{"id":14223,"date":"2017-09-15T09:06:05","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T13:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.ca\/insightblog\/?p=14223"},"modified":"2017-09-21T12:57:50","modified_gmt":"2017-09-21T16:57:50","slug":"artist-self-composed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sothebysrealty.ca\/insightblog\/en\/2017\/09\/15\/artist-self-composed\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist, Self-Composed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listening to Canadian Sarah Slean\u2019s newest album, Metaphysics, is a lot like entering a collector\u2019s storage unit and unveiling its hidden treasures \u2014 works of art that allow the listener to discover Slean\u2019s genius through immersive examination. Some tracks bring to mind vintage pop-culture paraphernalia and the exuberance of bygone musicals, while others modernize classical masterworks by Bach, Verdi and Brahms. But it is this 40-year-old singer-songwriter\u2019s experience as both a university music scholar who has been composing, producing and writing her own music on nine albums over the past 20 years, as well as a pop-music lover that makes her recent output so exceptional. Slean is as comfortable with symphonies as she is with drum machines, mixing old and new sounds, styles and genres with the energy of an ing\u00e9nue and the skill of a pro. Operatic-inspired cuts such as \u201cThe Gypsy\u201d and \u201cA Thousand Butterflies\u201d liaison with the past in ways that go beyond nostalgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have such an affinity to certain eras that exude elegance in every aspect of living,\u201d Slean explains from the living room of her home in Toronto. \u201cIn the \u201950s, the protagonists in films had people like Bogart and Brando \u2014 these were men of substance and character,\u201d she says. \u201cIt goes for the women as well. There\u2019s such a resonance there because there was such grace and tremendous humility. Let\u2019s face it, we could use that now. Instagram does not an Audrey Hepburn make.\u201d To counter the culture of instant gratification and floral filters, Slean took to collaging old photos of her past icons to make a video for Metaphysics\u2019 first single, \u201cSarah.\u201d \u201cSome days, I feel it is almost as if that exquisiteness were extinct, but I\u2019m doing my part to keep it alive, or at least remind people that it is still here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revisiting her own past to write the songs for Metaphysics wasn\u2019t as easy as fawning over Hollywood\u2019s Golden Age. To fully grasp the emotional tenor needed for a full-length album, Slean, who was born in Pickering, Ont., followed her usual project preparation pattern and set off into a geographic and metaphoric state of self-imposed exile. Before creating her third album, 2004\u2019s Day One, she secluded herself in a cabin outside of Ottawa. For the acclaimed 2008 The Baroness, Slean checked herself into the offline confines of a Buddhist monastery in Bordeaux. For Metaphysics, Slean was already well into a personal transformation, having undergone a very public divorce from Royal Wood, another well-known Canadian musician to whom she was married for four years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

Instead of planning a Facebook-free vacation, Slean bought the farm. Literally. Feeling the need to move away from her condo in Toronto, Slean upsized and purchased a property near Port Perry. After renovating it \u2014 in tandem with writing songs for Metaphysics \u2014 she realized a few things definitely were out of place, namely her. \u201cI was frantically looking for this semblance of home when there was no semblance of that in me internally,\u201d she says. \u201cThe folly of that is really clear to me now. This is a beautiful dream house except it\u2019s not for me. It\u2019s a house for a family of five running around in the yard. But I think that\u2019s what was happening in me psychologically. There needed to be a rebuild.\u201d Once again she packed up her books and headed back to Toronto. From upsize to downsize, she moved into a smaller home where she hunkered down to record her healing hymns.
\nSlean\u2019s next step is taking her personal stories on the road this fall, on a cross-Canada tour. Her performance style can be described as a concert-meets-concerto-meets-cabaret, and each show is a one-of-a-kind experience with the spontaneity of new collaborators that change from stage to stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to reconnect with musicians that come and perform with us from all over since I can\u2019t bring a 13-piece orchestra with me wherever I go,\u201d she says. \u201cIn some circumstances, we have even larger ensembles and it becomes this really amazing event; other times it is really small and intimate. No matter what, it all comes together because of the sheer desire that classical musicians have to make music together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process of creating in such an instinctive manner is one that Slean holds close to her heart. In fact, a huge painting of a quote by English writer Aldous Huxley, created by her own hand, sits above the grand piano in her living room and serves as a permanent prompt. It reads: \u201cAll that we are and will and do, in the last analysis, depends on what we believe the nature of things to be.\u201d It is in Huxley\u2019s writing that Slean has found a sense of purpose that goes beyond the confines of convention but still uses traditional tools to express. \u201cWhat I\u2019m doing is trying to develop a language for breaking all the barriers, so I\u2019m in overlapping worlds,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m looking for the visceral response \u2014 that overwhelming emotion or a sense of sanctity that doesn\u2019t subscribe to any one particular way of thinking but can make a new path of thinking altogether. To me, that\u2019s art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

By Elio Iannacci – *This article originally appeared in INSIGHT: The Art of Living | Fall 2017<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos: Ivan Otis<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listening to Canadian Sarah Slean\u2019s newest album, Metaphysics, is a lot like entering a collector\u2019s storage unit and unveiling its hidden treasures \u2014 works of art that allow the listener to discover Slean\u2019s genius through immersive examination. Some tracks bring to mind vintage pop-culture paraphernalia and the exuberance of bygone musicals, while others modernize classical masterworks by Bach, Verdi and Brahms. But it is this 40-year-old singer-songwriter\u2019s experience as both a university music scholar who has been composing, producing and writing her own music on nine albums over the past 20 years, as well as a pop-music lover that makes her recent output so exceptional. Slean is as comfortable with symphonies as she is with drum machines, mixing old and new sounds, styles and genres with the energy of an ing\u00e9nue and the skill of a pro. Operatic-inspired cuts such as \u201cThe Gypsy\u201d and \u201cA Thousand Butterflies\u201d liaison with the past in ways that go beyond nostalgia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":14298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[394],"tags":[409,557,558,559],"class_list":["post-14223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insight-magazine","tag-insight-magazine","tag-sothebys-internationa-realty-canada","tag-sarah-slean","tag-singer-songwriter"],"yoast_head":"\nARTIST, SELF COMPOSED | INSIGHT: The Art of Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Informed by the past and emboldened by the future, musician Sarah Slean\u2019s latest work redefines the modern classic.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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