“Music takes me out of my body, immerses me in another world the way a film does. I begin and end in very different emotional states, doors open where there were no doors before.” — Kathryn Mohr
A DIY, grunge-stripped-to-the-bones work written and self-recorded in remote eastern Iceland, Waiting Room is the third studio album by Kathryn Mohr. Honing her characteristic style last seen on 2022’s Holly, Mohr sings discomfort through dissonance, electric guitar strings strummed in flickering confidence while vocal exhalations and aural disintegrations fleck the sonic canvas. There are moments of real prettiness all over the album (see singles “Driven” and “Elevator”) because the longing in Mohr’s voice is always arresting. Equally, there is brooding eeriness, as on “Cornered,” a collage welding together the sounds of pen scrawling against paper, automated voice answering machines, crummy plumbing, and bellowing ambient overtones.
In what place or frame of mind could someone make this music? As it turns out, Mohr fashioned the album over the course of many hours spent at a disused fish factory in Iceland, “in a windowless concrete room lit with a string of multicolored light bulbs” (which are featured on the album cover). Makes sense.
Well worth the wait, Waiting Room is out now on SF label The Flenser. Celebrate the album release with Kathryn Mohr, Maria BC, and Katsy Pline tonight at Thee Stork Club.
