Chelsea Wolfe: Tiny Desk Concert

Not long after her arrival, Chelsea Wolfe carefully arranged a handful of objects on the desk in front of her — a dagger, a chalice, a pentacle and flower — all inspired by the Magician tarot card, which symbolizes new beginnings. But if there was a slight of hand performed during her set, it was the way she stripped down her often colossal sound to its barest, most intimate elements, revealing the profound beauty within.

“Whispers in the Echo Chamber,” a dark and distorted rumination on intrusive thoughts and the struggle to let go, for example, is more fragile here, with Wolfe's breathtakingly beautiful voice front-and-center. While most of this Tiny Desk features material from She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She — and the upcoming Unbound EP, its acoustic companion — Wolfe closes with “Flatlands,” which originally appeared on the 2012 album Unknown Rooms.

This is Wolfe's second appearance at the Tiny Desk. Her first was in 2016following the release of Abyss.

SET LIST

• “Whispers in the Echo Chamber”
• “Dusk”
• Place in the Sun
• “Flatlands”

MUSICIANS

• Chelsea Wolfe: vocals, guitar
• Ben Chisholm: piano

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Robin Hilton
• Director/Editor: Maia Stern
• Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
• Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
• Videographers: Maia Stern, Kara Frame
• Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai
• Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
• Photographer: Elizabeth Gillis
• Tiny Desk Team: Hazel Jills, Joshua Bryant
• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
• VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins