Noveller, née Sarah Lipstate. Photo by Alexis Fleisig.
Fans of the popular Radiolab podcast — particularly, attendees of last month’s “Radiolab Live” at The Paramount — might recognize Sarah Lipstate as guitarist for the traveling show’s musical crack team, alongside upright bassist Darin Gray and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche.
Lipstate, who releases records and tours under the alias Noveller, returns to Seattle Friday to play a solo show at The Vera Project — though, with her Fender Jaguar and phalanx of effects pedals, she won’t be alone.
The 29-year-old Alabamian doubles as a filmmaker, a fact her ambient drone music’s widescreen nature reflects.
“No Dreams” (listen), the sixth and most recent Noveller full-length, may be all-instrumental, but it’s emotionally direct, with lots of rising and falling action. So evocative are its eight celestial beck and calls one hardly notices the absence of a script, much less a supporting cast.
For Lipstate, the electric guitar is tantamount to a camera or a paintbrush, and in exploring the fretboard’s furthest regions — sometimes with a pick, but more often a bow — she’s a sure-handed storyteller, crafting cerebral soundscapes to live in, and get lost in.
Noveller, Anna Von Hauswolff
7:30 p.m. Friday at The Vera Project, Warren Ave. N. and Republican St., Seattle; $11 (206-956-8372 or
theveraproject.org)