Biography

Sarah was born in England but spent most of her life in South Africa. She has been an active musician and songwriter for fourteen years now, having begun her musical career as bass player and backing vocalist with SA band, Sunways. She wrote and performed for the band for eight years, touring both at home and abroad and playing club gigs and major festivals. In 2002 Sunways were awarded a South African Music Award for Best Rock Album for their second album, The Moon is a Spoon.

The band received a great deal of radio play on major stations and achieved chart success with both majors and student radio stations. They also performed live on television and had their music videos shown on all the prime television stations in South Africa. With critical acclaim for their albums and especially for their dynamic live performances the three piece eventually moved to Northern Ireland to further pursue their career.

Since leaving Sunways and returning to South Africa Sarah has been involved in a number of other projects as backing vocalist, including with Cape Town-based Kalahari Surfers and Eastern Cape-based rock band, Gage. She has just released her first solo album, Child Of Ancestors, which journalist Lester Gabang described as Julee Cruise meets Syd Barrett… on a breeze. Sarah plays acoustic guitar and sings, and the album was mixed and mastered at Milestone Studios, Cape Town, by Warrick Sony.

To listen and download Sarah’s latest release, Child Of Ancestors, visit her page at bandcamp:

http://sarahjanemaryhills.bandcamp.com/

“…its simple, layered atmospherics are at once haunting and mesmerizing. It floats in as if from another world, whispering of unknown beauty.”

Mick Raubenheimer (Muse Magazine)



“…Child of Ancestors is Sarah’s debut solo EP and bristles with inventiveness and originality. It’s like something I have never heard before…it slides and slips between rhythms, levels, depths; illusively, trying to escape detection - like an extremely rare creature (an alien combination of animal, fish, plant and human) that has a finely attuned radar that only allows it to have brief moments in moon shadow to forage for food and water at specific depths of the night. And, should it linger a moment too long, its fragility would be the cause of its demise like Cinderella at midnight.



Conversely, it is this same appreciation of lingering, hovering, floating that forms the backbone and strength of Child of Ancestors. This solid mix of extraordinary opposites has resulted in an artistic gravitas which makes the album such a wondrous achievement. It’s as if Sarah has taken her detailed close up images of flowers (a photographic passion she has pursued for many years) capturing an ethereal translucent beauty, a world of intricate detail, and transformed them into sound!…”

Helge Janssen (Artslink)



“This is a rare album, so deeply honest and personal that it’s an act of courage (and perhaps catharsis) to release it to the public. The arrangement is simple and the production sparse, and combines with introspective lyrics to produce an intimacy that is arresting and inspiring… The layered vocals and the simple guitar figures against a background of sweeping soundscape is a trip into someone’s soul.



Hills’ writing is superb, never over the top and never straying from a sound that suits the album’s themes. The subject matter is sometimes emotionally tough but ultimately leaves this listener with hope and a sense of peace. This may make it sound like a “difficult” album but it is extremely accessible and you will find yourself humming the songs long after listening.”

88KOS (NBT Radio)