Passing Shades

Group Rhoda, the solo project of Mara Barenbaum, returns with Passing Shades. An integral member of the Oakland electronic music scene, Barenbaum has been writing, performing, and plunging into oneiric depths as Group Rhoda since 2009. Passing Shades is an investigation of the metaphysics of loss and the transitory nature of the material world. But it is not a grim collection; over 8 songs, Group Rhoda diverges through synthesizer-laden symphonics, four-to-the-floor inflections, and cosmic musings. Barenbaum’s striking voice and singular songcraft guide us through this labyrinth. Arpeggiated waltz Flow channels wisdom sought through martial arts; Earthly Ark sets a Margaret Atwood poem from the God Gardener’s Hymn Book to sombre electronics. The vocoded canticle Nevermore is dedicated to the memory of a beloved cat. Folk forms are echoed only to detour into the alien. Each song functions as both a fragment of a larger puzzle and a koan unto itself.