Timbre: Sun & Moon

This indie, alt-classical, art concept album is near impossible to categorize. The Nashville-based, ultra-talented Timbre Cierpke is a professional harpist who has recorded not only with orchestras and choirs, but also Jack White and Ricky Skaggs. She can write pop-oriented chamber-folk songs for a band, as she does here on Sun, the first disc. But wanting to show that commercial and classical music share sounds and themes, Timbre composed the classical tracks for orchestra and choir that comprise Moon, the second disc, where musical echoes and reverberations draw us back to the earlier indie-pop songs.

Timbre’s enchanting soprano reminds me of the vocalizing of Celtic Woman, and she embeds her voice in melodies and arrangements that suggest the mystery and beauty of a band such as Sigur Rós. The album is exquisite, well worth listening to. But in our age of single song downloads and a band’s need to support a release with heavy touring, I’m not sure how an album such as this one will find an audience.