by Paddy Kinsella

Moving from Bergen to Liverpool may not be the most obvious migration route for a then 19-year-old artist, but as is evident on new single, Don’t Feed The Birds, Sara Wolff is oft-tempted by the road less travelled. Indeed, Don’t Feed The Birds unravels like that 00’s UK playground staple, the Kellogg’s Fruit Winder – perhaps its popularity stretched even as far as Wolff’s native Bergen! Talking of tasty treats, Wolff sings of ‘berries and apples, cakes in boxes and sweets from the shop’ in the opening verse, giving an insight into the singer songwriter’s playful-bordering-on-eccentric mind.

This beautiful sugar-filled scene set ‘down by the shrubs,’ however, is loomed over with a predatorial threat: the innocence of those lines stripped away by the haunting, stuttering percussion and Wolff’s threateningly distant vocal. Not one to stay in the same place though, that haunting spirit soon dissipates as an expanding guitar riff unveils plains which stretch beyond what the eye can see.

Happy to turn back on herself, however, we soon find ourselves right where we started – hemmed in by that burbling percussion before that cloak is thrown over her shoulder once-and-for-all as we reach the happy ending where Wolff remarks: ‘It’s a beautiful day and we’re going to have a nice time.’ It’s a criss-crossing journey which sprinkles flavours of Jenny Hval, Tune-yards, Madeline Kenny and Fiona Apple along the way. It makes for an enticing fall down a rabbit hole that we’re set to unearth more of when her new EP, Magic Hour, arrives via Small Matters Records on May 26^th. We, for one, cannot wait.

If you’d like to support us by subscribing to our zine, click here – it’s just £6 a year for four copies (inc p&p).