{"title":"Daughter Of Swords","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"dawnbreaker","title":"Dawnbreaker","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 2017, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig began recording a set of songs about a breakup that had yet to happen. Her partnership had drifted into a comfortable state of indecision, stalling when it came time to make big life moves or chase new horizons. She had the sense that she needed to slip the relationship in order to pursue everything else life might have in store—more music, more adventures, a general sense of the unknown. Those feelings drifted steadily into a set of songs that lamented the inevitable loss but, more important, outlined the promise of the future. Recording the ten tracks that became her stunning solo debut, \u003ci\u003eDawnbreaker\u003c\/i\u003e, under the new name Daughter of Swords gave Sauser-Monnig permission to go.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDawnbreaker\u003c\/i\u003e began as the first phase of Sauser-Monnig’s return to music after stepping to the sidelines for the better part of a decade. Her college trio, Mountain Man, rose to quick acclaim for their peerless harmonies around 2010, but the friends slowly drifted apart, following their own interests to different coasts and concerns. While working on a flower farm as a farmhand, though, Sauser-Monnig realized that she missed the emotional articulation she found in writing songs and singing them and resolved to start again. She pieced together an album just as Mountain Man—now newly gathered in the fertile Piedmont of North Carolina—began to regroup for its second LP, 2018’s aptly named \u003ci\u003eMagic Ship\u003c\/i\u003e. Working with Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn, Sauser-Monnig shaped what began as quiet reflections into confident compositions, crackling with country swagger and a sparkling pop warmth. They were, after all, preemptive odes to the next phase of life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCalling the ten tunes of \u003ci\u003eDawnbreaker\u003c\/i\u003e breakup songs is to hamstring them with elegiac expectations, to paint them as sad-eyed surrenders to loss and grief. Sure, there is the gentle opener\u003ci\u003e Fellows\u003c\/i\u003e, a hushed number that explores the turmoil of being unable to reciprocate the feelings of a wild and shy, tall and fine man. And there’s the blossoming country shuffle of \u003ci\u003eEasy Is Hard\u003c\/i\u003e, where Sauser-Monnig stands in the yard and sees her lover leave, his taillights fading into the night sky; she can’t sleep, so she gets up to turn the lights and stereo on, to “feel my soul coming down.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBuoyed by the insistent patter of a drum machine and rich acoustic guitars, Sauser-Monnig finds herself in search of new thrills during \u003ci\u003eGem\u003c\/i\u003e, whether pondering the fleeting nature of existence at a waterfall’s edge or watching the shapes of mountains seemingly dance beneath her headlights. The muted, harmonica-lined boogie of\u003ci\u003e Sun\u003c\/i\u003e begins with a vulnerable confession, a revelation of loneliness; it is, however, a low-key anthem for the open road, about giving oneself over to the infinity of solitude and an endless strip of asphalt. Sauser-Monnig captures these scenes with a painter’s eye and delivers them with a novelist’s heart.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bella Union","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50498263548235,"sku":"1063765","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50498263777611,"sku":"1063764","price":5.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/8f5630dc-40e9-4b79-8054-7ccf93621304_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727743017"},{"product_id":"alex-2","title":"Alex","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDaughter of Swords\u003c\/strong\u003e is the solo project of North Carolina singer-songwriter Alex Sauser-Monnig (they\/she), who has also released music with bands Mountain Man and The A’s. Their solo debut, \u003cem\u003eDawnbreaker\u003c\/em\u003e, was a hushed folk record released in 2019.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the years since, Sauser-Monnig found a new understanding of self, personally and musically. Across the last several years, \u003cstrong\u003eDaughter of Swords\u003c\/strong\u003e’ music has grown thornier, an unpredictable and knotty tangle of technicolor synths, heady guitar, bubbling rhythms, a sheen enveloping songs about raw human intensity writ large – crushes, desire, anger, alienation, the horrors of late-stage capitalism, the cascading paradigm shifts it seems we’re all hurtling toward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEnter \u003cem\u003eAlex\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eDaughter of Swords\u003c\/strong\u003e’ sinewy new record. Recorded at Betty’s (Sylvan Esso’s studio), \u003cem\u003eAlex\u003c\/em\u003e was built out by Sauser-Monnig’s longtime friends\/collaborators Amelia Meath (Sylvan Esso, Mountain Man, The A’s), Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes), Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso, Made of Oak), TJ Maiani (Weyes Blood, Neneh Cherry), and Caleb Wright (Hippo Campus, Samia).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere’s a sharp cerebral tension between the stories at the core of these songs and the electrifying, playful buoyancy of the sound, the wink with which Sauser-Monnig can deliver a withering observation. Reckoning with pleasure-seeking, boundary-breaking, and their place in the world, \u003cem\u003eAlex\u003c\/em\u003e heralds a fresh chapter of exploration and liberation for Sauser-Monnig, yielding the truest representation of their identity via song yet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA reassessment of inner systems, and relationships of all sorts — with art and creativity, with other humans, with gender – happened in tandem with Sauser-Monnig’s interrogation of the late-capitalist culture that makes life for working artists an inequitable grind. Forced out of their habitual ways of thinking and being, Sauser-Monnig found new energy in dissolving old limitations—be they about the music business or their concept of gender—and exploring in uncharted territory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTheir priority became maximizing the mood of each track, borne out in \u003cem\u003eAlex\u003c\/em\u003e’s layers of synthetic textures and unorthodox flourishes. \u003cem\u003e“Alone Together,”\u003c\/em\u003e a single released this past fall, follows a confident new sense of self and emotional protection as it bends under the physical need for sex, connection, and closeness. These personal excavations led Sauser-Monnig to a clear personal mission, which they explain succinctly: “I refuse to let the state of the world deny me the ability to live in joy, while also trying to show up for others.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Psychic Hotline","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":51201673855307,"sku":"2243114","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":51201673560395,"sku":"2243113","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/78d7ab15-6fc6-c02a-e117-03123308ea9d_39179793_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1738688666"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/daughter-of-swords.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}