Sara Wolff When You Left The Room
Emerging from the endless fug and cosy comforts of her winter hibernation, Sara Wolff’s debut EP offers a deeply melodic warmth and beautifully crafted lyrical exploration of humanity’s highs and hollows.
For a debut this is some audacious and assured songwriting, perfect in its simplicity and craft. Wolff’s vocal delivery has the muted clarity of This is the Kit’s Kate Stables, with Cate le Bon and Fiona Apple cited as feeding her pool of inspiration and evident in the textures and tonality of her sound.
Hailing from Bergen in Norway, Wolff has settled (for now) into the DIY scene of her adopted Liverpool. There’s a freshness and an unapologetic sense of self woven into the structure of her songs that explore life’s emotions from the mundane to the momentous. The lyrical melodies are mellow, melancholy and wise, tinged with sadness in places, fizzing with delight in others.
The songcraft is matched by the beautifully spacious production and vintage warmth coaxed from the analogue collection at Stockport’s Eve Studios by Wolff and her co-producer Adam Rothschild. There’s a deep, effortless quality to the sound, the bass providing a moody resonance that is held in place by deliciously sparse percussion and guitars that fuss and jangle as they need to, all working together to honour the primacy of the voice.
As a writer and producer, Wolff is a gifted natural talent at the start of what will hopefully be a long career. It will be exciting to hear where she goes next.
