Chelsea Wolfe is the latest artist to perform a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR, offering a stripped-down, four-song set showcasing tunes mostly from her latest album, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She.
The singer is known for combining gothic rock, doom metal, and folk into a sound that is uniquely her own. Accompanied by longtime collaborator Ben Chisholm on piano, Wolfe played acoustic guitar on two of the songs (“Whispers in the Echo Chamber” and “Flatlands”), while setting it down for the other two tunes (“Dusk” “Place in the Sun”). Her voice sounded ethereal throughout the 15-minute concert.
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Of the four songs, only the set-closer “Flatlands” was not from She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She. Wolfe reached back to 2012’s acoustic album Unknown Rooms for that performance.
As noted in NPR’s YouTube description, Wolfe added a few personal touches to her surroundings: “Not long after her arrival, Chelsea Wolfe carefully arranged a handful of objects on the Desk in front of her — a dagger, a chalice, a pentacle and flower — all inspired by the Magician tarot card, which symbolizes new beginnings.”
The Tiny Desk Concert is a fitting precursor to Wolfe’s recently announced Unbound EP, which offers stripped-down versions of songs from She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She. The five-song effort, which arrives November 15th, contains all three of album’s tunes that she performed for NPR, as well as “The Liminal” and “Cellar Door.”
Wolfe recently launched a UK/European tour, which runs through a November 18th show in Athens, Greece. She’ll return to the States for a brief run of shows that launches December 4th in Somerville, Massachusetts (pick up tickets here).