MUSIC . Music Picks

Mia Doi Todd

Sat., March 8, 7:30 p.m., $21-$35 + $10 food/drink minimum, with Jose Gonzalez, World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400, worldcafelive.com.


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Published: Mar 5, 2008

rock/pop

There's something timeless about Mia Doi Todd, something out of sync with our own times and unbound to time itself. It's not just her spectral voice, which practically resonates with the wind. It's not just her hushed, percussive compositions, which unfurl as slowly as a dream, and with the same sense of determination. Since her 1997 debut, The Ewe and the Eye, she's recorded quite a few instant gems; delicate koans like "Independence Day," "Age," "88 Ways" and "Hijikata" dot her back catalog. On her sixth proper album, Gea (City Zen), it's "Night of a Thousand Kisses." It sounds so familiar — at once both comforting and troubling, like the first thrilling thought of renewing ties with an old lover — you might wear yourself out trying to track down the original. (Hint: It probably first seeped into your subconscience at the coffee shop.) Todd, who's nearly as deft at establishing intimacy with processed electronics as with a single acoustic guitar, has discovered the weary drone of the harmonium. Producer Mitchell Froom introduced the instrument on 2002's The Golden State, Todd's first and only major label release, but now she plays it all herself, and its enigmatic elegance suits her.

Sat., March 8, 7:30 p.m., $21-$35 + $10 food/drink minimum, with Jose Gonzalez, World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400, worldcafelive.com.