For those unaware, Victoria, BC-based artist Dana Sipos has just released her brand new album, The Astral Plane, this past June 25th, 2021 via JUNO Award-nominated musician Miranda Mulhollands label, Roaring Girl Records.

For The Astral Plane, Sipos once again teamed up with experimental producer Sandro Perri and reunited with her accomplished studio band for the project, consisting of Thomas Hammerton (keys, piano, organ), Mark McIntyre (bass), Nick Zubeck (guitar), and Blake Howard (percussion), with guest appearances from Lydia Persaud (vocals) and Michael Davidson (vibraphone).

To bring the new songs to life, the crew decamped to a large converted 1860s stone carriage house, The House of Miracles, in Cambridge, Ontario, in the summer of 2020.

The result is an impeccably curated collection of sounds, anchored by Sipos haunting vocals and evocative lyrics and the album has been preceded by several single releases, including Light Around The Body, which came out March 31st; Skinny Legs which came out April 28th; and Breathing Barrel, which came out May 26th.

1. Light In Moon On
2. Swallows Call
3. A Crude Likeness
4. Light Around The Body
5. Skinny Legs
6. Daniel
7. Greenbelt
8. Hoodoo
9. Breathing Barrel

Opening on the feathered gossamer of Light In Moon On and the ambiently folksy Swallows Call, she backs those up seamlessly with the early 90s, melodic alt ballad-imbued A Crude Likeness, the achingly Americana ebb and flow of of Light Around The Body and then comes the elegantly graceful Skinny Legs.

Next up is the vocal and acoustic guitar, campfire-imbibed storytelling of Daniel, the gentle mid-tempo rendering of Greenbelt, with the album rounding out on the veritably haunting Hoodoo, closing on the diaphanous folk of Breathing Barrel.

Among the many forms of loss explored in this album, Sipos unearths the trauma of her grandparents early lives, surviving the Holocaust, escaping from Communist Hungary with two young children, including Danas mother.

They arrived in Canada with $5 sown into a jacket pocket and did not speak a word of English. I feel very lucky that they shared these stories and experiences with us, says Sipos.

From her grandfather, she also inherited a love for singing, Jewish jokes, and Yiddish humor: I grew up with a love of stories and storytelling across the board, the unfathomably dark and painful. And despite — or perhaps because of — the hardships, the ability to turn that darkness into humor.

Sipos became a careful observer and close listener at the kitchen table on her grandparents farm, where they settled in southern Ontario.

Many albums offer a snapshot in time, or a glimpse behind the curtain into a fleeting certain moment in the writers story. On The Astral Plane, Sipos instead invites the listener beneath the surface, diving into complex personal histories and relationships and their ongoing reverberations, from the past and into the present and future.

Official Purchase Links

www.danasipos.com

Dana Sipos @ Facebook

Dana Sipos @ Instagram