‘Fruit’: The A’s Dark, Sweet Debut
A bunch of grapes, one banana, two strawberries and a pineapple made out of papier-mâché; noises created by shoes, gravel, string, a shoelace, nylon shorts and a water bottle; yodeling, covers, traditionals and one original song: These are the main components, big and small, that went into The A’s debut, Fruit.
The A’s in question — Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath and Daughter of Swords’ Alexandra Sauser-Monnig — are longtime friends and members of Mountain Man (alongside Molly Sarlé). They first performed as a duo in 2013, but the project got its start even before then; when I spoke with Meath and Sauser-Monnig on the phone, they both traced The A’s beginnings back to those early Mountain Man days.