Sarah Ruth's "Words on the Wind"

Singer/multi-instrumentalist Sarah Ruth grew up on a farm in West Texas and studied opera singing at UNT in Denton. She's equally at home in contexts from weird folk (Warren Jackson Hearne) to harsh noise (Vexed UK) to prog rock (Cerulean Giallo) and amorphous improv (Violent Squid). On this solo project -- released earlier this year in cassette and digital formats -- she's ethereal, haunting, and spectral. ("Visions of an Insomniac" might just be my favorite new thing I've heard this year, but "I Am My Own" is the pick to click. A karaoke version is thoughtfully provided.) She's also augmented jazz-rock force of nature Unconscious Collective, and has a new project with their kind-of-terrifying guitarist Gregg Prickett, They Say the Wind Made Them Crazy, that I'm dying to hear. Check her out.