Search - Tara Jane O'Neil :: In Circles

Portland, OR based artist Tara Jane ONeil is a multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, engineer, and painter. Over the last decade her art has taken many forms, all of them lavished with the rich attention to detail that signals an artist with true vision. Her solo records have presented an original synthesis of singer-songwriting and sound art, improvisation, and electronic experimentation. Since the release of her last full-length You Sound, Reflect, she's recorded and released two EPs (Tracer and A Raveling), created musical scores for theatre and short films, had a book of her paintings and drawings published, and has had her artwork exhibited in galleries in the US, Europe and Japan. In Circles, her fourth solo album on Quarterstick Records, is an acoustic gem blessed with her unique brand of sonic trickery. She's created an album where a subtle but sure-handed mastery of sounds and experimentation with her craft share time equally with gentle acoustics and deeply personal lyrics. TJO has been creating a symbolic register of her own cosmology for years now, but never has the relationship between her sound art and her songwriting been more immediate and complimentary. On In Circles, she has created a newly respiring perceptual field of sound and vision for the listener to step into. Tara Jane recorded In Circles in empty wooden houses around Portland, Oregon with her mobile studio/environment, Cloud Mountain. She captured the sounds of things unseen and the moments of discovery. Her interest in the way that acoustic environments frame the music ultimately transforms the way that we hear her sounds. One song is a duet with the Pacific Ocean, another with a bird. Tara Jane is a multi-instrumentalist of astonishing depth, and she possesses a voice that is a thing of rare beauty. She recorded the album and played most of the instruments along with help from the following friends: Kristina Davies (TJO and Gold) Miggy Littleton (Blood on the Wall, Ida) Lewy Longmeyer (Michael Hurley Band) Seth Lorinczi (The Quails) Cynthia Nelson (Retsin) Danny Sasaki (Enemymine, JOMF) Geoff Soule (Fuck, the Naysayer) Throughout her career, Tara Jane has charted a clear path, constantly refining her vision of what her sound can achieve. From 2000's Peregrine onward, she has managed to repeatedly raise the bar on what one person can create with a microphone, a room, and a handful of instruments. Tara Jane ONeil has quietly, generously, and without hoopla, made her best record yet. In Circles boldly displays the unique talents of a true original - independently creating her own shining artistic legacy.