Sarah Fimm: White Birds

Sarah Fimm is another artist I love -- much like, say, Charlotte Martin -- who keeps creating beautiful music just under pop culture's "breakout radar." I hope this changes soon, as Fimm just gets better and better with each release. (And who can't love someone named after the highest order of angels -- seraphim?)

Fimm's latest release, White Birds, is a nice mix of piano, violins, electronica, and heartrending melodies that loop and spiral much like the (metaphorical) birds she sings about. "Counting Waves" and "White Birds" are nice "songends" (versus "bookends", mind you) to this EP, and "Afraid" crescendos like waves crashing against cliffs, sure to leave shivers tingling up and down your spine long after the song is over. I think "Tamara Song", the third track, might be my favorite. It's a love song, though I don't know if Tamara is a lover, mother, friend, muse....in the end, it doesn't matter, because Tamara becomes that someone we all ache to honor in a song or poem or letter -- someone who has helped heal us and shown us slivers of Beauty and Spirit on this crazy earth. I spent this last weekend at a friend's house in rural Oregon, surrounded mostly by forests and rivers and logging terrain, and I loudly played "Tamara Song" on my car stereo with the windows down, the sun coasting through onto my arms and face, the wind in my hair as I drove up and down hills on the winding roads. This song has brought me much peace.

If you want to give Sarah Fimm a try, I'd say give Nexus -- her previous album -- and White Birds a try, so you can tap into Fimm's current mix of synth, voice, lush lyrics, and sad, diamond-like longing. (*cdbaby.com carries all of her music)