Mirah's 4th Album, (a)spera, Readied for March Release

Mirah —34-year-old, Portland, Oregon-based songsmith extraordinaire Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn— has announced the forthcoming release of her fourth solo album, (a)spera. Due to be released March 12, 2009 on K Records, it finds Mirah returning to her straight 'solo' guise, collaborating again with longtime pal Phil Elverum on the official follow-up to 2004's majestic C'mon Miracle.

The daughter of "hippy, macrobiotic Jews," Zeitlyn grew up in a succession of sleepy Pennsylvanian hamlets, as a "voracious reader" who lived her life in half-dreamt fantasies. Since releasing her brilliant debut You Think It's Like This but Really It's Like This in 2000, Zeitlyn has charted a career steeped in songs matching her writerly wit and gorgeous voice with Elverum's experimental production.

After a collaboration with big band the Black Cat Orchestra (2004's To All We Stretch the Open Arm), another with the outfit Spectratone International (2007's insect-themed concept record Share This Place: Stories and Observations), and, recently, the release of a collection of early demos (2008's That Old Days Feeling), it'll be grand to see Mirah returning to the sweetly purity of her own unadulterated artistry.

"I sing songs to myself," Zeitlyn once told me in an interview. "I sing the songs to myself to understand my life, my place in the world, and my relationships with other people. And they’re incredibly helpful to me; I don’t know what I’d do without them. They help me."

(a)spera Track List
1. "Generosity"
2. "The World is Falling Apart"
3. "Education"
4. "Shells"
5. "Country Of The Future"
6. "The Forest"
7. "Gone Are The Days"
8. "The River"
9. "Bones & Skin"
10. "While We Have the Sun"

Photo © [Steven Dewall]