Mountain Man | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Background information | |
Origin | Bennington, Vermont, U.S. |
Genres | Indie, folk, a cappella |
Years active | 2009–present |
Labels | Partisan, [1] Bella Union, [1] Spunk, P-Vine |
Members | Molly Sarlé Alexandra Sauser-Monnig Amelia Meath [2] |
Website | mountainman |
Mountain Man is an American singing trio described as "nestled in the tradition of American folk" [3] with a traditional Appalachian folk sound. They have earned acclaim from a number of music critics. [4] [5] [6] They often sing a cappella, with a "sparse, haunting, hymnal beauty" [4] sometimes accompanied by soft acoustic guitar, but with their voices "virtually unadorned", according to Guardian critic Paul Lester. [5] The group toured with the vocalist Feist in 2011, [7] and New York Times music reviewer Ben Ratliff described their performance as "creating shifting harmonies" which "worked perfectly". [8]
The three members of the group are Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Randall Meath. [2] They met as students at Bennington College in Vermont and began singing seriously together in 2009. [2] (They were invited back to Bennington a decade later in 2019 to be the commencement speakers. [9] )Two come from "singing families" and one got experience singing in a church choir. [2] They were influenced in part by Bulgarian women's choir music, as well as artists such as Celine Dion. [2] According to one report, they would sit on the porch of a shared house in Bennington and harmonize on songs they had written; when they sang as a trio, they realized it was "something special." [10] Self-released recordings were picked up by influential blogs such as Pitchfork in late 2009, and they got a record deal [10] with the label Partisan and others. [1] They've been compared to the musical group The Roches. [2]
While they make decisions as a group, often they divide responsibilities, with Meath often assuming the "manager role," Sarlé handling finances, and Sauser-Monnig deciding matters about sound quality in recordings, according to the group in an interview on NPR. [2] They toured the country after graduating from college by riding in a car which they named Delores. Their first album is entitled Made the Harbor on the label Partisan Records (North America), Bella Union (Europe), Spunk (Australia), and P-Vine (Japan). They toured with The Decemberists and with Jónsi. [2] They toured in Europe. One of their folk harmony songs was converted into electropop by multi-instrumentalist Paul Duncan of Warm Ghost. [11]
Look at Me Don’t Look at Me, a live album recorded in November 2018, was released in August 2020. [12]
Washington Post music critic David Malitz described their voices as "nectar-sweet" which was almost "jarring in its simplicity" with no distractions from the trio's voices. [6] New York Times music critic Nate Chinen described their sound as "sparse, bewitching twist on Appalachian music" [13] with a feeling of "willful, collective intuition." [14] Their music sounds as if it's "being sung by ghosts", "spectral and spooky", when they echo "folk songs about the forest" as well as "the bedroom". [1] National Public Radio gave a similar account and described their music as weaving "voices into a stark, reverent and unadorned sound that can be hauntingly beautiful." [15]
Other reactions include:
Long on ghostly voices and skeletal arrangements, the music made by Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Randall Meath on their Made The Harbor album – recorded in an abandoned factory – sounds like a cousin to that made in Bon Iver's snowbound bolt hole. Impressively, Mountain Man have created a music from another time and place, a closed environment they're now opening up to all.
— John Robinson in The Guardian , 2010 [16]
The tunes — despite being originals written in the last two years — sound like they could be early-century hymns, or covers of protofolk tunes gleaned from old Smithsonian field recording compilations. Mountain Man's sound would have the listener assuming its members are old-timey Appalachian maidens, rather than coeds touring in a Prius.
— Jessica Hopper, Chicago Tribune , 2010 [10]
Sauser-Monnig released her debut solo album, Dawnbreaker, under the name Daughter of Swords in July 2019. [17] Molly Sarlé released her debut solo album, entitled Karaoke Angel, in September 2019. [18] Amelia Meath is a member of the electronic duo Sylvan Esso which has released four full-length albums, the most recent being No Rules Sandy , released August 2022. [19] In addition, Meath and Sarle contribute their vocal talents to the indie music group BOBBY. [20] In 2022, Meath and Sauser-Monnig formed The A's, who released their debut album, Fruit, in July 2022. [21]
The women sang isolated parts and created steady shifting harmonies ... Their sound worked perfectly here...
The lack of amplification was a reminder, if any were needed, of rural Vermont... willful, collective intuition
weaves its voices into a stark, reverent and unadorned sound that can be hauntingly beautiful.
Name: Bobby