The stoic opening of “Mouth Full of Ears” belies its rambunctious, minimalist, alt-pop energy; an energy enhanced by the red, green, blue, and yellow colors of the wooden blocks that Exceptet plays with and within. Sarah Goldfeather moves between playing violin, singing, and sitting amid sewing materials in a cozy nook, her block tower complete. The minimalist repetition oscillates from simple to sinister, especially as she sings, “It’s so easy/just follow their rules.”
There’s a paradox when building a tower of wooden blocks. As soon as it’s complete, you have the urge to knock it down and begin again. That’s what happens both literally and metaphorically in the music video by Christopher Smith – a rejection of following instructions blindly and without question.
Performed by Exceptet (of which Goldfeather is a member and artistic director), the song is featured on the group’s debut album, Tree Lines, which also includes works by Katherine Balch and Paul Kerekes. On Jan. 23, Exeptet will host an album release party at Brooklyn’s Littlefield, featuring special guest Kyra Sims.
Exceptet — Photo by Shervin Lainez
Here’s a word from Goldfeather about “Mouth Full of Ears:”
The piece explores the temptation to repeat the hollow words one hears from others, and the importance of thinking freely and independently: “You chew on the words/and tell us what you hear/but it’s hard to understand you/when your mouth is full of ears.”
Tree Lines is out Jan. 17 on New Focus Recordings. A limited copy of physical media will be available through the ensemble’s website, and you can pre-order a digital copy on Bandcamp.
About Sarah Goldfeather
Sarah Goldfeather is a composer-performer whose compositions include commissions from pianist Timo Andres, ETHEL quartet, Contemporaneous, Alkemie, W4RP, Exceptet, and more. A 2023 Finalist award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Sarah co-writes and performs music for the experimental pop band Goldfeather, and is the co-founder and artistic director of the seven-piece new music ensemble Exceptet.
Sarah also has an active career as a violinist and singer. She was the violinist in the Tony Award-winning and Grammy-nominated Broadway production of Oklahoma!, the 2023 production of The Coast Starlight at Lincoln Center Theater, and performed on the Tony-Award winning Broadway production of Illinoise!. Sarah has also been featured on New Sounds (WNYC), The Present Music Festival, WildShore Festival, The Laudie D. Porter Artist Series at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, The Center for New Music in San Francisco, The MATA-Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Hall, and more.
In addition to performing, Sarah is also a teaching artist for Musicambia, a music education program that works with incarcerated populations. Sarah has co-taught songwriting workshops in correctional facilities in San Quentin, CA, Lansing, KS, and Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, NY, teaches regularly at both Sing Sing and Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, and has done additional work at Sing Sing through Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections Prison Program. Beyond her music career, Sarah moonlights as an English Professor in the Writing Program at Rutgers University-Newark.
About Exceptet
A little about us: Exceptet is a New York-based 501(c)(3) new music ensemble with the instrumentation of violin/singer, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, double bass, and percussion. They have played in various festivals and venues across America including Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, Boston Conservatory, The Donald J. Farish Auditorium at the Providence Public Library and have been presented by Con Vivo Music in Jersey City, NJ, The Johnstone Foundation for New Music in Columbus, OH, The Ecstatic Music Festival and MATA Interval Series in New York, and more. Exceptet is dedicated to commissioning new works from young and emerging composers, including a work by Rome Prize recipient Katherine Balch, which was generously funded by the Barlow Endowment.
Their debut album, which features Balch’s eponymous work, Tree Lines, was generously supported by The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording Grant and will be released on New Focus Recordings in 2025. Exceptet is: Chuck Furlong (clarinet), Sarah Goldfeather (violin), Evan Honse (trumpet), Dan Linden (trombone), Allison Nicotera (bassoon), Evan Runyon (double bass), and David Stevens (percussion).
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