For New Eyes, Arizona folk music powerhouses Matt Rolland and Rebekah Sandoval Rolland have come full circle. Their band, RISO, is the culmination of a musical lifetime spent together – and the album is a document of the ebb and flow of the last decade of their lives as students, musicians, and, more recently, parents.
 
Rolland and Bekah bring very different influences to the table despite their shared culture, and the interplay is on full display on New Eyes. Rolland’s history as a contest fiddle player in the Texas and bluegrass styles shows itself in nimble, quick melodic lines. Sandoval’s fascination with old-time music comes out in speech-driven, “crooked” rhythms and unexpected phrasing. Rolland introduced Sandoval to pop influences like the Shins and Iron and Wine; Sandoval fell in love with another band they listened to two decades ago, Crooked Still, and that affair has continued unbroken. From the Latin word for “smile” or “laughter,” RISO synthesizes that push and pull. It embraces an old-time aesthetic that seems to emanate from the very bones of the earth yet incorporates pop flourishes and sometimes complex arrangements to get the message across.
 
The album feels like the natural growth of an old tradition, flourishing into something new. Sandoval’s voice has a heartbreaking clarity and grace, traveling seamlessly between filigrees of a dreamy springtime delicacy and crescendos of strength. There is an innocence to it that makes the weight of her words hit all the stronger. Rolland’s sure hand gives rise to it, responding to every nuance and cradling the sound with sometimes surprising textures – like a 60s psychedelic guitar jangle or French horn coming through the acoustic pop. His original instrumental tunes buoy the album forward, melding influences from Celtic, old-time, and bluegrass traditions.
 
The songs will break your heart and fix it again. From the wistful “Geometric Slide” to the jaunty “Caterpillar Prince,” from the ominous and smoky “Always Running” to the budding of desire in “Closer,” these are songs of innocence and of experience (to borrow from Blake).
 
The album was engineered by Tucson stalwarts Petie Ronstadt and Steven Lee Tracy and mixed by Philip Shaw Bova (Father John Misty, Lake Street Dive, Feist).

RISO is following