Audio Remasterer: Roger Seibel.

Classically trained cellist and hauntingly understated indie folk chanteuse Laura Gibson brings delicate arrangements and heartfelt--if quietly voiced--emotionality to BEASTS OF SEASONS, a tour de force of less-is-more song craft. As it constantly straddles actual notes and an expressively threadbare crack, Gibson's voice, the album's signature instrument, evokes at times Chan Marshall, Karen Dalton, and her Portland, Oregon neighbor (and fellow revisionist folk artiste) M. Ward. At first listen, the album barely moves the VU meter, but further exploration reveals a world of nuance and texture poignantly lying in the spaces between a barely arpeggiated piano chord, plucked nylon guitar string, light drum rhythm (as on the standout "Spirited"), and the occasional rise of guitar feedback (as on the opener, "Shadows on Parade").