What would the early Autumn wind blowing across green rolling hills sound like if it were transcribed and played by a family of musicians on the porch of a very old log cabin. The answer is Brooklyn, NY resident Marla Hansen's new cd, "Wedding Day".

I always appreciate albums that sound like a group of talented people sitting in a room, playing and recording all together. This is the feeling what "Wedding Day" conjours. Hansen plucks and strums her viola to start most of the tracks, and bouncing layers of stand-up bass, gentle drumkit and dreamy strings swirl around her vocals, a voice both earthy and delicate. I can imagine her singing some of these songs in a house of sleeping people, pouring her soul out quietly enough to not wake those she is writing about.

Lyrically, Hansen has the gift of conveying heavy emotion behind simple phrases, with just as powerful melodies being sing as being coaxed from the string section. When she sings "Did you hurt your hand again, last night when fell in the snow?", on the track "Shuffle Your Feet", not only does it conjure an image, but her whispery vocals make you feel a hint of frostbite.

Fans a Sufjan Stevens might find her voice familiar; she's sung back up for him on a number of recordings. She's also worked with Hip Hop heavyweights Kanye West and Jay-Z.

A bonus is that the EP has been released on Standard Recording, a local label. While only six songs, there is enough subtlety in the disc to keep it on repeat until a full lengnth album drops.

Highly recommended.