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SIMA CUNNINGHAM
High Roller(Ruination Record Co.)
Add date: 9.3.2024
Release date: 8.30.2024
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Sima is a soothsayer. Sima is a friend-soother. Sima is a bearer of memories. And Sima is the hub of a bicycle wheel with spokes that span the whole City of Chicago.
In High Roller, her first full-length out on Ruination Records since 2014, Sima brings all of these roles to bear. She floats into the minds of friends who have survived violence, a family member who was never able to speak, a classmate who was lost to bigotry, and builds a floor underneath them, a platform as comforting as a traditional Armenian quilt, as thrilling and delightful as a Tin Pan Alley tune. As she offers support to these loved ones in the form of songs, you feel her prescience and her empathy. You feel as though her clear, fair eyes are gazing not just at an unknown other but at you, too.
Together with multi-instrumentalist Dorian Gehring, brother Liam Kazar on bass, and a cast of Chicago-based musicians including Macie Stewart, Spencer Tweedy, Elizabeth Moen, Andrew Sa, Charles Rumback, Jack Henry and Twin Peaks’ Clay Frankel, Sima grows a garden of an album that progresses from wild-growing prairie grass—her folk roots—to diligent, gorgeous topiaries. Opener “Nothing” explodes into a prog-adjacent swirl. Undulating guitars amplified by a Leslie organ speaker couch “For Liam.” And passing-traffic violins lilt the title track to a dejected yet somehow defiant end.
High Roller rises to an emotional peak in its final track, a shining moment in which a simple slice of vegan cheese is illuminated by the sum of all light in the universe, with the cosmic rays of a grieving friend’s impossible pain. “Adonai” is about Sima’s friend who died by suicide in high school, at a time when he couldn’t imagine anyone accepting him for who he was. Sima sings “to put it out into the universe / that you are missed so much … I really miss your touch.” And some of these scattered rays bounce back from the cosmos onto us.
Apart from all its sensitivity, support, and sacrifice, High Roller is also a warning, a humane kick in the pants of self-concerned people who dare to ignore the wise and the careful among us—who dare to ignore Sima in particular. “I could be the golden one / If someone had the common sense to hear me out,” she laments without any self-pity, only hard-earned knowing. May we all have the common sense to hear Sima out.
Over the past 15 years she has worked as a recording and touring musician with Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson, Iron & Wine, Edith Frost, Chance the Rapper, Twin Peaks, and been featured on multitudes of records. She co-owns a recording studio in Chicago, Fox Hall, where she produces records for her own projects and other artists.
In 2015 Sima formed Finom (fka OHMME) along with Macie Stewart, and it has been her primary project for the past decade. Finom has been celebrated as “the heart of the Chicago music community” by Vice Magazine. They have released three acclaimed albums including Parts (2018), Fantasize Your Ghost (2020), and Not God (2024) with Joyful Noise Recordings. The band has been featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, Pitchfork, Paste, Chicago Tribune, Spin, Interview, and Rolling Stone and was recently commissioned to write and perform a piece with Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet and Orchestra.
An Armenian-American artist and descendent of genocide survivors, Sima has focused much of her work on building connections and healing divides through music. Over the last ten years, she has traveled to Armenia and the Caucasus to perform, participate in workshops, and foster creative cross-cultural opportunities between artists in Armenia and the United States. Her work as an artist-presenter includes founding a small music festival, Postock, that will celebrate its 16th year in 2024; curating and hosting the I Hear Voices series in Chicago at Constellation; and working as a lead organizer for the Pitchfork Music Festival.
Apple Music
Bandcamp
Official Website
Spotify
Sima is a soothsayer. Sima is a friend-soother. Sima is a bearer of memories. And Sima is the hub of a bicycle wheel with spokes that span the whole City of Chicago.
In High Roller, her first full-length out on Ruination Records since 2014, Sima brings all of these roles to bear. She floats into the minds of friends who have survived violence, a family member who was never able to speak, a classmate who was lost to bigotry, and builds a floor underneath them, a platform as comforting as a traditional Armenian quilt, as thrilling and delightful as a Tin Pan Alley tune. As she offers support to these loved ones in the form of songs, you feel her prescience and her empathy. You feel as though her clear, fair eyes are gazing not just at an unknown other but at you, too.
Together with multi-instrumentalist Dorian Gehring, brother Liam Kazar on bass, and a cast of Chicago-based musicians including Macie Stewart, Spencer Tweedy, Elizabeth Moen, Andrew Sa, Charles Rumback, Jack Henry and Twin Peaks’ Clay Frankel, Sima grows a garden of an album that progresses from wild-growing prairie grass—her folk roots—to diligent, gorgeous topiaries. Opener “Nothing” explodes into a prog-adjacent swirl. Undulating guitars amplified by a Leslie organ speaker couch “For Liam.” And passing-traffic violins lilt the title track to a dejected yet somehow defiant end.
High Roller rises to an emotional peak in its final track, a shining moment in which a simple slice of vegan cheese is illuminated by the sum of all light in the universe, with the cosmic rays of a grieving friend’s impossible pain. “Adonai” is about Sima’s friend who died by suicide in high school, at a time when he couldn’t imagine anyone accepting him for who he was. Sima sings “to put it out into the universe / that you are missed so much … I really miss your touch.” And some of these scattered rays bounce back from the cosmos onto us.
Apart from all its sensitivity, support, and sacrifice, High Roller is also a warning, a humane kick in the pants of self-concerned people who dare to ignore the wise and the careful among us—who dare to ignore Sima in particular. “I could be the golden one / If someone had the common sense to hear me out,” she laments without any self-pity, only hard-earned knowing. May we all have the common sense to hear Sima out.
More about Sima Cunningham:
Sima Cunningham is a Chicago-based musician, songwriter, producer, presenter, and a founding member of Finom. Her second solo album, High Roller, will be released in August 2024 on Ruination Records. Heartfelt and adventurous, her solo music is for fans of Harry Nilsson, Fiona Apple, Wilco, Aimee Mann, and Big Thief.Over the past 15 years she has worked as a recording and touring musician with Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson, Iron & Wine, Edith Frost, Chance the Rapper, Twin Peaks, and been featured on multitudes of records. She co-owns a recording studio in Chicago, Fox Hall, where she produces records for her own projects and other artists.
In 2015 Sima formed Finom (fka OHMME) along with Macie Stewart, and it has been her primary project for the past decade. Finom has been celebrated as “the heart of the Chicago music community” by Vice Magazine. They have released three acclaimed albums including Parts (2018), Fantasize Your Ghost (2020), and Not God (2024) with Joyful Noise Recordings. The band has been featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, Pitchfork, Paste, Chicago Tribune, Spin, Interview, and Rolling Stone and was recently commissioned to write and perform a piece with Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet and Orchestra.
An Armenian-American artist and descendent of genocide survivors, Sima has focused much of her work on building connections and healing divides through music. Over the last ten years, she has traveled to Armenia and the Caucasus to perform, participate in workshops, and foster creative cross-cultural opportunities between artists in Armenia and the United States. Her work as an artist-presenter includes founding a small music festival, Postock, that will celebrate its 16th year in 2024; curating and hosting the I Hear Voices series in Chicago at Constellation; and working as a lead organizer for the Pitchfork Music Festival.