Wednesday Knudsen

Wednesday is an artist who has been cropping up around here for sometime, though this marks her first solo record I’ve had the chance to really dig into. It’s her fourth solo release, but the name should sound familiar from her work with Pigeons, Weeping Bong Band, and the excellent collaborative LP she did with Willie Lane for Drowned Lands. Here, Knudsen is the full ensemble (save for a little harp from P.G. Six) and the two volumes brush through ambient works and reflective compositions that long to find solace, even while threaded with buried worries. Her works sketch the shapes of songs — graphite relief of their etched images.

Some pieces break through the veil more than others, almost coming into view like words on the tip of your tongue. Others, like the softly pulsing “Beautiful Day,” seem like they may be playing from another room or echoing from a lost memory. Calm, or rather, reservation, is at the core here, but that calmness doesn’t always come out as joy. On “Days of Rain” the feeling is more of trying to calm oneself until the sadness passes, wrung through with an innate feeling that letting go will only draw unwanted attention to oneself. Though, ravaged or relieved, the pieces that Wednesday has collected here all have a muted beauty about them. The gentleness that she imbues into the pieces is wondrous, from synth tones to flute that seems so effusive it may part like fog at any moment. Knudsen’s always been a consummate collaborator and a mark of a great record, but this is a testament to her talent on every level.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.