Ys
- Scores: Noise 1, Unease 2, Complexity 5 (each 1 to 5)
- Genre: Folk, Art Folk
- Mood: ornate, mythic, rapturous
- Sound: harp, orchestral arrangements, long songs, five tracks, high keening vocals, fairy-tale lyrics, through-composed structure
Ys is a five-song album of very long pieces, between 7 and 17 minutes, for pedal harp, voice and full orchestra. Newsom recorded her harp and vocals with Steve Albini in Los Angeles in December 2005, and Van Dyke Parks wrote the orchestral arrangements for four of the five tracks and conducted them, with Jim O’Rourke mixing and the whole thing done on analog tape. Folk and world instruments such as banjo, mandolin, marimba and cymbalom sit alongside the orchestra. The songs address a close friend’s sudden death, an illness and a turbulent relationship, and their lengths and orchestral approach were partly inspired by Roy Harper’s Stormcock and Parks’s own Song Cycle. Frances Quinlan of Hop Along and Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast have cited it as an influence.
Track list
- Emily (12:07)
- Monkey & Bear (9:29)
- Sawdust & Diamonds (9:54)
- Only Skin (16:53)
- Cosmia (7:15)