- The "emo ambient" producer lands on Saddle Creek with two of her prettiest, almost baroque compositions yet.
- claire rousay has become one of the most talked-about ambient artists and composers over the past few years. She creates sonic environments from sounds that she constantly records throughout her everyday life, creating a level of intimacy that defines her work. Her music comes in a steady stream of self-releases and records on different, often small labels, though her latest, Sigh In My Ear, comes as part of indie rock legend Saddle Creek's Document Series, which pairs a record from an artist not on the label's usual roster with a zine created by the same artist.
Where the vocals in rousay's work usually come from human voices captured in candid moments of daily life, or voice-to-text readings of actual love letters, "Sigh In My Ear" features Canadian singer-songwriter Helena Deland singing lyrics composed by rousay. (This follows their previous collaboration, "Deceiver," for Mexican Summer's Looking Glass series.) Deland's voice is heavily manipulated as usual, but this time, as the song progresses, her natural tones start to cut through the Autotune effect. This feels like the clear next step for rousay as a composer, as part of her move towards more harmonic elements since the release of a softer focus on the American Dreams label in 2021.
The B-side, "Your First Armadillo," is heavy on the field recordings, including bits of verbal communication and nature sounds that cloud rousay's soothing piano playing. It's an auditory slice of life that sounds perfect wafting through an open window, where the sounds surrounding your immediate reality connect across time and space with the ones rousay opts to share here with us from her own.
Tracklist01. Sigh In My Ear
02. Your First Armadillo