Came Down a Storm is an album that creates a world. Through Claire Cronin’s deep, intimate voice come songs of wreckage and redemption. A published poet and English Ph.D. student as well as a musician, Cronin uses images and symbols to craft songs that reach beyond the personal. She sings of death in a field, death at sea, dreams of dying, and a vision of a future where death is no longer allowed. Yet the music is not depressing; even in its darkest lines, these songs aim to float.
The album is a collaboration between Cronin and Deerhoof guitarist John Dieterich, who met by chance at a Los Angeles show and began writing songs together long-distance. After sending recordings and ideas back and forth over email for a year, Cronin joined Dieterich at his house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to record Came Down a Storm. It was mixed with Jay Pellici at New, Improved Recordings in Oakland, California, where the full instrumentation was put in place. The album features Pellici and Chris Vatalaro on drums and Ezra Buchla and Heather Trost on strings.
The spare, melancholy style of Cronin’s previous self-released work is evident in this album, but the music created with Dieterich takes Came Down a Storm beyond the folk genre. Cronin’s voice recalls Karen Dalton or Jason Molina in its sincerity and ache—plaintive and burnished with a kind of dark gold throughout. The instruments build around her singing: breaking to crescendos, driving emotional currents, or providing lively counterpoint to the lyric’s funereal themes.
Cronin will tour this Summer and Fall with Buchla, performing pared-down arrangements of these songs and others.
credits
released May 6, 2016
Claire Cronin: words, voice, and guitar
John Dieterich: guitars, sounds, arrangements, production.
Ezra Buchla: viola (the Unnatural, Dreamt the Sea). Jay Pellicci: drums (In the Field, Dark Water, Dreamt the Sea). Heather Trost: violin (The Unnatural, Meet Me Undertakers, Dreamt the Sea). Chris Vatalaro: drums (Valentine).
All Songs by Claire Cronin and John Dieterich.
Art and Layout by Marcos Sánchez.
Recorded by Jay Pellicci and John in John's closet.
Parts of Dreamt the Sea recorded at New, Improved Recording.
Mixed with Jay Pellicci at New, Improved Recording.
Mastered by John.
Thanks to Ezra, Jay, Heather, Chris, Ben Goldberg, Keiko Beers and Drake Hardin.
supported by 9 fans who also own “Came Down A Storm”
Claire Cronin's work has been a great revelation for me this year. Read BLUE LIGHT OF THE SCREEN: ON HORROR, GHOSTS, AND GOD and then found her music. Like the book, this album is Catholic-haunted, full of ghosts and aching melancholy. Beautiful. William Boyle
supported by 7 fans who also own “Came Down A Storm”
If you ever need a song to be alone with your thoughts and memories. As is the case with many of Grouper's songs, this is one of them. Goosebump-inducing murraysachs
supported by 7 fans who also own “Came Down A Storm”
one of the most disturbing music projects to ever walk the earth. each stage plays its role perfectly. bravo. from the eerie stage 1 to 3 with music that slowly loses it sense and the atmosphere becomes more distorted. to the horrifying stage 4 where it is clear we have gone to far in and can no longer go back. to stage 5 where it has peaked and no signs of any hope is in sight. Than finally stage 6 where it is nothing but an empty abyss full devastation. this is what music is supposed to be. xertek
At first glance, the landscape on the cover of Martin John Henry’s The Other Half of Everything is a scene of complete isolation. This is Scotland. An archetypal rugged landscape of hills and lochs, as far as the eye can see. On closer inspection, there are some signs of habitation: buildings, roads, farms… but they … Continue reading Album of the Week: The Other Half of Everything → Bandcamp Album of the Day Nov 21, 2011
The latest EP from Oakland multi-instrumentalist Margaret Stutt is curiously layered prog-pop with indie intimacy and charm. Bandcamp New & Notable May 5, 2020
supported by 6 fans who also own “Came Down A Storm”
Deep, interesting, strong and emotional. Just a great work. Liz Harris will always have something strong, special and surprising in the best artistic way. risovic