Muse (2012)

An air of inquiry suffuses Laura Marling's third album, a mood of experimentation as cerebral as it is playful. Opening song The Muse is like nothing she has released before: swaggering and brassy, with her voice pulling angular shapes across saloon-jazz piano and tight brush drums. Salinas and Rest in the Bed are like miniature western movies, with spit and sawdust in the guitar and banjo lines, melodrama in the backing vocals and Marling squinting at a relentless sun as her characters glare fate in the face. As on last year's I Speak Because I Can, Marling can sound curiously dispassionate, slurring the chorus of Don't Ask Me Why, maintaining a studied cool at the start of Sophia as she murmurs: "Where I have been lately is no concern of yours." But when Sophia unfurls into a glowing country romp, the distance between her and us suddenly shrinks – and the feeling is exhilarating.

Paul Avgerinos (born November 21, 1957 in Norwalk, Connecticut) is an American composer, performer and producer of new-age music whose recordings for Round Sky Music are also classified in the genres of ambient, space, world, World Fusion, electronic and drone. Avgerinos also owns Studio Unicorn in Redding, Connecticut, which produces a wide variety of music for film, TV, commercials and albums of all kinds. Avgerinos is recognized as “One of the Giants of New Age Music“ by Jim Brenholts, All Music Guide.