with her recent personal history permeating the songs in one way or another.