Keren Ann · Mar 18, 07:26 AM

photo: Benjamin Nitot

The seasons changed, and with them, moods and feelings. I exchanged my linen for wool and ended up in denim. By the time I had listened to Keren Ann’s new album, Nolita, I was ready to greet one of the first days of spring.
This album plays like a film. Her songs are the scenes, instinctive, birthed, “from a mood rather than an idea,” yet refined, telling a story within themselves.
Keren moves around all the time but considers herself not a nomad nor a traveler, but a sailor. She has chosen a life that requires picking up and leaving, and for the love of her craft, she does it. Off to Paris to record an album, then to the U.S. to record another, a side project takes her to Sweden and she brings souveniers to her listeners: a bird chirping in central park, a cellar door creaking as it’s shut, and Sean Gullette from the movie Π (Pie), narrating the final scene of Nolita.
She records these sounds with her mini disc player but doesn’t abandon vintage microphones and preamps to capture other sounds. Blending technology with history, Keren Ann creates a cinematic experience, and does with Nolita what any great film would do, takes us to another place.

— Albin

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