Contraries (Woundup)

Multi-instrumentalist Joanna Chapman-Smith and her quartet the Tryst bring to mind San Francisco’s Rupa and the April Fishes. The music is a similar blend of acoustic pop and urban folk with jazzy and Eastern European flavours. Chapman-Smith also has a supple and finely-nuanced voice and writes with the ear of a poet. The songs on her sophomore release, inspired by William Blake’s visionary book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, range from low-key confessionals such as the stark “In the Quiet” and rueful “For Good” to the tipsy waltz “Melodies” and the ska-influenced polka “Klezbian Mother”.

The compositions on Contraries spring from a global-vagabond sensibility, and Chapman-Smith—who divides her time between East Van and Toronto—has family roots that stretch from Italy to New Zealand. She takes delight in contrasts, such as city and country living in the breezy opener “Urbanity”, or hope and regret in the bittersweet closer “Carnival Song”. Alternating between acoustic guitar, keyboards, and clarinet, Chapman-Smith rises above the herd of folkie singer-songwriters, her musical self-portrait painted with an unusually large palette of moods and colours.