Introducing: Minneapolis Ambient Sound Artist Marcia Fisher Explores Found Sound and Atmospheric Collage on Her LP New Ruins

Marsha Fisher is a Minneapolis based ambient artist who creates the kind of music that is both beautiful and harsh, the kind of songs sourced from outre music that are blended together into a stew that allows you to float off into the ether as you listen. Her label calls the her 2021 album New Ruins, made from synths and tape loops, a “hushed meditation on hidden beauty, spirituality, and cultural consumerism.”

The album notes the sounds she distorts and loops sounds “from thrift store finds primarily sourced from old Christian genre music and praise cassettes scavenged from Midwestern thrift stores” as she was living in Nebraska, but you’d be hard pressed to hear the distinction in the haze.

While there are apparently many layers to the songs and their intentions, even without context they have proven a balm for me to simply escape, which itself is a gift in these trying times. New Ruins is four songs spread over 36 atmospheric minutes of sound collages, highlighting a local artist diving deep into this genre. It’s a trip worth taking, and you can stream/buy the record from her Bandcamp page below.