PREMIERE: The Silver Lake Chorus Greet “Sister Winter” in New Video

The LA group take on Sufjan Stevens’s frosty classic.
PREMIERE: The Silver Lake Chorus Greet “Sister Winter” in New Video

The LA group take on Sufjan Stevens’s frosty classic.

Words: Sadie Sartini Garner

photo by Lehua Noelle

December 19, 2016

The Silver Lake Chorus / photo by Lehua Noelle

Winter, in case you were somehow unaware of the Polar Vortex that descended upon half of the United States this weekend, is here. Here we are in the final days of the year, the calendar gradually winnowing away as the days get shorter and the nights get longer.

Even in sunny Los Angeles, the temperature has been unseasonably cold and uncomfortable—not the norm, certainly, but perhaps appropriate enough for The Silver Lake Chorus. The group made their name performing choral songs written for them by artists like Justin Vernon, Sia, and Aimee Mann. Today, though, we’re premiering a video for the group’s cover of Sufjan Stevens’s “Sister Winter.” As the title may have led you to guess, it’s not exactly a chummy holiday carol—“My heart is returned to sister winter,” goes the chorus—and the group treat it as such, exploring the reaches of Stevens’s melody.

Check out the video, which was directed by Charlie Maas, below. And if you like what you hear, you can give the group’s self-titled 2015 album a listen here.