Arsoniste has joined the ranks of artists to cover The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights.” Performed at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity as part of their Wooden Piano Sessions, Arsoniste gives a powerful solo-rendition that’s entirely her and a grand piano.
“Such Great Heights,” if you had somehow missed it, was named one of the Top 100 Songs of the 2000’s by Rolling Stone. Originally by American indietronica group The Postal Service, the song has been covered by everyone from Ben Folds to Postmodern Jukebox, Anderson .Paak, and, of course, Iron & Wine’s version which appeared on the Garden State soundtrack. First released in January of 2003, the song was at the bleeding heart, bleeding edge, of hipsterdom, and, arguably, a symptom or stimulus of why we are the way we are.
Arsoniste’s cover of the song is a low key version most akin to Iron & Wine’s take on it. It puts a strong emphasis on the emotional delivery — honing in on Sunter’s voice.
The video, shot at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity complete with mountainous backdrop, is the first in a series of performance videos for Arsoniste.
“I did a three-week songwriter’s residency at the Banff Arts Centre. One of my proposed projects for that time was to shoot a series of performance videos of covers and originals,” says Rachel Sunter, AKA Arsoniste. “Acoustic shows have been a huge part of the 100+ shows I played this past year and I wanted to capture that. The whole residency was a total musician’s paradise; got to play on the most gorgeous collection of grand pianos I’ve ever seen in my life.”
The song can be a challenge to play. Just look at the live performance from Ben Folds, widely recognized as a master of the ivories, and the way he has broken much of the song down into a three-part unorthodox percussion section. Folds is still intensely attacking the rhythm of its isolated bass line.
“This is one of the first covers I ever made — nailing the arpeggiated synth pattern at the beginning of the song took me days of practise,” explains Sunter. “At one point my then-roommate got really mad at me because she was hearing it so much and I was totally embarrassed.
“This song brings me back to being a wide-eyed scenester (pre-hipster) in Toronto in 2005, adoring indie musicians and never seeing myself as one of them.”
Arsoniste will be releasing more videos from the series over the course of the next few weeks.
Show Dates:
08.01.19 – Halifax, NS @ The Barrington Steakhouse
08.02.19 – Halifax, NS @ The Barrington Steakhouse