Sea Of Bees

Label: Heavenly

Read Description:

Delicate vocal lines amongst a captivating yet simple sound palette

Sea of bees is the moniker for 25 year old singer songwriter Julie Ann Baenziger, hailing from Sacramento, California. A true creative, she plays a range of instruments from the marimba to the slide guitar, creating compositions that sit within the self-proclaimed genre of “freak-folk”. Influences include Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes and her unique vocal style has also earned comparisons to Cat Power.

Her 2012 release, ‘Orangefarben’, is a distillation of break-up songs, but emits warmth and assurance amongst the heartbreak. At first glance, there is a sense of minimalism with the tracklisting consisting of eleven songs, all bearing one-word titles. Yet sonically it utilizes an interesting sound palette. The tenderness and delicate pull of her voice captivates you in comfortable melodic folk. The opening track ‘Broke’ is immediately striking and uplifting, later building from a gentle guitar line to an acoustic stomp-along. Retaining the emotive investment in previous tracks, ‘Girl’ is a bit of a teaser. At two and a half minutes, it leaves you wanting to hit that repeat button. The stand out track however is a tender cover of John Denver’s ‘Leaving (On A Jet Plane)’ that continues the theme of heart-felt, innocent folk music.