Tara Jane O’Neil - Where Shine New Lights

Tara Jane O’Neil is a multi-talented musician based out of Portland, Oregon. At the age of 19 she was already playing bass for art punk band Rodan. She then went about forming Retsin, a folky indie duo and The Sonora Pine, a more experimental post-rock type band. Since then there has been a collaboration with legendary slowcore band Ida, a wide range of guest appearances and even a prominent role in the film _Half-Cocked. _She is also a notable painter. (I did say multi-talented!)

Tara has been releasing solo albums since 2000’s Peregrine. Where Shine New Lights is her seventh solo album and it’s a really beautiful listen. It’s certainly a long way from art punk, with the arrangements here generally relying on a few instruments played pretty quietly. It veers from Julianna Barwick_-_esque choral ambient (in particular on the opening track Welcome) through to really tender folk pieces. _The Lull the Going _is a particular highlight. matching a picked guitar with some quite fabulous harmonies. Elemental Finding opens with a vibraphone before opening out into a dark folky number. It’s really quite haunting, but it’s also really quite beautiful. _Over. Round, in a Room. Found. _is almost hypnotic with a busy beat underneath sparse instrumentation and virtually lyricless vocals. The slowly repeated synth in _All Now Vibe _transforms it into a really spectacular listen, whilst the final track, _New Lights for a Sky _adds a dissonant edge to the pretty ambient feel that works an absolute treat.

There are a few tracks here which remind me of other more prominent singer-songwriters. The aforementioned Julianna Barwick comparison is definitely one that keeps coming back to me, St. Vincent is an obvious touchstone on _This Morning Glory _and there’s even a touch of EMA, especially in the first half of Wordless in Woods.

This is a really great listen. A wonderful collaboration of ambient and folk; this is the perfect remedy for all the stresses of student life. It’s not the most exciting listen, but that’s pretty much the point. It’s relaxing, it’s comforting and it really does go down easily. This is defnitely one I’d recommend to all.