Sign up for our mailing list Real artists creating records on their own terms
Close

Sign up for our mailing list

Press

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014

Arc Iris Bio (2014)

Arc Iris crystallizes the evolution of composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Jocie Adams, a former core member of renowned indie-folk band The Low Anthem. This is a breakaway moment for Adams, who now takes center stage as composer, lyricist, and lead vocalist. Embracing her new role as auteur, Adams has created a genre-bending style that often shifts between cabaret-infused jazz, orchestral sophistication, grimy outlaw country, delicate and whimsical harmonies, and big-band exhilaration – sometimes all in the same song. Hers is an all-together different world where fantastical whimsy goes hand in hand with down-to-earth grit, and where rigorous classical training inflects but never softens the visceral rawness of hard-won experience.

Adams is a refreshingly grounded character who draws on the same combination of technical wizardry and lighthearted wonder whether she is grappling with a complex set of notes or rigging up an indoor playground for her cat. She’s dabbled in rocket science, but a stint working at NASA isn’t really what sets her apart – it’s the fact that she couldn’t care less about it. That same freedom of spirit compelled Adams, who is a classically trained composer, to make the leap to the world of rock when she joined The Low Anthem in 2007. Now, she’s transformed herself once again by carving out a space that is wholly her own within the worlds of lyric writing and orchestral arrangement. Songs on the 11 track album range in sonic and emotional intensity - from the patient brooding of “Honor of the Rainbows” to the smoky cyclical aura of “Lost on Me.”

Adams’ vast aesthetic vision is matched only, and appropriately, by the band’s multifaceted musicianship, which includes Zach Tenorio-Miller on piano, Mike Irwin on trumpet, Robin Ryczek on cello, Ray Belli on drums, Max Johnson on bass, and Charlie Rose on steel banjo and trombone. In rehearsing, the group drew inspiration from a range of artists, in particular Dirty Projectors, Harry Nilsson, and Leonard Cohen. James Reed writes in The Boston Globe that, “the album’s unique sound is informed as much by Joni Mitchell as it is by Björk’s sonic experiments and sweeping film soundtracks.”

Yet while songs on the album pull just as readily from 19th century cello and 1970s pop, what emerges cannot be called mere eclecticism. Adams’ style is highly focused at every twist and turn, creating an aesthetic where juxtaposed edges are sharpened rather than blunted. In “Money Gnomes,” the rollicking simplicity of a bluegrass bassline makes room for sweeping, cello-infused turns around the dance floor. Part morning jaunt down a dusty road, part lithe-limbed waltz, the music, like its lyrics, seems to offer potential for adventure and ultimately, in the breathy mantra of its coda, intimacy. “Swimming,” meanwhile, infuses the wry commentary and piano-draping antics of a folk-cabaret routine with woozy, orchestral impressionism. Saucy trumpet hits—doubled in Adams’s vocals—and the obsessive ticking of snare and high-hat foreshadow, but never quite give away, the song’s eventual, and eminently satisfying, dissolution into wailing rock outro. Together the pieces cohere to explore the concept of the new – an experience that is as intoxicating as it is terrifying. “Arc Iris encapsulates that sense of the future for me,” Adams says, “a sign of something beautiful that will hold my hand for a long time.”

The group’s fearless embrace of juxtaposition is apparent in the way they practice and perform. Members won’t hesitate to spend hours tinkering with a few notes if it means enhancing the synthesis of sound and storytelling. “We will always try every single idea,” Adams explains. (Her neighbors probably agree – one morning after a rehearsal went past 3 a.m., a crew arrived to install sound-proofing for the house next door). Yet on stage, disciplined background morphs seamlessly into spontaneous innovation. Band members don’t have set parts so the group never quite repeats itself two nights in a row. The musicians say that such on-the-spot acts of creation require two key ingredients: mutual trust, and individual nerve. And, they say, “we’ve got a pretty healthy dose of both.” This rare mix of obsessive attention to detail and quirky playfulness is a distinguishing feature of Arc Iris. This is what makes it possible to have, on the one hand, an album so refined and tightly crafted that it considers everything including the cords that connect one track to the next – and yet on the other hand have the musicians gleefully sum it all up as “mystical rainbow fairy kitten astronauts hurtling through the cosmos.”

