Yasmin Williams

I can easily say that Yasmin Williams’ 2021 album Urban Driftwood has been one of my most played of the last few years. The kind of album that lends itself to moments of quietude, there’s something endlessly engrossing about Williams’ melding of rhythm and melody. Her new album finds a bump in notoriety and with it a move to the venerable Nonesuch label. With expectations poised, it remained to be seen how a bigger stage would be set by the soli virtuoso. The first, and perhaps most striking change on Acadia sits right there in the sentiment of solo guitar. Her last album had a communal heart, but its layers were built by and large by Williams, with only two tracks letting others into the studio to entwine cello and percussion around her pieces.

Acadia, on the other hand feels like a celebration of strings, voices, sax, synths, and sticks. Not a track in the bunch doesn’t find Yasmin collaborating with peers and the album soars as her community expands. Yasmin’s core — a flurry of stringwork and the tap and tick of her percussive patter on the instrument — remain but Acadia becomes much larger than her folk and bluegrass beginnings, putting fingerpicked guitar at the heart of a panorama of sounds. “Hummingbird” calls back to the past, but Williams touches on classical conjurings (“Sisters”), jazz (“Malamu”), and even a full embrace of rock (“Dream Lake.”) The imprint on the album remains pure Yasmin, but the margins never hem her in. Acadia embraces all the possibilities that Williams hinted at in the past and surpasses them with each successive track.

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