LP - Marisa Anderson - The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music

1LP - indie green vinyl 

 Marisa Anderson's music transcends borders. The topography of her work interrogates the intersections of artistry and expression with form and tradition. Anderson crafts pieces bursting with equal parts reverence and curiosity, contouring familiar shapes into work that is wholly her own. Anderson has spent decades mining the veins of the complicated, interconnected American folk traditions she was steeped in from a young age, stretching beyond those traditions and incorporating the vocabulary and techniques of vernacular folk music from around the world into her work.

Eschewing replication or revival, Anderson's music lives in conversation with tradition. The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music is drawn from nearly one thousand songs culled from the private record collection of the late Harry Smith. For this record, Anderson works on music from places that the United States has been in conflict with since 1970: Southeast Asia, the USSR and the Arabic and Islamic regions of the world. In Volume 1 Anderson presents her own deeply personal iterations of nine songs from the Anthology.

Composed, transcribed and arranged through a process of trial and error, deep listening and research, Anderson charts a musical course across the globe. Each piece on the album stands as a dialogue between Anderson and the original source recordings, refracted through the prism of her unique musical lens.