Every once in a while, despite best intentions, releases slip through the cracks and we end up missing out on some wonderful music. Thankfully we were able to secure a copy of Sarah Fimm’s wonderful ‘Barn sessions’ EP, despite managing to miss it back in October at its time of release, and we’re glad we did because it is a deep, beautiful EP that echoes shades of Tool, PJ Harvey, Tori Amos and Alice In chains across its five tracks.
Opening with ‘everything becomes whole’ you’re instantly reminded of the stripped down beauty of Paz Lenchantin’s remix of A Perfect Circle’s ‘The Hollow’ (you can find it on the ‘aMotion’ DVD set) as Sarah draws upon the same well of powerful emotion and lyrical honesty that drives forward Maynard James Keenan. A deceptively simple track, Sarah plays the Piano with gusto, but it is her voice that draws the attention, bringing goose-bumps to the skin and weaving a silken web around the listener. The recording is raw, so much so you can hear Sarah pause to draw breath and a whispered count in that makes you feel like you’re in the same room, watching the performance take place (and indeed you are if you close your eyes and let the music take you away) – it’s an impressive achievement. The second track, ‘hiding’ features a guest appearance from John Andrews who provides Lou Reed-esque harmonies to Sarah’s vocals for a track that by turns recalls the elegiac beauty of Low and the emotional resonance of long-lost indie rockers Seafood. It’s a folk-inspired track that defies simple genre classification and remains simply beautiful no matter how many times you listen to it. ‘Say no more’ is a powerful song that, and I hesitate to say this, has a hint of James Bond theme music about it – a stunning, full-throated performance from Sarah, backed up by pounding piano and a palpable sense of drama that oozes from the recording, while you can easily imagine an orchestra providing the backdrop for the stripped-down performance.
Two tracks left and ‘don’t let it bring you down’ harks back to the days of Neil Young’s ‘Harvest’ with a melody line that eats its way into your brain to lodge there, uninvited, for days after you’ve listened to the record. It’s a simple, brilliant song, and the EP overall is a testament to Sarah’s strengths as a songwriter that she can sit at a piano and convince you that she’s fronting a full band, your brain filling in the blanks even as you struggle to believe it’s just one person making such a grand, elegant sound. Final track ‘Sycamore trees’ is a wind-swept track that is as bare as the titular objects in winter, layered with frost and desolate as an uninhabited landscape – it is difficult not to gasp as the cold wind strikes – and it closes the EP on a haunting note.
‘The barn sessions’ is a beautiful, emotionally raw experience which draws upon a well of musical experience from simple singer-songwriter lyricism to an alternative sensibility which recalls the work of bands such as Tool and A perfect circle at their most open and unaffected. Clearly an excellent musician, it is Sarah’s voice that steals the show: she thunders away on ‘say no more’ and then turns to a devastating melancholy for the final piece. The songs are beautifully composed, short and stunningly beautiful, occasionally even heart-breaking; and listeners will find themselves drawn back to this recording time and again to explore its charms.
Want to know more? Head over to Sarah’s site here.
Or watch the video for ‘everything becomes whole’:
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