​Willow Pearson Trimbach - Caesura's Cry

​Willow Pearson Trimbach

Caesura's Cry
self-released; 2025

​By ​Dino DiMuro

This is heady stuff, even for someone with a fairly diverse spiritual background like me! Northern California’s Willow Pearson Trimbach is a music therapist, psychologist, psychotherapist, author and professor. She’s also a singer/songwriter with a beautiful voice and a new album titled Caesura’s Cry.

Pearson Trimbach sent us lots of notes about her songs, along with her website with even more information. I admit most of it is over my head! I can say that Pearson Trimbach has a voice that recalls the great Rickie Lee Jones (especially starting with track two) and sings atop flawlessly arranged piano, guitar and string sections. Her collaborators include Ben Leinback (piano/guitar/composer/producer), Eric Ramstad (guitarist/composer), Moses Sedler (mantric cello/singing bowl/spoken word) and Trimbach’s husband Daniel Trimbach (guitar/chess teacher).

Most of Pearson Trimbach’s 14 songs are lengthy (about five minutes or more each) and don’t have too many internal changes, so the effect is almost like a meditation, which I’m sure is not an accident! As mentioned, the lyrics delve into heady spiritual matters and conundrums. It’s not often you hear music with gods and goddesses like Shiva, Allah, Krishna and Jesus bandied about (though my Grandma would say: “Jesus should have come FIRST!”). There’s way too much here for one review but I’ll highlight my favorites.

The title track “Caesura’s Cry” comes first, and features a muted bed of acoustic piano and cello. Trimbach describes this song as “a cry of being born, personally, collectively and continually—a cry of the eternal simultaneity of union and separation.” Moses Sedler’s cello seems to follow Trimbach’s vocal note for note, which is an amazing effect. “Tasting Space” is pretty much Trimbach’s voice and acoustic guitar, and is a bit lighter and more folky. I daresay this track has a subtle, erotic undercurrent: “Come meet me at the razor’s edge / We’ll dance inside this fire / Where love reaches for itself / Unburdening desire.”

“Stainless” brings in acoustic piano as the main accompaniment, and has a smoky jazz sheen. “Listening Child” is an interesting song in that my immediate thoughts went to newborn babies, but Trimbach actually uses this nursery-rhyme framing to create “an homage to the potential birth of the third in any relationship, including between therapist and patient.” Musically it reminded me of “Old Familiar” by Kathleen Wilhoite. At least I guessed right with the lovely “Cherishing the Real” which I heard as a love song: it was in fact dedicated to Trimbach’s husband Daniel. “Images and Icons” is described as “an ode to the many, indeed infinite, faces of the sacred.” The piano is quite active here, with circular melodies backing Trimbach’s evocation of the many sacred “images and icons” within our spiritual space (yes, Grandma, even Jesus!).

“Love’s Tide” was written as “an ode to the ebb and flow of love eternal” and has the sweet simplicity of a Neil Young acoustic tune. “Living Entwined” is a three-minute spoken word piece, while “Beata in Beta” includes spoken word within a literal mantra housed within an Indian-style cello drone. “Cunda Tara” is another mantra that pairs Pearson Trimbach’s vocals with a singing bowl for “an invocation of the Great Mother of Seven Million Buddhas.”

As mentioned, there’s a lot here and I’ve only scratched the surface! If your tastes veer toward the profound and spiritual elements of existence, Pearson Trimbach just may be singing for you!

lionessroars.org

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