Sabrina Starke

The Rotterdam-based songwriter released Yellow Brick Road in 2008, bringing Do for Love and A Woman’s Gonna Try into a wider album setting. The music gives a clear melodic line enough room to remain personal, with the arrangement supporting the pace of the voice rather than forcing every phrase towards a large climax.

Bags & Suitcases followed in 2010, recorded in Miami with producer Pete Wallace. Sunny Days provides a particularly direct introduction to the chapter. The production makes the surrounding sound fuller while preserving the singer’s ability to alter the weight of a line through a small rhythmic or tonal change.

The 2012 album, again made with Wallace, includes This Time Around. Starke’s account of the period presents an album as a reflection of a particular stage in her life, giving the change of musical emphasis a practical personal context. Moving from Blue Note to 8ball also supplied another setting for that work. Lean on Me: The Songs of Bill Withers in 2013 then made interpretation a central project, recorded with the Metropole Orkest and arranger-conductor Vince Mendoza. The orchestral collaboration draws attention to another part of her skill: a familiar composition can acquire a different intimacy through where a singer places a phrase. Later self-directed writing and production continue the catalogue, but the early records already establish a musician willing to let the setting develop. The warmth of the performance does not prevent the songs from asking for another direction.