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Katie Mullins - Three Songs
Photo Credit: Krysta Brayer

Music Review: Kate Mullins Drops ‘Three Songs’ EP

Kate Mullins recently released Three Songs, her third release comprising three songs, written after the third occurrence of the same injury.

After hemorrhaging her left vocal chord for the third time, Mullins never expected to compose or sing again. Meditation and what amounted to healing of miraculous proportions eventually led to three new songs.

Three Songs is the overture to Mullins’ forthcoming full-length album which is slated to drop in 2019. Mullins developed her unique voice during six years of operatic performances in Germany and three years with the Komische Oper in Berlin, where she lived for almost a decade. Last year, looking for something more relaxing and quiet, she began spending more time in Brooklyn and upstate New York.

The EP opens with “Crocuses,” with a cappella humming and Mullins’ crystalline voice riding overhead. Starkly gorgeous, the flow of the voices blends, radiating an aura of captivating textures. It’s like listening to the mythological tones of the Sirens, as they tempted Ulysses.

“What’s the Sense” rides hand claps and a cappella tones that reflect tighter sonic patterns than “Crocuses,” yet it’s still beguiling.

“The Water” once again delivers delicious a cappella textures, as Mullins’ creamy voice flows over rippling background harmonies that are supple yet tantamount to a secondary leitmotif. The horizontal emergence of a streaming synth enters, infusing the tune with mystical energy. As the music proceeds, a light rhythmic pattern arises, adding inscrutable pulses. A gentle guitar enters, as the voices, gossamer and ethereal, drift on the crest of the harmonics.

The vocal layering on all three songs is unbelievably charming, elusively infectious, and tantalizing, as if angels from on high descended to the firmament to display their hypnotic voices. Of the three songs on the EP, my favorite is the first track, “Crocuses,” because of the exaggerated delicacy of the voices.

Three Songs is not to be missed. It’s glorious!

Follow Kate Mullins on Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

About Randall Radic

Left Coast author and writer. Author of numerous true crime books written under the pen-name of John Lee Brook. Former music contributor at Huff Post.

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