Marissa Nadler - The Sun Always Reminds Me Of You

MARISSA NADLER – Self-titled fifth album, out June 13

Seven years into her musical calling, it seems that everyone has his or her own version of the real Marissa Nadler. Almost uniformly, these versions relate to some sort of gothic folk chanteuse locked in an anachronistic, possibly unearthly, existence; a woman peering through the looking glass darkly. Death and dangerous liaisons have followed her through the mysteries and mists of four critically adored albums – most recently 2009’s remarkable Little Hells, whose ghosts and lovers certainly fulfilled their promise to haunt.

Looking beyond the compelling mystique, however, a clear and corporeal progression can be traced. With each new recording, Marissa has taken steps, then strides, and now, excitingly, bounds outside of her internal world of interwoven stories to embrace the twisted carnival of the physical thrum with what she’s calling “the most honest, natural record I’ve ever written.”

Recorded over a three-week period in January at Philadelphia’s Miner Street Studio with producer Brian McTear, the purposefully titled Marissa Nadler is the Bostonian “mistress of the murder ballad” as we have never heard her before. Traversing through dream-folk and cosmic country, this is Marissa out in the open, her trademark vocal reverb pared away – in the case of two songs, completely. “I’m no longer hiding,” she says. “The mystery still exists in the music as an aesthetic tool, but the songs cut harder because of the vocal mix, with more varied colours than my other records.”

Breaking with the music industry machinery having cemented her reputation for illuminating, individual songwriting with releases through such hallowed imprints as Peacefrog, Kemado and Mexican Summer (who named themselves after one of her songs), Marissa is taking matters into her own hands by releasing this album through her own Box Of Cedar Records (also named after one of her songs).

A Kickstarter campaign launched in November 2010 received unprecedented media support and achieved its $11,000 fundraising target in less than one week, allowing Marissa to fully realise her vision for the record (the full amount raised was $17,000). She also raised money the old-fashioned way, by selling handmade crafts and a range of home-recorded albums through her online shop.

This, then, is the closest Marissa Nadler has come to revealing her true self, and for once the reality is better than fiction. She may be shedding her cloak of black lace but her songs strike even harder at the heart with that old familiar dagger.

For all press enquiries, email alan@peaknuckle.fm

* * * A four-track companion EP, Rain Arrangement, recorded during the same sessions, will be released later in 2011.

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Praise for Little Hells:

“a true original” – Q (4/5)
“an enchanting record” – Mojo (4/5)
“beautiful and merciless as diamond bullets” – Drowned In Sound (9/10)

“Little Hells moves Nadler well beyond easy categories, thanks to a newfound clarity in her words, a compelling link between her songs, and production that sharpens her old strengths while brightly exposing new ones” – Pitchfork (8.3)