Stark and haunting, Cross Record’s new album Wabi-Sabi seems the product of dark and foreboding backwoods instead of a 18-acre patch of land in sunny Dripping Springs. But that’s where it was made. Visual artist turned singer/songwriter Emily Cross and her husband, engineer/musician Dan Duszynski, were all settled in Chicago. But Emily, fed up with the weather and high crime, wanted a change, so the couple traded the familiar for the something completely new – wide open spaces, and the freedom to work without distractions. Yet their music doesn’t seem of a particular place or time. While the songs seem skeletal, Cross Record uses dynamics, silence, and sudden swells of excitement to build dramatic tension.Wabi-Sabi is an intimate work, and while the couple admits some trepidation at taking this personal new music, which they refer to as ‘not exactly fist-pumping’, out on the road, there’s little doubt they have captured something unique.
-Jeff McCord
Stay tuned for special features on the Cross Record throughout the month of February.
Saturday, February 6th – Live in KUTX Studio 1A at 1 p.m.
Saturday, February 6th – Mohawk (album release show)
Saturday, February 13th – My KUTX (guest DJ set) at 6 p.m.