Sarah Schonert - My Unwinding State
- Written by Julia Lamb
Based out of Peoria, Illinois, Sarah Schonert is an indie singer-songwriter crafting tunes with an experimental touch. Quirky and off-kilter, her approach feels similar to the likes of Kate Bush, Imogen Heap and Enya; all innovators past and present who’ve paved a daring new road for those falling under the ‘singer-songwriter’ umbrella.
Sarah Schonert’s latest album is My Unwinding State. The mammoth 16-track album showcases her eclectic sound in multiple lights. A bedrock of classical-sounding piano adorned with arrays of synthesizers, vocoders, ambient washes and layers of textural vocals. Opening track ‘6 O Clock’ is an absorbing introduction to Schonert’s quirky voice, which seems to almost consciously avoid the road-well-taken singer-songwriter route of being ‘pretty’ above all else. Instead, the emphasis here is placed on being interesting, and it lends Schonert a sound that is refreshingly hard to pin down. Full of interwoven textures, ‘6 O Clock’ manages to remain eerily mellow throughout in spite of its sophisticated backdrop.
Track two ‘Break Me Down’ follows suit, though leads the album in a more upbeat direction. ‘Trade My Smile’ and ‘We Were Something’ are some of Schonert’s more stripped back songs, drawing your attention to the stories at hand with little more than Schonert’s lyrics, her piano and the occasional hint of expanding ambience. Later in the album, ‘WaterWings’ features one of the record’s strongest hooks with its submerged-sounding keyboard line, which soon bursts into a glorious grand piano.
At 16 tracks, My Unwinding State is a little on the long side, however, the album offers a rich pallet of ideas and sounds inspired by innovators of the indie singer-songwriter genre past and present while managing to take on a unique personality of its own.