To begin her Wooden Piano Live Sessions series of acoustic music videos, Halifax-based musician Rachel Sunter, also known as Arsoniste, recently released a cover of Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi.” Produced in collaboration with videographer Jenni Welsh of Sonic Temple Studio, the video features Sunter tackling the piece solo on piano.

Radiohead are famous, for a great many reasons, but one part that fans love to geek out over are the complicated syncopated rhythms structuring some of their tracks. Their seventh album, In Rainbows, is layered with them, most famously burying an inaudible dance track within the slow closer “Videotape” which spurred a series of fan videos showing the band struggling to the grasp the complex beat in live performances.

“It was a challenge; there’s a syncopated, triplet arpeggio pattern, hence ‘arpeggi’, and at least two guitars take that in the original track, so I had to create the same feel with just my right hand, but I love a good piano cover challenge,” says Sunter.

“I used to listen to that track running through the woods in Ottawa. it had a great pace, build, and ethereal feel. the lyrics always got me, ‘in the deepest ocean / the bottom of the sea / your eyes / they turn me’… feelings of suicidality and love all mashed together I’ve been through some pretty escapist parts of my life and Radiohead is usually the soundtrack.”

Though the number of instruments dropped, Arsoniste manages to maintain the song’s full sound, filling any empty spaces that may have been created through such an undertaking. It also suits her current performance style as a solo artist.

“I started performing exclusively solo shows this fall. These videos are to capture my favourite setup: me and the keys, after two years of duo / trio / full band shows. I also started performing a ton of cover shows at piano bars and it’s been amazing for my development.”

New videos in her series will be released each Thursday.

You can catch Arsoniste in the near future at Folly Fest in Gagetown, on June 23rd, Evolve Music Festival outside of Moncton during the weekend of July 6th, and at The Carleton in Halifax on June 10th with Toronto’s The Young Novelists.

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