Sarah Ault Makes Her Way Through ‘No Man’s Land’
Singer-Songwriter and pianist Sarah Ault have walked many creative roads in her life, and she’s made that long way of walking the main focus of her new EP No Man’s Land. What started as an unfinished voice memo sent in a text message to Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, who drums on the record, evolved into a hero’s journey about the choices we make and the paths we do and do not take throughout our lives.
Be it about stepping into uncharted territory rarely explored by anyone or blazing her own feminine path toward true self-esteem and mastery, the EP’s name feels very important, and it reveals a lot of the mindset and aesthetics that Sarah wanted to pursue with this release that’s been almost 7 years in the making.
Sarah’s 2015 outing was a 10-song LP titled ‘Hold Fast Open Palm’, the sound of which we’ve -somewhat- departed from with this EP. This time around, Sarah opts for a dustier, more folk-Americana sound described as having ‘outlaw’ sensibilities that I hope everyone can appreciate as much as I did.
The opening track to No Man’s Land is the Eponymous single, a haunting gospel-infused Americana potpourri of a song, which turns out to be a personal and brave confessional piece about loneliness, longing, and the internal work that she has put into strengthening her relationship with herself.
This song is followed by ‘Slow Burn’, which is paradoxically about sinking slowly. ‘Slow Burn’ was largely inspired by the feeling of Sedate doom that Sarah feels permeated the year 2020. The soulful ballad displays Sarah’s vocal warmth front and center, missing not a single element in its unrelenting vigil of a world that keeps on turning in the same measure it burns away before our hapless eyes.
Through accepting powerlessness, No Man’s Land speaks also to a certain kind of hope, an inner knowing, a faith in inexplicable magic, the serendipities that come to define us, and the meaning that emerges when we allow ourselves to question deeply.
The final track “For Your Love” is also deserving of some special attention. The whole album is delightfully paced, with a methodical and deliberate motion inviting us to deep, intimate introspection alongside its themes of personal quests and anxiety over the world at large; but this moody and -at first- minimalistic piece poses a valid counterpoint against all of the self-inflicted torture by saying “I’ve Waited for your love / Too long to let you Go” and it revels in this hopeful mantra by unleashing a flurry of passion and euphoria from a combination of Saxophone and Drums- the latter played by none other than Dave Grohl.
Story by Samuel Aponte
Photography by Angela Izzo