Saloli

Mary Sutton, a Portland resident performing as Saloli, produces keyboard instrumentals that balance playfulness with introspection. She realizes these works through live execution on analog synthesizers, without programming, overdubs, or further processing. The 2018 release The Deep End first presented her approach, defined by vibrant and dreamy qualities. After two acoustic piano projects, she turned to her Cherokee Nation heritage on the exploratory 2023 album Canyon.

A classically trained pianist, Sutton has written for string ensembles alongside piano and names Erik Satie among her primary influences. The Saloli project—whose name comes from the Cherokee word for squirrel—originated with a concert at a clothing-optional sauna inside a Portland wellness center, an event that also marked her first attempt at composing for analog synthesizer. Kranky issued The Deep End, documenting the restrained yet detailed instrumentals, as her debut album in 2018. Self-released at the end of 2021, The Island: Music for Piano, Vol. 1 was composed on a 1900 Chickering piano. A year afterward, Sutton issued Ghosts: Music for Piano, Vol. 2, which featured a custom-tuned piano arrangement of “Barcarolle” drawn from The Deep End.

Canyon, her second Kranky album from 2023, seeks to portray a single day in the life of a bear within a Smoky Mountains canyon. The recording was made on a Sequential Circuits MultiTrak synthesizer routed through a delay pedal, producing the sonic impression of sound reflecting off canyon walls.