Sarah Slean

Sarah Slean surfaced on Toronto’s live circuit in 1997 as an alternative singer-songwriter whose stage manner carried a noticeable cabaret inflection. Her self-released debut EP Universe appeared shortly afterward. A classically trained pianist from Pickering, Ontario, she continued studies in the University of Toronto music program while establishing herself through animated and engaging performances.

Opening slots at higher-profile shows drove sales of Universe past 4,000 copies and drew major-label attention. After extended talks and a reported bidding war, she signed a joint contract with Warner Canada and Atlantic in the United States. The unusual terms let her issue one more fully independent album before the deal took effect; Blue Parade arrived in 1999 on her own Big Brother imprint and demonstrated clear advancement in her songwriting. Her contemplative, piano-centered pop, paired with a wistful vocal approach, prompted comparisons to Tori Amos and, less directly, Sarah McLachlan.

Further concerts, among them a living-room tour with Tory Cassis, preceded a move to a New York studio to begin work on her first major-label project. Atlantic issued the Sarah Slean EP in summer 2001, and the full-length Night Bugs followed in 2002. Warner released Day One internationally in 2004 and the live set Orphan Music in late 2006. The Baroness appeared in the first half of 2008; that December the label put out the companion EP The Baroness Redecorates, containing songs left off the album.

After parting with Warner she self-released the 2010 collection Beauty Lives B-Sides, newly recording previously unreleased tracks from across her catalog. Pheromone Recordings issued her fifth studio album, Land & Sea, in 2011 as a double set split between the brighter Land half and the more inward Sea half. Her four-year marriage to fellow singer-songwriter Royal Wood ended in 2013, after which she launched a crowdfunding campaign for her next record. Metaphysics reached listeners in spring 2017.