I See the Sign
| I See the Sign | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Sam Amidon | ||||
| Released | 2010 | |||
| Studio | Greenhouse Studios, Reykjavík | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Length | 42:22 | |||
| Label | Bedroom Community | |||
| Producer | Valgeir Sigurðsson | |||
| Sam Amidon chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Pitchfork |    |
| Popmatters | |
| Drowned In Sound | |
| Mojo |  |
| The Milk Factory |  |
| Spin Magazine |  |
| Allmusic | |
I See the Sign is the third album by experimental folk artist Sam Amidon, released in 2010. The album features Amidon’s radical reworkings of traditional folk songs, with chamber-orchestra arrangements by composer Nico Muhly; multi-instrumental contributions from Shahzad Ismaily, and guest vocals by Beth Orton. It was produced and mixed by Valgeir Sigurðsson at Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik and released on the Bedroom Community label.
The songs for I See the Sign consist primarily of Amidon’s reworked renditions of traditional American folksongs, drawing on shape note hymns, murder ballads, and singing games from the Georgia Sea Islands, as well as a cover of the R Kelly song Relief. The album’s recording emerged from the Bedroom Community label, with appearances from all of the members from the label at that time, and recorded entirely at Valgeir’s Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik.
In a 2010 interview with Popmatters, Amidon described how the process started with himself and Ismaily and went from there: "When Shahzad and I went into the studio in Iceland, we put many of the basic tracks down live together, with him playing bass or drums or percussion or strange noises or Moog or electric guitar, basically playing everything there was to play. Some he’d do live with me, and other parts he’d add later – he is able to play many instruments at once, but not all of them. He has many limbs. When he was playing his drum parts, I sat at a very large oak table in front of the drum kit and waved my arms in the air and drew diagrams for him to follow or disobey. After that point, it took on more of the shape of the way I made the last few records – Nico’s arrangements were added without my presence, I arrived last summer and there they were in all their mind-altering twinkling glory; and Beth Orton came with me to Iceland to sing on a number of songs and we did those together, and then Valgeir and I spent time carving things away from everything that had been added and figuring out what we had."
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