Kate Bollinger

© Leanna Kaiser

Armed with endless hooks and wildly shifting textures, Bollinger can seem as much like a songwriter as an art-house auteur, crafting the soundtrack and scenery for a non-existent movie. Bollinger studied film in college, and recently directed the striking music video for Jessica Pratt’s single “World on a String.” Fittingly Bollinger always has a hand in her visuals, and often envisions them as the songs themselves take shape.

Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind favors the eclectic, melodic, and majestic, supporting intimate, stream-of-consciousness lyricism with classic instrumentation. In sharing this music with listeners, Bollinger took inspiration from her own formative encounters with art: quietly worshiping the early musical projects of her older brothers, attending local shows in Charlottesville and feeling empowered to write songs of her own, inheriting burned CDs from older classmates and finding a portal to another world. (Working with her friends Emma Collins and Evangeline Neuhart on the visual accompaniment, Bollinger assures the entire project feels equally communal and intuitive.) Sublimating a lifetime’s worth of musical connections into a concise 11 songs, Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind captures a rare sense of purpose and ambition for a debut record, managing to feel cozily familiar while still packed full of surprises. And in her gently playful and emotionally resonant performances, Bollinger sounds as enraptured by the mystery as anyone.