Annie Leeth - Recurrence

Annie Leeth

​Recurrence
self-released; 2018

​4.2 out of 5- TOP ALBUM

By Jamie Robash

Athens, Georgia violinist, composer, and producer Annie Leeth’s debut record Heard was profound for its ability to meld genres of classical and electronica in ways that seemed boundless in their scope and in their creative passion to explore new ways of making music, a splitting of genres like the splitting of atoms. Not even a year later the hard-working violinist is back with a brand new offering Recurrence that once again sets out to explore the further borders and beyond of musical compositions.

Leeth opens Recurrence with the warm and sunny synthesizer vibes of “Latch.” Its reminiscent of the early ought synthpop resurgence lead by The Postal Service. From here we roll into Andrew Bird territory with the pin pricked experimental violin movements on “Memory.” It tears at the listener as it is both sad and beautiful at the same time. I found myself going back and forth every time I listened, wondering whether I loved it for its intimate sadness or its sheer beauty. From here we delve right into the strange beauty that is “Frogs.” Again we are in Andrew Bird style territory as the violin and looped experimentation continues to be a process that Leeth is really working on through this entire record.

In fact so much of Recurrence seems like a long running experiment on which Leeth is stepping more and more into the role of engineer and determining her sounds both from the inside and the outside. She is shaping them in new ways, playing with production values and manipulating sounds into a new musical language.

On “Harmony” she is somber and lets her violin do most of the talking, as from beneath comes the crashing of slow waves of ambience, while on “Offchance” you hear the first leanings towards what could possibly be called an actual pop song. It’s a catchy and wistful accomplishment, a new direction and one that again shows Leeth striving to squeeze everything she can out of her music, to distillate every drop. She continues this process on the ambling and ambient “Use” before returning to close out the record with a quiet sonata like synth piece called “Once.”

​With Recurrence  Annie Leeth once again proves herself to be a major talent. She continues to pit the classical past against the ambient present and future all the way showing the symbiosis these two genres harmonize in so well. Leeth continues to captivate here and fans and soon to be fans will be delighted.

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