DM Stith balances the epic and the intimate on folk-pop record 'Fata Morgana' 

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Musician and visual artist DM Stith has always been an enigmatic singer-songwriter. His music — part ambient pop and part alternative folk — is as inscrutable as it is ethereal.

But “Fata Morgana,” Stith’s first full-length album since he returned to Rochester in 2021 from New York City (where he collaborated with indie music hero Sufjan Stevens), pairs typically cryptic lyrics with a noticeably more straightforward and upbeat sound than on previous efforts such as the at-times frantic “Pigeonheart” and the debut album “Heavy Ghost,” which alternated between somber and ecstatic.

When listening to “Fata Morgana” — released April 14 on Historical Fiction Records — one can’t help but sense that Stith has a lighter spirit, more emotional clarity, and a focused sound world to match. “Dodges and Feints” is positively bouncy.


What has been consistent about Stith’s music is its otherworldiness, a quality reinforced in a line from the opening track “Greyhounds”:

I can’t shake the feeling/ The earth is not my home
And I’m running this alone/ desperate laps in the park
Kinetic release or revenge at the dark/Flashing your gang signs at the moon
No you can’t make me give this up to you.


Stith’s flexible tenor voice positions itself somewhere between fragile human and mythical angel. The album’s arrangements are typically dense, as electronic and acoustic sounds meld and become indistinguishable from one another.

The magic of “Fata Morgana” is that Stith’s singing is as close and intimate as the instruments’ statements are broad and sweeping.

Daniel J. Kushner is CITY’s arts editor. He can be reached at [email protected].