Zoh Amba – Eyes Full
Zoh Amba has been one of the most talked-about saxophonists to come out of New York’s avant-garde scene recently, releasing several records under that identity. Eyes Full, their debut album on Matador, due June 5, is something else entirely: a singer-songwriter record rooted in their Tennessee upbringing, tracked live at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville with no overdubs. The pivot is significant, but it doesn’t sound like a calculated repositioning. It sounds like something that had been building for a long time and finally had to come out.
The band is intimate almost by design. Kevin Hyland, Amba’s best friend, plays electric guitar; Jim White, whom Amba met on the streets of New York and describes as the closest thing they’ve had to family, plays drums. White’s CV includes work with Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Cat Power, and his instinct for space and restraint is audible throughout. The three rehearsed together all day, every day before recording, and tracked everything live with no overdubs. That process shows in the chemistry: nothing sounds assembled after the fact.
The title track circles the question of what makes someone’s heart full, and the compulsion to keep asking why. Amba’s Southern drawl, which they no longer attempt to hide, sits above acoustic guitar and bursts of feedback-laden electric, the voice moving between a snarl and something much quieter unexpectedly. There’s a specific tension in that: the song feels like it could tip either way at any moment, and it never fully resolves. The whole album, Amba says, looks closely at working-class lives in small towns, at people who are rarely seen. “I hope these songs touch people’s hearts. They’re about people who really need to be seen and heard.” On the title track at least, that intention is already audible.
Eyes Full is out June 5 via Matador Records. A UK and European tour follows in autumn, with German dates at Aalhaus Hamburg (November 2) and Kantine am Berghain Berlin (November 3), plus US dates supporting Folk Bitch Trio and Courtney Barnett.
