Itasca Unmoored By The Wind

Received a 7.4 rating from Pitchfork.

Folk guitarist and songwriter originally from New York State Kayla Cohen, a.k.a. Itasca, has released several small-press CDrs and cassettes over the past five years. A resident of Los Angeles since 2012, She records at home, taking inspiration from the fringes of the city’s open space and natural land. On Unmoored by the Wind, Cohen achieves new levels of clarity and expansiveness. Where 2012’s Grace Riders on the Road reveled in homemade intimacy, Unmoored by the Wind opens to the world, reaching a timeless, near-baroque yearning; each of these eleven tracks burns with a unique vision. At once soft-spoken and virtuosic, Cohen’s mesmerizing fingerpicking lays gauzy groundwork for vocal work David Keenan described as “courtly .. dazzling.” This spacious set of songs flows seamlessly between wistful interludes à la Bob Desper and fully-fledged verses of powerful, often beguiling imagery.