Sarah Neufeld - First Sounds (2024)

If three composers can be considered a supergroup, then Sarah Neufeld and Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire and Bell Orchestre) and Rebecca Foon (Esmerine, Saltland, Thee Silver Mt. Zion) fit the definition. They first improvised together in Montreal back in 1999, but didn’t record their efforts; a quarter century later, recalling the instinctive magic of those sessions, they reunited and pressed Record. First Sounds is both a reflection of those early sessions, viewed through the lens of time, and the first installment of a new and hopefully ongoing chapter. One might liken it to the thrill of reuniting with one’s first love, discovering that the chemistry is as strong as ever.

The premiere single, “Maria,” extends the idea across generations. Inspired by a reel-to-reel tape of slowed-down hymns, the piece recalls the rendition of a rendition, a tape of a tape. The music is new, yet feels ancient, a communication beamed from an earlier century, translated and then retranslated, the soft drone underpinning suggesting the unspooling of the reel. Every so often the strings stop, as if to retool: to adjust the memory, to get the details as right as possible.

The inspiration of opener “Slow New Year” is more straightforward, as the recording sessions took place during the pandemic, a period of smudged and distorted time. If the album is about memory, it is also about perceptions of time, including duration and clarity. When all clocks and calendars seemed to dislodge, these performers remembered a time that seemed timeless, a halcyon session that they might be able to recreate.

Has there ever been a more ambient title than “Clouding Clouds”? At 11:21, the album’s longest piece is in no hurry to dissipate, like a conversation among old friends, continuously splitting off and returning to its center. The use of voice is important here: voice as lullaby, hum, consolation. Packed with shimmer and drone, the track is a masterpiece of texture. In contrast, “Day Three” flirts with form, its light percussion establishing a tempo early, only to shift midway, showcasing the dialogue between Neufeld and Foon.

The album’ sub-theme is geometrical. The cover image is a sunburst; the recording recreates a prior session; Jason Last traces a circle in the video for “Maria”; and “Circular” is an Ouroboros of sound. The trio does miss a golden opportunity, in that the end of the album fails to circle back to the beginning; but perhaps there is another lesson here: despite cycles and seasons, time’s arrow continues to point forward. This being said, the trio has done something remarkable, imitating the plot of the movie “After Life” (1998): they have reenacted a treasured memory, and in the process have produced a new memory, glistening with a beauty all its own. (Richard Allen)