Sarah Louise

I first became a fan of Sarah Louise’s floral fingerstyle acoustic guitar playing on her albums Deeper Woods and Field Guides, and remained intrigued by her more maximalist turn on 2019’s Nighttime Birds and Morning Stars, but nothing prepared me for Earth Bow. Sarah’s latest album is a sparkling, expansive exploration of meaning and melody, and also Sarah Louise’s most electronic record yet. As an admitted die-hard, erm, curmudgeon about electronic music, this conversation came at a somewhat pivotal time for me. I’m grateful to Sarah for the reminder that humans are after all the ones making electronic music, and that it can certainly be a conduit of spirituality and enlightenment, sometimes definitively so.

I spoke to Sarah Louise on Earth Day, fittingly. Highlights include: discussing the social construct of the “natural”/synthetic binary, her electronic turn, and her relationship with the earth. Also need to note that the actual Lester Bangs quote I mentioned was him saying “It’s all folk music, anyway.” Louis Armstrong said “All music is folk music.”

Sarah Louise’s Earth Bow is out 4/30. Get it on Bandcamp.