ALBUM REVIEW: With ‘Acadia,’ Yasmin Williams Creates a Tranquil World

In literature, Acadia is an idyllic place filled with plenty. Acadia is a fitting title, then, for the new album from Yasmin Williams.

On this, her third album – her first for Nonesuch Records – the multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer creates a tranquil world with lush instrumentation, occasionally accompanied by enchanting vocals.

Williams’s melody falls like a refreshing rain on the opening measures of “Cliffwalk.” They’re soon accompanied by the patter of rhythm bones. Those initially reflective moments take flight as a dancing fiddle darts around Williams’ shimmering guitar. The tune moves from tentative exploration to the thrill of anticipation, to a celebration of joy.

Violin and guitars entwine like muscadine vines on “Harvest,” encircling one another in a free flight of overlapping harmonic tones that spiral higher and higher. Like the flitting bird of its title, “Hummingbird” flutters and swoops with Allison de Groot’s high-octane banjo rolls, Williams’ lightning-fast finger-picking, and Tatiana Hargreaves’ scampering fiddle It all slows momentarily about halfway through the tune for a sip of orchestral nectar before taking flight again.

Ethereal vocals blend with expansive instrumentation on “Virga,” a haunting baroque chamber-folk piece that evokes the feeling of being suspended in a dream. Using a musical phrase from “Amazing Grace” as one of its thematic lines, “Dawning” emerges into the light with layers of instrumentation in concentric circles of vocals from Aoife O’Donovan, Kafari, and Nic Gareiss. The album closes with “Malamu,” a funky tune that trucks along on piercing lead riffs and wailing alto sax.

On Acadia Yasmin Williams reveals, once again, her ability to dive deep into a variety of musical styles and create intricate compositions that are, at once, expansive and intimate.

Yasmin Williams’s Acadia releases Oct. 4 on Nonesuch Records.