On Emma Ruth Rundle‘s latest solo outing Some Heavy Ocean, she reconciles in a bold and beautiful manner her diverse musical styles and interests honed over the years while performing in groups like Marriages, Red Sparowes, and the Nocturnes. Her voice is truly the centerpiece of the album – strong, defiant, and upfront. Rundle is cast as the beacon of light in a soundscape that exists as dense fog-like endlessness. It’s a sound as attractive and with the destructive potential of a black hole. Space, outer, inner, or otherwise, plays an important role here too. The songwriter has a deep understanding of dynamics. There’s drama, there’s build, there’s tension and release. On this heavy ocean, the waves ebb and flow to create emotional peaks and valleys. All the while, Rundle gives us her monochromatic all, an infinite variety of diversity in between the black of the void and the purest white light.

While she performs alone, adorned with just voice and electric guitar, for our Folkadelphia Session, she is no less subdued. Listen to Emma Ruth Rundle’s in-studio session now.