Every Monday, 88Nine music director Erin Wolf shares a sonic gem she found using her nearly 20 years of new-music exploration experience. You can hear all her discoveries at 2 p.m. every Sunday on What’s All This: Adventures in New Music.
Daughter of Swords is the project of Alex Sauser-Monnig, one-third of the folk trio Mountain Man (which also includes Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso and Molly Sarlé.) The name "Daughter of Swords" refers to a tarot card, which Sauser-Monnig describes as "sort of a card about not letting things that have inhibited you in the past stand in your way as you move forward into your future."
Last fall, Daughter of Swords returned with “Alone Together” — the first new song since 2019’s Dawnbreaker — and now another fresh single called “Talk to You” starts the official roll-out of their sophomore record, Alex.
While it’s a step and a hop away from Daughter of Swords’ previously demure output, the track still sounds unmistakably like Sauser-Monnig; she simply taps more freely into the energy she had with Meath, her musical co-partner in Mountain Man.
On “Talk To You,” Daughter of Swords really kicks it up a tick, taking sonic bleep-and-bloop cues from pals Sylvan Esso — even enlisting Nick Sanborn and Amelia Meath as producers and co-musicians to bring breathless fun and classic SE appeal to her newest tune. As a longtime Sylvan Esso (and Mountain Man) fan, I can’t wait to hear what the rest of the record brings.
Find Daughter of Swords’ “Talk To You” on new album Alex when it comes out April 11 on Psychic Hotline Records and on the latest episode of What’s All This using the player at the top of the page. I’ll be back on 88Nine at 2 p.m. this Sunday and every Sunday with more adventures in new music.
Best new indie music this week
- Unknown Mortal Orchestra, "Earth 1"
- Σtella, "Omorfo Mou"
- Mei Semones, "Omorfo Mou"
- The Bird Calls, "Butterfly Strokes Home"
- Emilie Mosseri, "I could be your hands"
- Esther Rose, "New Bad"
- Deep Sea Diver, "Let Me Go (ft. Madison Cunningham)"
- Daughter of Swords, "Talk To You"
- Liquorice, "Freak Slug"
- Dean Blunt, "4 (ft. Elias Rønnenfelt)"
- Rocket, "Take Your Aim"
