Hannah Marcus

New York's singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Hannah Marcus developed a unique style that was both emotional and hypnotic. Relocating to San Francisco, she debuted with the EP Demerol (1993) and the full-length Weeds And Lilies (Return to Sender, 1994), partially reprised on River of Darkness (Normal, 1995). The album contains three seven-minute songs (Nightmare, where she sounds like a fragile version of Joni Mitchell until the oneiric instrumental break and the mantra-like ending jam, Devil Inside Me and Coconut Cream Pie) besides the soaring angelic ode of Demerol and the plaintive piano ballad Weeds And Lilies. These songs lean towards the confessional vein of Nick Drake's and Laura Nyro's ominous elegies, Her voice, however, is a powerful and versatile instrument.

Her trance-like style became even more otherworldly on Faith Burns (Normal, 1998), recorded during a brief stay in Los Angeles with help from Swans' bassist Joe Goldrig, American Music Club's drummer Tim Mooney and Ralph Carney. Psalms such as The ghostly slocore Face in the Moon over anemic, haphazard, pseudo-bluesy instrumental incantations evokes Lisa Germano's painfully childish introspection, Nico's glacial soliloquy, as well as Patti Smith's delirious stream of consciousness. Her soothing, druggy, melismatic chanting slides on the dancing tapestry of Saint Raymond of the Dogs, somewhere between Tim Buckley's folk-jazz fusion and Jane Siberry's abstract self-reflections. Songs like the hypnotic and almost anthemic piano-based dirge Watching the Warriors, that evokes an anti-heroic Warren Zevon, or the soaring accordion-driven quasi-mystical love elegy River Phoenix scavenge gloomy psycho-scapes. Trona instead competes with the psych-rock nightmares of Kendra Smith adding a swinging, jazzy feeling that quickly descends into chaotic jamming. The subtle sophisticated accompaniment constitute a major asset, with a peak of complexity in the syncopated multi-faceted dub-tinged African-infected horn-enhanced melodrama The Hanged Man. For better or for worse, Marcus also intones the dreamy and somnolent hybrid of Broadway showtunes and classic jazz balladry Pardon Me Mister Sunrise, the country ode Never Too Late to Cry over loud organ drones, the folkish Ariel and a cover of British folksinger Ewan MacColl's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. There is certainly variety.

Black Hole Heaven (2000) marked a step backwards as it adopted a more conventional song format and even toyed with dance beats. Between mediocre ditties like Lot 309 and orchestral torch ballads like Under the Void a bit of creativity surfaces in the dreamy, acid-rock tinged Crimson Bird, the exotic shuffle Indra's Palace, the Appalachian folk music of Black Hole Heaven, and especially the raga-jazz-psychedelic evanescence of Darling How Are You.

On the much better Desert Farmers (Bar None, 2004), backed by members of Godspeed You Black Emperor (guitarist Efrim Manuck and bassist Thierry Amar), she found an eerie balance between metaphysical speculation and manic introspection, culminating with the nine-minute kammerspiels of Hairdresser in Taos (that begins with pounding, Warren Zevon-esque cinematic tension, plunges into an anemic depression and then rises in a coda of evil madness) and Fake And Pretty (that begins like a slow piano lullabye, whose refrain is a stately crescendo, and with a rambling coda of percussive piano and domestic sounds). The shorter songs oscillate between a colloquial tone and a sort of hypnosis. The former mode lands halfway between melancholy and ecstasy in Beloved and between a sermon and a prayer in Laos. The latter mode is mainly displayed in the transcendent hymn Canon, sung by multiple slightly asynchronous voices in a crescendo of complexity. But the album explores a broad spectrum of other modes, from the interlude Desert Farmers of manically distorted drones to the nocturnal country-jazz ballad Purple Mother via Strip Darts, that is a hybrid of Renaissance music and John Fahey-esque guitar folk.

She then formed the Wingdale Community Singers with David Grubbs of Gastr Del Sol and novelist Rick Moody, a mostly acoustic trio that released the 15-song The Wingdale Community Singers (Plain, 2005). The songs mostly adopt a pre-rock format, looking back at the folk singalong (Bike Shop Boy), to Pete Seeger-era hootenannies (Fishnet Stockings) and to Carter Family's guitar elegies with multi-part harmonies (Pawn Shop Fire) via the sleepy country ballad Blue Daisy and the piano gospel Holy Virgin Star. By comparison, the exception, Sugar and Salt is a garage rave-up. They strike the right balance in the anthemic Rat on the Tracks (with upright bass, violin and banjo), somewhere between bluegrass music and Warren Zevon. The piano lullabye Bitter Angels, the anemic, almost a-cappella, Bigger Ocean and the whispered stately piano ballad Indira's Lost and Found (closed with mournful saxophone and harmonium) are the most vivid testaments to their agonizing emotional quest. They then released simpler folk albums such as Spirit Duplicator (Scarlet Shame, 2009) and Night Sleep Death (BC23, 2013).

Hannah Marcus' first solo album in 20 years was Ten Bones from a Virgin Graveyard (2025), originally recorded before 2010 with members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, horn player Matana Roberts, violinist Jessica Moss, tuba player Nadia Moss and drummer Kevin Shea.