A recent perusal of an online Will Oldham discography (OK, I was bored) had me thinking about the number of minutes in a day and the things I could have funded instead of buying the dozens of singles, EPs and albums listed. Then my eye came across something I not only didn’t own, but something of which I’d never heard. It said “Mutter by Carrie Yury has Will singing and playing guitar.”

After a bit of Googling, I discovered Yury’s site, and learned that she was an MFA student at UC Irvine and had recorded the CD as part of “Mutter,” an art installation that included photos and… well, according to her bio: “Her current work, a song-cycle and series of photographs based on the Mutter museum in Philadelphia, investigates contemporary notions of empathy."

As part of that project, she wrote six songs and recorded them with old friend Will Oldham, otherwise known as Bonnie “Prince” Billy or the man behind the various Palace incarnations. His brother, Paul, also played, as did former King Kong drummer Richard Schuler and frequent Oldham collaborator Colin Gagon.

“Student art project” isn’t the most enticing way to describe a disc, but Yury acquits herself well in this company, offering songs that are very much in keeping with the feel these musicians bring to nearly every project with which they're involved. Oldham and his cohorts bring a slightly shambling, late-night vibe to Yury's sweet, simple songs. Hers is not the strongest voice (then again, neither is Oldham's), but she knows how to use what she has (again, much like Oldham), singing in a light, breathy voice not unlike that of Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubley. And like that band, which uses Hubley's voice perfectly on its quieter, more atmospheric material, Yury writes within her limitations to good effect.

From the gentle opener “Twofer,” with it’s refrain of "you can't break a heart into two halves and expect it to go on like before,” to the light country lilt of "Metastatic," the disc’s six songs offer a breezy, compelling listen. Seeing the exhibition may well enhance hearing the music, and vice versa, but one need not experience one to enjoy the other.

Yury was kind enough to answer a few questions about the project. For more about her work, including photos and a link to purchase your own copy of the disc, visit her site here.

Q: I'm probably not alone in coming to your music by way of Will Oldham fandom. Do you suppose that has an affect on the way the music is experienced as opposed to when it is heard by those who are familiar with the visual aspects of "Mutter" and your other work?

A: I’m not sure how people experience the music when they come to it through Will fandom. It’s going to sound naïve, but it didn’t really occur to me that so many of his fans would hear about and want my little EP. I’m so glad they do! From the feedback I’ve gotten it seems like although many people have come to the album through Will, they take the music on its own terms. The response to the music has been wonderful.

Q: The original presentation involved the disc -- with its monochromatic and spare packaging -- being part of a larger work. Now that it the discs and the included music are out there on their own, is there a thought that they need the support of the photos and the rest of the installation to have their full impact?

A: No, not at all. Although they were both inspired by the Mutter museum, the photographs and the music aren’t really about each other. So it’s completely okay with me if people experience the visual and aural aspects of the project independently. In fact, sometimes I think it’s better if people haven’t seen the photographs when they listen to the music. That way they aren’t looking for the music and photos to be illustrative of each other. Instead, they’re just listening to the music, and letting that create the experience.

Q: It's not everyone who could enlist Oldham et al for an MFA art project. How did that come about?

A: They’re all friends of mine. It was my absolute dream that they could all participate, and they did! I’ve said it elsewhere, but Colin Gagon, Will Oldham, Richard Schuler and Paul Oldham are all such fantastic musicians, and were an absolute delight to work with. I’m so grateful to each one of them for making “Mutter” so incredibly beautiful.

Q: You've been quoted as saying "I think music is the last place in art where eliciting an emotional response to the work is not just sanctioned but actually lauded." Why do you think that is, and are there aspects to each medium (music vs. photography, in this case) that make that emotional response easier to elicit?

A: The reason that I think emotions are sanctioned in music but not in the visual arts is because music is still a popular art form, whereas visual art isn’t. You don’t have to have an advanced degree to have an emotional response to something. But you probably do in order to understand the history of the avant-garde in art. You could trace this back to conceptual art, or even to the advent of modern art. Without going into a lengthy yet half-baked art history lecture, let me just remind you of Marcel Duchamp’s urinal piece. An emotional response hasn’t been the way that we measure art’s worth for over 100 years.

I don’t know if one medium is better at eliciting an emotional response or not. I just know that the conditions under which visual art is made and received are very different from those under which music is made and received. Think about the market for each medium: visual art is made by an elite group of hyper-educated people for an elite group of super-wealthy people, whereas even if music is made by hyper-educated people, the music industry market is predicated on a per-unit sale price of under $20! So the music industry relies on a popular market, whereas the art industry relies on an elite market.

Q: What does this cross-pollination do for your work? Does knowing there will be a musical component affect the visual, and vice-versa, or are they separate but connected elements?

A: As I say above, they’re separate but connected. I really struggled with this because I so much wanted to avoid a one-to-one correlation between the photographs and the music. Once you make art and send it out into the world you have to give up control of the way it’s interpreted. I learn so much about what I’ve made from other people’s interpretations. For instance, I didn’t know I’d made love songs until Justin Vellucci pointed it out in his Delusions of Adequacy review! Imagine that. As much as I am a complete control freak who over-analyzes every single aspect of my artistic production, I am also really pleased and surprised when I hear readings of my work that aren’t completely in line with my intention. So much of what you do when you make art happens at the unconscious level, whether or not you want to admit it.