Lyric Pieces
In her debut solo album, Sarah re-imagines the music of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Ethereal vocals and haunting lyrics are intertwined with Grieg's piano music, creating an emotional new collection of songs. Lyric Pieces was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and was recorded on a Steinway 1098 piano with pieces of felt placed on the strings. These muted piano sounds set an intimate tone for songs that explore feelings of loneliness, longing and love.
Lyric Pieces was released by Adhyaropa Records on June 16, 2023. While the album is available on all streaming platforms, the best way to support the artist is by purchasing your copy directly on Bandcamp.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutane.
Produced by Larry Klein Engineered by Adam Greenspan Mixed by Tchad Blake Mastered by Bernie Grundman Recorded at the Village Studios Photography by Sara Mally Film by Buckets Moving Company
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About The Music
LYRIC PIECES is a re-imagining of the music of Edvard Grieg. This collection of music grew out of a time of transition - an overwhelming sense of isolation in a new city with a growing family. While everything around me was unfamiliar, I gravitated to the piano for comfort - it was the one place I could go and feel at home. I unpacked boxes of music books and started playing through music from the Complete Lyric Pieces, a collection of 66 piano pieces written over the span of 58 years by the Norwegian composer. These pieces seemed to perfectly encapsulate everything I was feeling and I instinctively began to explore the music in new and unusual ways.
Pushing beyond the confines of my classical music training, I was no longer preoccupied with how the music was supposed to be played, but focused entirely on how the music actually made me feel. I allowed myself the freedom to use my voice - wordlessly and with text. I played with tempo and form - cutting parts of pieces and repeating others. I wrote lyrics for counterlines, and created new melodies based on harmonic movement. I chose pieces out of order jumping around between different opus numbers. I gave myself time and space to improvise, and found myself entering into a new kind of musical exploration and conversation.
Grieg lived from 1843-1907 in a world that couldn’t possibly seem farther away, but his emotional life is timeless. He left home at a very young age, experienced intense loneliness and homesickness, and he yearned to find his place, his unique voice as an artist. These very human experiences are what connect us all, and these are the experiences that pour through his music, that broke through the barriers of time and place and spoke to me. Listen Here.
