Christina Courtin - Christina Courtin 2009 (flac)

A graduate of the Juilliard School in New York City, Christina Courtin occupies the middle ground between contemporary folk, vocal jazz, and alternative pop-rock. The New York native began studying violin at three years old, and her quick mastery of the instrument led to an interest in singing, songwriting, and performing. After enrolling at the Juilliard School, she began collaborating with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, and Osvaldo Golijov, utilizing her talents as both a vocalist and violinist. Upshaw's longtime label, Nonesuch Records, took an interest in Courtin, who eventually signed with the label and decamped to L.A. to record her debut record. The self-titled album appeared in 2009, featuring production from Courtin and two of her bandmates. Making her Nonesuch debut, though, Courtin turns her high-voltage style inside out. Her self-titled disc is disarmingly beautiful and intimate, her voice at times pared down to a confessional whisper, yet it’s just as compelling as her bravura work on stage. There’s something beguiling about opening tracks Green Jay and Bundah, as if we’ve stumbled into a reverie already in progress. Courtin’s vocals are warm, gentle, and dreamy; she stretches out individual words in slow motion while chamber-ensemble strings wrap themselves around folk-rock-leaning melodies. As the disc progresses, darker, moodier sounds and emotions lurk around the edges of her songs. One gets the sense that turmoil lies beneath the surface, and that feeling becomes palpable by the seventh track, the tour-de-force Laconia. Metal-tinged guitar chords courtesy of Jon Brion push aside the string ensemble and Courtin’s voice turns startlingly raw as she repeats, like Dorothy in Oz, How did I end up here, and how do I get back? Perhaps this 10-song set is a mirror of the journey Courtin herself took, from her Buffalo, NY, home to a coveted spot at The Juilliard School to live-music stages throughout New York City, at both its grungy clubs and its fabled concert halls. Courtin had been studying the violin since she was three and was gifted enough to make it into Juilliard as a violin student. Yet singing had always been a covert passion. As Courtin recalls, I was singing ever since I was little; I always knew that I could. It was like this secret that I had or something. It was weird - I was really, really embarrassed. It took me a long time to be public about it. I just did it for fun. When I was 16, I wrote my first songs and I thought, ‘All right, let’s make a record.’ 1. Green Jay 2. Bundah 3. Foreign Country 4. Hedonistic Paradise 5. Mulberries 6. February 7. Laconia 8. One Man Down 9. Rainy 10. Unzipped

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