NEW YORK TIMES: 7 Things to Do This Weekend
NEW YORK TIMES: 7 Things to Do This Weekend
BY SETH COLTER WALLS
“After a car accident nearly resulted in the amputation of her left hand at age 7, Molly Joyce spent years in search of an instrument that would fit her body.
When the composer, who has written for virtuosos like Vicky Chow, started working with vintage toy organs, she quickly perceived the opportunities they offered her as a performer. (The buttons on a toy organ’s left side permit a musician to play a chord with one finger while navigating traditional keys with another hand on its right side.)
In a 2017 TEDx Talk, Joyce described how composing on this instrument allowed for a creative process that could move beyond the binary of ability and disability. Proof of her breakthrough is abundant throughout ‘Breaking and Entering,’ the musician’s debut full-length solo album. In a phone interview before the recording’s release in June, Joyce cited not only early minimalists like Steve Reich and Philip Glass as stylistic touchstones, but also artists like the Cocteau Twins, Beach House and My Brightest Diamond.
Aside from her appreciation for “less vibrato, very on-pitch” singing, Joyce noted her taste for enveloping production styles that come across as a “wash” of sound. All those affections can be heard on the album’s opening track, ‘Body and Being,’ in which sustained chords, MIDI tones and her dream-pop vocals work together to produce an airy, liberating sensation.”