by Shea Roney (@uglyhug_records)
The Brooklyn-based trio, Sister., composed of Hannah Pruzinsky, Ceci Sturman and James Chrisman, have released their debut full-length album, Abundance, out on Mtn Laurel Recording Co. Three years in the making, Abundance was largely self-recorded in a cabin up in Woodstock, New York, and overdubbed in Pruzinsky’s apartment closet, proving that Sister. capitalizes on the intimacy of home recording when in good company.
“Feeling it on my chest / And it feels like a gym weight or a blanket,” opens the album on the track “Ghost”. Considering two contradictory images like that, there is still a calm and vital set up to the rest of the album. Tracking in at its own pace, both sonically and emotionally, it's a sparse piano tune. Accompanied by creaks of the old wooden instrument and bird songs sneaking in through an open window, the track is an odd recording of fragile comfort. Originally a voice memo recorded by Sturman and later mixed by Chrisman into the finalized textures, the meandering tempo and hesitant chord changes are something to be desired in DIY style, but going beyond sound, it’s the vulnerability that makes this song stand out as an opener.
Taking a turn, “Notes App Apology” begins with a constant drum beat by Felix Walworth (Told Slant, Florist) that spills into a deliberate and outspoken folk groove. The band is steady in their demeanor, but passionate where it counts in the stunning melody and sensitively joyous production. “Guts” is a breathy pop song about the unsolicited dread that comes with having a crush. With ‘80s style synthesizers and the guttural low voicings underneath the melodies, there is an edge to this temptatious love. “Gorilla vs Cold Water” is a love song of sorts, mirroring the broken hearts of sailors lost at sea. With light piano work and the creaking of the bench at the end, the track drops off as lonely as the story within it.
Fighting darker passages, the band tries to learn to live with anger on the track “Firing,” turning into a melodramatic fester of menacing chord voicings and moody saxophone arrangements. “Managed to act out, managed to sleep,” Pruzinsky and Sturman sing as the synths grow in grand operatics. “Classon” continues the minor tonalities with a steady drive of guitar chunks and an industrial-styled atmosphere. With the line, “If your heart is hardly scattered / I’ll pick the pieces up that much more,” the track is an ode to the unwavering love that only a strong friendship can manage.
Some of the emotional highpoints of the record come from the last three tracks. As Pruzinsky sings “So I give you my hand, the rings, the bones, the setting” on the track “Kinder,” the band falls into a ghostly chorus that rises up in continuance. The track finds its natural conclusion as it slowly burns down to nothing but ash. That moment of stillness is followed by “Desire,” a patient folk tune about being unable to say what needs to be said. With an addition of banjo, Pruzinsky and Shurman’s vocals blend on the chorus of “Lie through desire” in a way that is strikingly warm and understandably raw. The band falls intensely on the line “I bleed for you,” wringing out the closing track “Abundance,” collectively written by Pruzinsky and Sturman in the closest form of collaboration. As the album comes to an end, the subtly is gone, but the heart remains bold as ever.
Upon first listen-through of Abundance, it’s unclear as to which path the next song will take. Each taking different journeys sonically, the album comes off as an eclectic group of folk stylings, primitive lo-fi recordings, and pop escapades. But as follows with more listening (as one does with any great piece or work), you begin to understand the cohesive layout as well as the structurally sound and boldly vulnerable writing unit that Sister. has become and will continue to be.