New Album ‘Detritus’ by Arcade Fire’s Sarah Neufeld is Simply Beautiful

Sarah Neufeld makes the violin super cool. It’s little surprise then that her new album Detritus is garnering rave reviews far and wide. Stereogum describes it perfectly as “a meditative, immersive piece of work, Neufeld’s ghostly vocals and trademark violin meshing with ambient synth textures.” It’s all that and more.

Out now on One Little Independent, Detritus is Sarah’s third solo album. Across the longplayer, the award-winning Canadian violinist, composer and long-time member of Arcade Fire confronts anguish with beauty and turnmoil with grace. It is wistful and dreamlike, somber and poetic.

Sarah started writing Detritus in 2018. It was influenced by major upheaval in her life. “It’s the ashes after a fire, the wreckage left after something,” said Sarah. “It’s the idea of what we can find that’s left over. It might seem like waste or wreckage but it’s also the beginning.”

Evolution

Completed just weeks before Covid lockdown, Detritus is a gorgeous evolution of Sarah’s sound. “I was inspired by both a sense of interior aloneness and a sense of deep intimacy. Within both, a profound questioning of identity and intention, and ultimately, a grieving over one’s former sense of self.

“My work became a lot more patient and tender. With that vulnerability, it opened my creative brain in a new way where I was able to write differently. There was a lot of intensity and vigour in my previous work. On this album, there are pieces with intensity and vigour, for sure, and the process is intense and vigorous, but I think I wrote in some new ways, too.”

While the whole album is beautiful, we’ve picked two standouts to share below. Opener Stories is otherworldly and Shed Your Dear Heart is climactic in its delivery, full of cascading notes and delays.

Influences

Influenced by Bartok to Arthur Russell and Aphex Twin, Sarah Neufeld released her acclaimed debut album Hero Brother in 2013. Nils Frahm – another fave of ours – produced her debut solo. In 2015 Neufeld released Never Were The Way She Was with saxophonist and collaborator Colin Stetson. Her second solo album The Ridge followed in 2016. Sarah is also a founding member of Bell Orchestre. Their new album House Music dropped on Erased Tapes in March.

Also read: Dave Seaman Promises More Vinyl Releases on his Selador Label