Youn Sun Nah - She Moves On

The Guardian 60

(ACT)

On a stunning gig in London last September, the South Korean singer Youn Sun Nah showed how seamlessly she could move between impressionistic high drama, abstract improv, or a folk artist’s candid simplicity. This New York set takes her closer to the mainstream with a band including keyboardist-producer Jamie Saft and the inventive Marc Ribot alongside her regular guitarist Ulf Wakenius. She delectably catches the dreamy poetry of Joni Mitchell’s The Dawntreader and the tenderness of Fools Rush In, shakes long notes with a flute-like delicacy on Black Is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair, lifts Jimi Hendrix’s Drifting to a free furore with the guitarists. But the shuffle-strumming Paul Simon title track doesn’t really take off despite the singer’s distantly Peyroux-like airiness, and the generic soul-ballad Too Late (written by Saft and his songwriter wife Vanessa) could use a little of her improv savagery to puncture its faintly humdrum yearnings. You couldn’t miss Youn Sun Nah’s musicality in any setting, but this is rather a tame one by her standards.