Arc Iris' artist page

Browse by Artist

2387All Artists 67Mavis Staples 57Neko Case 56Dr. Dog 55The Milk Carton Kids 52Son Little 51Sean Rowe 50Tinariwen
44Glen Hansard 43Lost In The Trees 41Andy Shauf 37Saintseneca 36Delicate Steve 33Michael Franti and Spe... 33Galactic 32Xenia Rubinos 31Jolie Holland 30The Drums 30Calexico 28Doe Paoro 28Tom Waits 28William Elliott Whitmo... 27Yves Jarvis 27Man Man 26Girlpool 26Half Waif 26Madi Diaz 25Bettye LaVette 25Christian Lee Hutson 23Jason Lytle 23Christopher Paul Stell... 23The Antlers 22Gary V 22Sage Francis 22Booker T. Jones 22Cass McCombs 21Japandroids 21Danny Elfman 21Islands 21Lido Pimienta 20Daniel Lanois 20DeVotchKa 20Leyla McCalla 20Jeremy Ivey 19Combo Chimbita 19M. Ward 19Purr 19The Dream Syndicate 18So Much Light 18Wilco 18Joe Henry 17Jade Jackson 17Moor Mother 17Grinderman 17Tim Fite 17Darrin Bradbury 16Peter Silberman 16Porter Wagoner 16High Pulp 15Glitterer 15Alfa Mist 15Yann Tiersen 14John K. Samson 13Busdriver 13Rain Machine 13Ben Harper 13The Coup 13MJ Lenderman 12Deafheaven 12Hey, King! 12Josiah Johnson 12Richard Reed Parry 12The Melodic 11Keaton Henson 11Beth Orton 11Rafiq Bhatia 11Bonny Doon 11Kelly Hogan 11Curtis Harding 11Ryan Pollie 10Fleet Foxes 10Wynonna 10Ben Harper and Charlie... 10Xavier Rudd 10Bob Mould 10Os Mutantes 10Roky Erickson 10Dead Man's Bones 10Beat Connection 10Slow Pulp 10Katy Kirby 10Jasmyn 9Ezra Furman 9Cameron Avery 9The Tallest Man On Ear... 9James Brandon Lewis 9Kate Davis 9Kate Bush 9Marketa Irglova 9The Locust 9Mose Allison 8Art Moore 8A Girl Called Eddy 8Kristine Leschper 8The Frames 8Greg Graffin 8Waxahatchee 8Deradoorian 7Solillaquists of Sound 7Foxwarren 7sunking 7The Field 7Scott McMicken and THE... 7Alec Ounsworth 6Sparklehorse 6Marc Ribot 6Kronos Quartet with Br... 6The Good Ones 6Ramblin Jack Elliott 6Broken Twin 6N.A.S.A. 6Pete Philly & Perquisi... 6Pops Staples 5The Swell Season 5Jackson+Sellers 5Mothers 5Walter Wolfman Washing... 5Cadence Weapon 5The Weakerthans 5Tweedy 5Plains 4Antibalas 4Arc Iris 4Muggs 4case/lang/veirs 4Petra Haden 4One Day As A Lion 4Eddie Izzard 3Mavis Staples & Levon... 3Danny Cohen 3Simian Mobile Disco 3Marianne Faithfull 3Sam Akpro 3Sierra Leones Refugee... 3The Book Of Knots 2Savath & Savalas 2Lyrics Born 2Title Fight 2Various Artists: RANGO 2Chuck E. Weiss 2Blackalicious 2Spoon (Europe only) 2Screaming Lights (Euro... 2Billy Bragg 2Jeff Tweedy 1Taylor Vick 1Various Artists: ROGUE... 1Nick Cave & The Bad Se... 1Solomon Burke 1Rogue's Gallery
See Full List+